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“No, I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning.”
She giggled as she waddled to the kitchen with the popcorn bowl in one hand. She’d married a military man and she had spent most of her life living in different countries. Most of the time he was away, she was at home, waiting for him to come back safely. When he was injured and dismissed from duty, he went back to Korea saying that he had met someone there and that he didn’t want to come back to the States. Since then she’d been living off her divorce settlement and spending her time in front of the television. She said that she spent most of her life traveling, so she was making up for lost time by keeping still for once.
I did love Aunt Veronica, but sometimes her eccentric ways and obsession with the television irritated me. She talked about the characters as if they were friends of hers, and one when season closed another one seemed to open up. That was the downside of Netflix: she was always spoiled for choice.
“Well, no wonder you’re so thin. You need to eat more.” She sighed as she gazed at me.
I was about to tell her that I’d put on weight. That I no longer jogged or watched my figure the way that I used to do. I was scared yesterday that none of my suits would fit. They did, I just filled them out a bit more. Besides, with Mom I tried to keep my meals simple and not spend too much time in the kitchen. Sometimes, mom wanted to help with supper, which at times had resulted in a bit of a disaster.
“The Chinese take-out round the corner is so much better than mine. I couldn't stop ordering from there.”
“But I left food in the fridge…”
“Salad and vegetables; we’re not rabbits dear. You hold on, I’ll order the same thing that I ordered for us today. Dawn loved it, she even asked for us to eat there next time.”
“Did she?”
I wanted to ask the question; the one that’d been bugging me ever since I spoke to her on the phone.
“Did she recognize you?”
She sighed as if she were thinking about the question, “At times she did. She even asked me at one point where Mark was stationed this time.”
Wow, she even remembered Uncle Mark?
“Then when I told her Korea, she said that Mark loved the girls in Korea. I wish she’d told me back then, I would have made sure that he never went back there.”
She chuckled as she dialed the number to the Chinese restaurant and I wanted to tell her not to bother. I didn’t feel like eating, but I knew that if I went to bed there’d only be one thing on my mind.
Ross Hamilton.
My boss, who was getting married. I needed to keep things professional. Even if he didn’t want to.
“Now, that’s done. I hope you have a twenty on you to pay when he arrives.”
Typical!
“What happened to the money I left for Carl earlier? There was a fifty on the table.”
She chuckles, “Oh, that’s gone. You need to leave more money next time.”
“Oh, why?”
“Because tomorrow we’ll eat in. Not out. And we may want a bit more than we had today. We were on a budget, because you only left fifty and I need to pay the movers.”
“Aunt Veronica...”
I was about to tell her that I was on a budget. Sure, Ross had doubled my salary seeing as I had to go in the office, but I couldn’t be going through money like water until I got paid. I’d been on a budget for so long that even the transport costs and having my clothes dry-cleaned felt as if I was overspending. I’d only been in the office for one day.
“Don’t worry dear. You worry too much. I’ll get the guys in my apartment to help move the rest of my things and if you don’t have enough on you, then don’t worry.”
Her fat fingers patted my hand, which was resting on the table.
“You can just leave your card and I can charge it to that and use the fifty to pay the guys. One thing’s for sure. Dawn’s really happy to have me around. You should be too. Now, let’s go and watch Santa Claus Diet. Seriously, this show’s to die for.”
Then she chuckled once again, “Look at me, coming out with funny jokes.”
It must have been a private joke, because I didn’t get it. I dropped my bags and took off my jacket and slung it onto the back of a chair. I decided to grab one of the few bottles of wine that I’d had hidden in the house for so long and join her watching the show until my very expensive Chinese order came through.
