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“Oh! Wow, I hadn’t even thought about that!”
She claps her hands excitedly. “Fun! You can make a scene! You can totally flounce!”
“Yeah, I totally can. You’re so right!”
“And where are you gonna live? Are they done already?”
The panic must show on my face, because she stops and raises her eyebrows at me, pursing her lips in curiosity.
“Come on now. Don’t tell me your plan didn’t include a roof over your head for you and the little monster?”
I feel my cheeks getting hot. And my shoulders, and my chest. If I were a cartoon character, I would burst into flames right now with this mixture of emotions.
“Hold on,” she says suspiciously, gesturing with her finger in a circle to point out my blush. “What’s going on here? What is this? Did you find a place to live or not?”
“Um, well, I did. Yes. I did.”
Her eyebrows are so far up they are practically buried in her hairline. “And? Is it a crack house or something? Is that why you don’t want to tell me? Because I have a condo in Beaumont, remember?”
“Wait, what? You do? Why?”
“Shit, girl, I have condos all over the place,” she shrugs, leaving her barstool to refill her glass. “I just rent them out with AirBnB, you know. I get them when they’re cheap.”
This news is a shock to me. I guess I knew that Wanda wasn’t hurting for money, but condos all over the place? I suppose I could have asked more questions if the subject of money didn’t make me so uncomfortable.
“I’m single, remember?” she adds, as though reading my mind. “I just reinvest what I make since I don’t have any offspring.”
“Jeez, I guess I didn’t realize.”
“Oh my God, how many times have I tried to tell you? We could be in business together, Penny. We could be kick-ass, female-empowered bitches running our own developments all over the country. If you weren’t so goddamn stubborn, that is.”
I just shake my head in wonder. The truth is, she has tried to tell me. I just didn’t want to listen. Like I said, when I’m on a mission, that’s all I can think about. And I guess my single-mom mission has been my main focus. Her suggestion really didn’t make it to my conscious mind.
“Wanda, that’s amazing. I’m sorry I didn’t put it together before now.”
She shrugs modestly and purses her lips. “Okay, just listen to me next time, all right? Now I know you’re just avoiding the question. Where are you living?”
Her eyes focus on me like laser points. Instinctually I pick up my wine glass for protection and hold it in front of my face.
“Um. With Clay.”
“MMM-scuse me?”
I hold my hands out in a gesture of innocence. “The units aren’t ready yet. I’ll get one as soon as they are. This is just temporary.”
“You’re living with the douche?”
“Apparently he’s got the room. And, I don’t know? By the time we got to all of that, I had a new job and a new project and… I knew I needed a place to live… I just thought about Ethan, and—”
“Wow, girl!”
“I really want to get Ethan into a new school! We have to have a place to live, and… We’ve done it before? It’s not really that weird, is it?”
“Oh, it’s not weird that your unrequited college crush invited you to live with him? And you are actually going to do it? After moving across the country?”
“You know, you don’t have to say it like that…”
“Yeah, that’s not weird at all! People do that shit all the time!”
