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“Because she would be a wedding crasher!”
Yikes. There goes my flappy hand again.
Oh well.
I wave it Maggie’s way.
“Since when is she worried about coming off as rude, anyway? It was rude of her to dump her kids with her husband’s parents, but she didn’t have many qualms with that. It was also rude of her to ditch my dad so she could jet off to Miami with the producer of her soap opera. Again, she had no problem.”
Maggie tugs at the end of her blonde braid.
“Look, Olivia, no offense, but this is a majorly sore spot for you and Trent both. I shouldn’t have brought this up with you.”
I roll my neck from side to side. Suddenly it’s all kinked up.
“She’s impossible, Maggie. I know you have good intentions, but believe me, she’s a hornet’s nest we don’t want to poke.”
“She’s your mother.”
“She’s difficult.”
“She gavebirthto you. She gave birth to Trent. Like it or not, you guys are all family. He can’t just cut out a family member… that’s cold-hearted. It worries me that he even thinks he can do that, and it won’t affect him. Itdoesaffect him, and I can see it. And… it affects us.”
I sigh.
On some level, I get it.
I know I’m being reactive. She’s opening up to me, and I need to do my best to set aside my own hair-trigger response to anything Beryl-related.
“Okay. Okay… I can see where you’re coming from.”
“You can?” she asks, relief softening the pinched corners of her eyes. “Really?”
I nod. “Yeah. I mean, you care about Trent. You love him. It’s probably hard to see him in pain.”
I know what my own wounding feels like, so I can imagine Trent’s easily.
And, if I’m honest, I’ve seen it in him, too.
He gets mopey and walled-off, whenever we talk about Beryl or my dad. At least in the dad department, we’re a little better off. Our dad calls us both religiously from whatever set he’s working on, at least on our birthdays, sometimes even on holidays.
He’s coming to the wedding.
Will Beryl? It sounds like she wants to, and Maggie’s pushing hard for that outcome.
“So, you’re pretty serious about this, I take it. If you’re putting your foot down like this.”
“I know it might seem like I over-reacted, packing up like I did. But the truth is, we’ve been arguing about this for months. I really want her there, and it’s deeper than just a guest-list thing. It’s about Trent’s emotional wellbeing. I want his mom there forhissake. But he just shuts down when I try to talk him into it. He gets stony-faced, and all removed, and he refuses to open up.”
Her eyes well up with tears.
I reach out for her hand. “Oh, no! Maggie don’t cry. We’re going to figure this out. I promise.”
“It’s just—” Her voice wobbles. She sniffs, swallows, and reaches for her napkin. “It’s just not how I—how I think l-love works, you know? Like if you love someone and they’reimportant to you, you should never just cut them out completely. How can he d-do that?”
I rub my thumb over the back of her palm. “I know, honey. I know.”
“W-when you love someone, you have to try to work out… work out whatever goes wrong, you know? Not just cut them out of your life. It scares me that he thinks he can do that.” She buries her nose in the cloth napkin and blows. “Sorry.” She looks at the napkin and laughs. “Probably not what these are for.”
