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Lucy kept in touch too, mostly by text. A mom with a full-time job that was a huge deal, I knew how precious her time was, so I appreciated it.
All of it.
They’d taken me under their wings, that was for sure, and it made me feel warm and good, because they were good people. You could never be surrounded by too many good people, especially when you had so much muscle memory from the bad ones.
And these people, Rosie included, didn’t make me feel less than for my choices, for my shitty Walmart shoes, for my secondhand furniture, for the fact I was just a waitress.
None of it.
Which was why I liked Rosie walking into my home like it was hers, dressing like she should have been on a runway, grinning like the madwoman I was starting to realize she totally was.
Which was why I didn’t even know what to expect from Rosie’s version of a ‘present.’ It could be flowers, it could be a bubble bath, or it could be brass knuckles, pepper spray, detailed instructions on how to make a Molotov Cocktail—all things she told me she was going to make sure I had.
But the envelope she was holding in her hand didn’t look like it could explode at any minute, so I took it.
“I’m going to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate,” she said when I took it.
I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t have champagne, but she pulled a very fancy looking bottle out of her very fancy looking purse.
I then opened my mouth to tell her that I definitely did not have fancy glasses to go with that kind of wine that I decided not to think about the price tag of. Of course, I had some kick-ass wine glasses, but for red wine, since I didn’t drink any other type, and I didn’t really have the occasion to buy or drink champagne. Again, I didn’t have time to verbalize this thought because another, equally glamorous woman walked through my front door, also without knocking.
Lucy didn’t grin like Rosie did, because she didn’t really smile like that. She had a sleek, mysterious, thing going. Every time I’d seen her, she was wearing head to toe black, her hair sleek and inky, eyeliner so perfect it looked photoshopped. That didn’t mean she didn’t smile, she did that often too, just smaller and more with her vibrant, almost violet eyes.
She was holding a wrapped box in her hands.
The pop of a wine bottle made me jerk in surprise.
“Perfect timing,” Rosie said, taking the box from Lucy without spilling the freshly opened champagne. She looked at me. “This is another present, to go with that one.” She nodded her head to the envelope I still hadn’t opened. Her eyes then focused on the box in Lucy’s hands. “Don’t mind if I unwrap it for you, do you?”
She didn’t wait for me to answer, she put the bottle and the box on my table and started ripping at gift wrapping so perfect, it hurt me a little to see it so quickly destroyed.
Lucy did not look at all perturbed by her best friend wreaking havoc on her gift wrapping, she moved in to kiss my cheek to say hello.
She smelled like expensive perfume I sprayed on tester sheets in department stores and put in my crappy purse to at least make it smell good.
“You didn’t have to get me anything,” I told her. I looked to Rosie, who was still unwrapping. “Either of you.”
“My present is to go with Rosie’s present,” Lucy said in response. “And Rosie’s present is kind of a present to all of us.” She paused. “Well, considering the fact that I don’t have a child attached to me, or a deadline, or any drug lords after me—that I know of—it’s definitely a present for me too.” She winked.
I didn’t have a kid with me either, Nathan had a playdate after school, which included dinner. It was the longest time I’d been away from him since everything happened, and I was definitely on the verge of driving over to his playdate and snatching him away and taking him home where I could watch him like a hawk.
But I couldn’t do that. Part of being a mother—a big part—was the crippling fear of something happening to the little human that relied on you to keep them safe. Another part of being a mother, was making sure that fear didn’t take over your life, didn’t stop your child from experiencing life.
You couldn’t protect your kid from everything. You had to be prepared to have them experience the bad in order for them to experience the good.
Initially, I thought that’s why Rosie and Lucy were here, because they had their own, badass women superpowers and knew I was almost losing it and Eliza and Karen were both out in the city with meetings. Meetings they’d told me they would cancel if I needed them, because they knew me well enough to know that today would be hard.
