“We need to talk.”

I stare at my door, unable to process what I’m seeing.

“The mother-in-law from hell. What the fuck are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough damage?” I’m drunk. I’ve been drunk for three days. If my mind doesn’t change, I’m going to be drunk the rest of the week—maybe longer. I got my divorce papers in the mail, and I’m celebrating with a bottle of Jim Beam. It seemed appropriate. Doesn’t everyone celebrate like that when they lose everyone they love?

“Petal has been crying for three days.”

“I don’t know why. She got exactly what she wanted,” I growl. “She’s a single woman now. It’s like we were never together. You should be out celebrating, too. Here, let me pour you a glass,” I tell her, holding up the bottle. Then I notice there’s only one drink left in it. It sure isn’t going to that bitch. “Never mind, there’s none left,” I tell her before downing the last of it.

“Do you really think staying drunk is the best way to fix this shit storm?” she mutters, her nose scrunching on her face as she looks at me.

“The best way to fix this mess would have been to kill you. You destroyed everything,” I mumble, the room starting to move without me. I need to sit down before I fall down.

“That would be how you see things.”

“That’s not how I see them, lady, that’s how they are! You sabotaged my marriage from the very beginning,” I yell, falling back on the couch and suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. That’s Ida Sue’s fault, too. She’s probably poisoning my air.

“You don’t think the fact you were messing around with my underage daughter gave me a right to be pissed off?”

“I didn’t know she was underage! I did everything I could to make it right! I married her!”

“That’s why you married her?”

“Yes! No! Fuck! I don’t know! I loved her, alright? I know it’s crazy, but I would have married her even if she wasn’t pregnant! Despite all the lies and shit… I loved her.”

“You ever tell her that?” Ida Sue asks, watching me way too closely. Does she see what I am now with Petal gone? A man alive, but dying inside?

“What’s the point?”

“If you don’t know the answer to that, you’re a bigger horse’s ass than I gave you credit for,” she mutters, walking off to my kitchen.

“Where are you going?” I ask, but I don’t really care. She left and that’s good enough. I lean back against the couch, my head spinning, and close my eyes. The next moment, they jerk awake with shock as cold water pours over me with the force of a hurricane. Hurricane Ida. “What the fuck did you do that for?” I growl, drenched because she poured a huge kettle of cold water over me, soaking me and my couch.

“You need to wake up. If you want my daughter, then do what you need to do to make her happy. Do it for her, yourself, but most importantly, for my grandson!”

“Fuck you. Why can’t Petal be the one to give in this time? Why must it always be me? I’m sick of being the only one who bends for this relationship, and if this is your show of motherly concern, you’re a little late.”

“I’m not your mother, Luka. I’d die before I would ever be your mother,” she answers. Her voice is quiet now, her face turning so stiff it’s almost stone. I get the feeling I missed part of this conversation, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore.

“Get the fuck out of my house. I’m done with you, and I’m done with Petal. I’m done with it all.”

“Luka, are you alright out there?”

“Is there a woman in your fucking bedroom?” Ida Sue screams at me which pisses me off. She doesn’t have the right to know what’s going on. She never did, and Petal sure as hell doesn’t anymore. I bite down the urge to explain.

“So what if there is?” I shrug, feeling sicker and sicker by the moment, and somehow that’s Ida Sue’s fault, too.

“Then I was right all along, and your father’s blood runs too deep in your veins.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I growl, wishing she would just leave.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the fucking tree, and this tree is fucking riddled with worms,” she mutters, turning to the door.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” I grumble, closing my eyes again.

“Drop dead, Luka,” she growls back, jerking the door open.

“That doesn’t sound like a worthy Ida Sue comeback. You’re losing your touch!”

“You aren’t worth the effort,” she answers, slamming the door.

“What’s going on?” Mom asks, coming out of the bedroom where she’s been trying to clean it up, proclaiming that her son isn’t about to live in filth. If only she knew that I don’t even want to live. “Good lord, Luka! You’re all wet!” she exclaims.

I don’t answer. I just close my eyes and pray the world stops moving soon.

* * *

Present:

“Luka, your father hates me.” That’s never going to change.

“Do you still think the only way we can make this thing work between us is to move away from here?”

“It’d be simpler. We had so much between us when we got married, Luka. That would have been hard enough to overcome, but I think we had the past between us, too.”

“The past?” I ask, not quite understanding what Petal is saying.

“The horrible history my mother and your father have. You can’t be blind to it,” she exclaims, and I pull her into my arms, letting her head rest against my chest. I kick my legs out on the coffee table and send up a silent prayer that we can just stay like this and the outside world would just disappear. I don’t need anything other than Petal and River. I never did; I was just too stubborn to admit it.

“I’m not blind to it. I don’t know what it is, but I can admit they hate each other and that hate has managed to hurt us both. Still, that’s on them, Lo’. We can’t let their past ruin what we have—not anymore. We let that happen once. We let everything get between us, but there’s only one thing that really mattered: how we felt about each other.” I link our hands together and thread our fingers. My hand is rougher and larger than hers, but it never feels stronger than when it’s holding hers.

“Some pasts are so painful… so huge. Nothing overcomes them, Luka,” she says, and for some reason, it feels like she’s warning me. I pull her onto my lap, deciding she’s not close enough. “Luka, stop. You’re sick,” she halfheartedly argues, but once I get her settled against me, she doesn’t move.

“Holding you makes it all better.”

“Liar,” she laughs.

“Just let me hold you, Lo’. I don’t need anything else tonight. Just let me hold you.”

“All night?”

“All fucking night.”

“Your father and my mother will find out…”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

“When you hold me like this, I’m not sure I do either.”

“Then stay and let’s worry about everything else tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” she whispers, and she raises her head to kiss under my chin. “Better than good.” For once, Petal and I are in complete agreement.