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Nova
“Is that it?” Easton asks, setting the box on the floor.
“That was the last one.”
“You don’t have much stuff.”
“Are you kidding? I have tons of stuff, way more than I had when I lived with Ted. Your mom buys me too much.”
“Don’t tell her that. She loves spoiling you. And unlike Jenna, you actually appreciate it.”
I do, but I feel like I owe Easton’s mom for all that she’s done for me. I’m not used to people doing stuff for me and not expecting anything in return. Penelope’s done so much for me that I don’t think I could ever pay her back even if I tried. In addition to buying me stuff, she let me stay at her house for the rest of the school year and most of the summer, until today, when I moved to Madison.
Penelope convinced her friend, Ann, to let me live with her in a house just a few miles from Easton’s dorm. Ann is a professor at the college. She’s divorced and has two daughters. One is married and living in Minnesota and the other one just left for college in Pennsylvania. Ann wasn’t looking forward to living alone so she was actually happy about me moving in. I’ll be paying her rent, but it’s not much, and it includes meals. Ann loves to cook and she’s really good at it. I won’t go hungry living here.
“Did we get everything?” Penelope asks as she comes in my room.
“I think so.” I look around at all the boxes on the floor.
Penelope walks over to the bed. “We should get you some new pillows. Those look a little worn out.”
“Got them right here.” Ann comes in the room holding two pillows, still in the packaging. “I meant to put them on the bed before you got here.”
She takes the old pillows, which look fine to me, and tosses them out in the hall, and replaces them with the new ones.
“I can pay you for those,” I offer.
Ann glances at Penelope and smiles.
“Why don’t we get lunch ready,” Penelope says to Ann, “while these two start unpacking.”
“Steaks on the grill okay?” Ann asks Easton and me.
“That’d be great,” Easton says.
I never got steaks when I lived with Ted. He ate them, but I wasn’t allowed to have them. Now I have steak all the time. I haven’t been hungry once since moving in with Easton and his family. My life has completely changed.
Penelope and Ann leave and Easton shuts the door. He smiles and brings me into his arms. “You don’t have to keep offering to pay for stuff.”
“But she bought me those pillows. She shouldn’t have to pay for them. She’s my landlord.”
“She’s not your landlord. She’s a nice lady who loves having you here and wants to do things for you.”
“She barely knows me.”
“She knows you. She spent an entire day with you, and my mom’s spent the last few months telling her all about you. Just give it a few weeks and I guarantee she’ll start treating you like a daughter. She’s a mom. She can’t help herself, and she misses her real daughters so you’re going to be the substitute.”
I could see that happening. Ann is like Penelope. She feels a need to take care of me. In June, when Easton came here for college orientation, I came with him and spent the day with Ann to get to know her. We went shopping and out for lunch, and then sat in her backyard and talked. She has a beautiful backyard. It’s small, but has flowers everywhere and a fountain with a bench next to it. There’s a deck with a table and chairs that are shaded by a tree. That’s where we sat and talked that day. She didn’t ask about my past, but I’m sure Penelope told her about it. And yet she still let me live here. Maybe that shouldn’t surprise me, but it does.
For years, I felt worthless and ashamed of who I was, because that’s how I was raised. Ted and my dad made me feel like I was a burden, an inconvenience, something that was just taking up space. Sometimes I still feel like that, which is why I’m always offering to do stuff for Penelope, and now Ann. I don’t understand why they’re doing all this for me. I feel like there’s a catch. Easton keeps trying to convince me that some people are just nice and want to help, without expecting anything in return, but it still hasn’t sunk in yet. I think it’ll just take time.
“How much you want to bet we’ll get the speech after lunch?” Easton asks, smiling at me.
“What speech?”
“The one about us not being alone together in your room.”
“We’re alone together now.”
