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Nara
“Mom, I have to be honest with you. I’m not coming back for the reunion. I don’t care that Becca told everyone I’d be there.”
How many more times did I have to say that?
She sighed loudly. “Everyone is counting on seeing you. I don’t see how you can let your friends down.”
Shoot me know.
“I saw Becca the other day. Her children are beautiful, and she seems so happy.”
“Good. I’m glad she’s happy. She doesn’t need me to come to town. No one does. They’ll have the reunion and no one will ever miss me.”
My mother was silent for a moment. “I’ll miss you.”
There it was.
“Oh, Mom, I miss you, too. Just let me know when you want come to New York. We’ll have a great time. And please stop telling Becca I’m going to come. Because I’m not.”
“If that’s what you want, sweetie. But I think you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun.”
We obviously had different ideas about fun.
* * *
I figured I had some version of “survivor’s guilt.”
Obviously no one had died, but the guilt of having escaped my hometown, having left it behind like I did, made me feel like a scumbag.
But I’d had no choice—I would have slowly died there. My only ties to the place, Becca and my mom, were growing weaker every year.
The longer I lived in New York, and the more life rolled onward, the more unlikely it was I’d ever go back. There was no going home, as the old saying went. I didn’t know who the hell would want to, anyway.
I’d not heard from Simon since the night Brodie had punched him out. I honestly wished it had never happened, but I had to admit—it did feel good to have someone defend me.
Problems like Simon were a lot easier to contend with when someone had your back.
Especially someone like Brodie.
But I had a nagging feeling Simon wasn’t permanently out of my life yet. Hard as I tried to shake it off, it followed me around like a dark cloud.
* * *
Joi poked her head into my cubicle.
“Hey,” I said.
She bounded in, blond hair flying, scooping up a pile of papers to make room for herself.
“So, how are you feeling about things? I mean, are we ready for our meeting?”
“I think so. At least as ready as we’ll ever be.”
My head was pounding, but everything else was great.
We had investors from a venture capital firm coming by in an hour along with several beta testing moms who’d be joining to help demonstrate the Mommy Knows software app. Well, their babies would be helping, too.
Mimi had lined up ten moms; out of the group, someone’s baby would certainly pee or poo. In a show of support, some even offered to give their little ones an additional bottle just prior to the meeting to help facilitate the messy diapers we so desperately needed.
It was a real team effort.
This was an all-hands-on-deck type of day. Even the introverted software engineers tidied up their work areas, wore something other than ratty hoodies, and were ready to be friendly.
There’d been plenty of grousing, but when I reminded the complainers about their stock options and the potential for making money, they shut right up.
Mimi had arranged for catering, so we had snacks and beverages to offer. I didn’t want to go too crazy, since we’d be talking about dirty diapers after all.
We’d researched the team coming in, and several of them were parents—what luck. They’d get the gist of what we were doing in a second. Moms and dads always did.
“Anyway, what about the new guy, Mr. Hotel?” Joi asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He’s great,” I said simply.
She rolled her eyes. “C’mon. Don’t be stingy. Share.”
The thought of Brodie made my heart race—not a comfortable state for me.
“We’ve had some really nice times together…”
“Oh, I can hear it,” she said. “Here it comes…dum da dum dum…what’s wrong with him? What did he do?”
“He’s fine, he’s done nothing wrong. I’m just not sure about getting involved. I can’t afford any time away from the business right now.”
There was more behind my hesitation, but I hadn’t put my finger on it yet.
Confusion marked Joi’s pretty face. No, she didn’t know how relationships took time. She’d always had Jack, so she had nothing to compare it to.
“Well, there was also an incident,” I added.
She scooted forward on her chair, eyes widened.
“I knew it! Tell me everything.”
“He punched out Simon.”
