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“I should move out,” I said.
“Sorry?” She hadn’t followed my thought process.
“I’m tired of feeling like a little kid. If you can be here, all on your own, surely I can move a few minutes from my family in the same town as them.”
“You don’t have to be like me.” She caressed my arm. “Do what’s right for you. You told me you get along, and you’re saving a lot of money.”
“And I’m twenty-two years old.” I sounded more confident than I felt. “I can’t stay there forever. It’s time to make a change.”
It was a sudden decision, but over the next few days, I stuck to it. After work, when I wasn’t with Tara, I spent my time looking at apartment listings and calculating my budget. I had lived in the same house all my life, so I had no idea what to look for. Would it be better to rent a condo, or save some money and live in a basement? I might not even spend too much time there if I was constantly over at Tara’s.
Tara talked through various options with me, and she even came along to my first viewing. The second-floor apartment looked nice to me—until she whispered in my ear that the ceiling was moldy.
“I’m going to bring you along to every place I visit.” I planted a kiss on her cheek.
“I’m useful for a few things outside the bedroom, huh?” she murmured into my ear.
Everything was rolling smoothly forward—except that I hadn’t brought up the subject with my parents. Truth be told, I was a little scared of how they’d react. Although I’d been working for two years, sometimes it felt like they thought I still was a teenager.
Half of me wanted to wait to tell them until I found a place I liked. When we sat down for dinner, though, I would’ve had to lie to keep it a secret.
“What did you do today?” Mom asked, cutting into her famous pot roast. “Were you over at Tara’s?”
“Actually, we were out together. Um…” I hesitated. “She was looking at apartments with me.”
The knife clattered out of Mom’s hand. “You’re moving in together? You’ve barely started dating.”
“No, no!” I waved my hands. “She’s helping me look for one. For me. I thought maybe it was time to move out.”
“Ah.” Completely calm again, Mom glanced at Dad. “There’s no hurry, you know. You can stay here as long as you want.”
“I know.” That was the problem. I could stay there until I was forty if I didn’t push myself at some point. “It’s been great living with you, and I really appreciate that you charged such low rent. I just…”
“She wants to be independent,” Dad said. “I can understand that.”
“You can?” I hadn’t expected either of them to be so cool about this. “I thought you’d want me to stay here.”
“We’d love it if you did,” Mom said softly. “But we knew this day would come.”
“The years I spent living on my own were the best of my life,” Dad said, “up to the point that I had my own family.”
“And I’ve always wondered what it would’ve been like if I’d had the chance to live completely alone.” Mom had never spoken like this before. “I went straight from my parents’ house to being a married woman. Of course, things were different back then.”
I wasn’t thinking about getting married yet. If I waited for that, I could be waiting years. And I didn’t want to rush into marriage just to get out of my parents’ house—which I’d surely be sick of by that point.
“I won’t move far,” I told my parents. “I’ll be back all the time. You know I can’t live without your cooking.”
“You’ll be welcome whenever you like.” Mom returned to cutting. “And you’re welcome to stay if you change your mind. But if you do move, we support you.”
This had been so much easier than I’d expected.
But not everything would be this easy.
19
Tara
The morning dawned bright and sunny. It was a Thursday, my day off, which meant I got to lounge around for hours. The best part was having Chelsea in my bed.
