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“No, that’s not the news, Momma. But you should know I have a new job.”
“Oh, you do?” She snorts and I hear her swallow something followed by a slurping noise. “What’s this new job you’ve got up there in Seattle?”
“Portland, Momma.”
“Fine, Portland.”
“I started my own business. I’m building e-commerce sites.”
“That sounds like what I do,” she says with a harsh hyena kind of laugh.
Heat floods my cheeks. “Momma, that’s not what I—”
“Hey Kyle,” she says, and my blood runs cold. “You gotta hear this. Megsy says she’s doing—what was it you’re doing Megsy?”
“Mom,” I say.
“Oh, hey there pretty girl,” Kyle says.
Shivers rush down my arms. This creep is the last person I want to talk to.
“Mom, can you take me off speakerphone, please?”
“Don’t sass me. Just tell Kyle what it is you’re doing up there.”
Ainsley squeezes my shoulder and shakes her head as if giving me permission to hang up.
“Momma, can we not?”
“For fuck’s sake, girl, you think I don’t deserve to know what you’ve got going on up there?” Kyle says, his voice tightening my stomach into stone.
“Momma, please?” There’s a clicking and then muffled noises in the background.
“You better learn to respect him, you little bitch,” Mom hisses. “He’s been good to us.”
I’m so embarrassed for Ainsley to hear this. I move to my bedroom but she stops me. With a gentle hand, she guides me back to the table, and rubs her support into my spine.
“Yeah, real good, Momma,” I bite, feeling the walls click back into place and carving another little slice out of my heart.
“Well, if that’s all you called for, I’ve got better shit to—”
“I’m pregnant,” I shout.
She’s quiet for a long moment. I take a deep breath just as the tea kettle whistles on the stove. Ainsley swears under her breath and runs to shut off the burner.
“I’m having a baby, Momma. I’m healthy and the baby is healthy and that’s what I called for. I just thought you’d…” I let out a sigh and feel my bottom lip wobble. “That you’d wanna know.”
“Well, isn’t that something?” she says. But there’s no wonder, no amusement, no excitement. Instead, she laughs.
Loudly. She laughs so hard that she starts to wheeze and cough. My bottom lip wobbles and I bite down on it. I’m vaguely aware of the front door closing as Ainsley squeezes my shoulder.
“All these years, you go around acting like you’re so much better than me. And now look. You’re no better than your momma.”
There’s noise in the background and then there’s a howl of laughter and a whistle.
“How you gonna push a baby out that tight cunt when you’ve already got a stick up there?” Kyle says around peals of laughter.
Ainsley’s jaw drops. I feel another hand on my other shoulder and look up. Midge sits down at the tiny table next to me, and then places her other hand on my knee and gives it a tight squeeze.
