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“Let’s get started, shall we?”
* * *
By the timethe meetings were finished, I was starving and so excited to see Davis. We hadn’t told my parents that we would be moving in together yet, considering it just happened, but I was excited to see their faces when I took a few boxes with me tonight.
Davis’s truck was parked along the curb, already inside, and my mother had likely already made dinner. I couldn’t believe how late I ended up being, but one of the owners ran late and then begged me to make an exception and wait for her. I was a sucker, and blamed Nora’s parents for it entirely.
Right as I opened the door, I could smell dinner cooking.
“Mom, dinner smells good!” I called out, toeing off my shoes and hanging my purse and coat. “Sorry I’m late.”
No one was in the living room, but I heard voices coming from the back of the house—oddly enough, from my bedroom.
Curious, I made my way down the hall. I could hear my mom rambling about a memory, or something she’d done a few years prior.
Leaning my shoulder into the door frame, I smiled at the sight before me. Mom had photos spread out on my bed, while Davis looked down at the glossy images strewn about.
My mom was mid-story, retelling the time I had come home late in high school, and that’s when things started to click and panic bubbled up in my chest.
Surging forward, I gawked as the sick realization hit me in the face. My mother had found my photos, or had her own, and my teenage years were on full display—painting my comforter in pathetic hues of acne, short curly hair, and braces. My heart hammering into my throat, I tried to catch Davis’s gaze, but he was staring down at a picture that he’d pulled free from the protective plastic, pinching it between his thumb and finger.
It was of me, on my graduation day. I had worn the same outfit into the library that night he saw me.
“I can explain…” I whispered, my voice hitching as he refused to meet my eyes. It made my mother tip her head up, a smile already in place, but my eyes were on the man next to her.
I went to him, kneeling in front of him.
“You have to let me explain. That’s why I wanted to show you first.” I was mumbling so fast I wasn’t sure he was hearing me; tears clouded my vision and fire had engulfed my face.
My mother’s face seemed to transform as she looked between Davis and myself. “Rae, what are you talking about?”
“Why did you pull these out?” I snapped at her.
It wasn’t her fault, it was mine, but hurt and fear warred in my chest smashing and destroying all that was left of hope.
“Davis spilled the beans about moving in together, and well, you were late, and he wanted to get a head start on packing up a few of your things. We started with the boxes in the closet, when we found your old albums. You two are getting so serious now, I thought it would be okay.” Her face contorted into misery, like she’d truly done something wrong.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, closing the scrapbook.
“It’s not your fault, Millie,” Davis said evenly, standing from the bed. “Is it, Rae?”
The ice in his tone was like a knife to my chest.
“Please…please just let me explain.”
“Explain what?” my mom repeated.
Davis let out a small scoff as he shook his head back and forth, tossing the picture on the bed like it meant nothing to him. The irony that he’d touched me so intimately in this bed made this entire moment hurt so much worse.
“Explain that she’s been lying to me since the first day she met me. She’s been lying to you, and to Roger—to all of us.”
Shaking my head, and pursing my lips, I tried to make him see. “No, that’s not it. I—”
“Just stop, Rae…before you embarrass yourself any further.”
He was walking away, and my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest.
I followed him out the door as he stormed to his truck.
