OCTOBER
Chapter 2
Maya stared at her friend. Julia smiled back as if the world hadn’t just come to a stop. “Say that again.”
“I said, Melissa Mancini wants to see your art work. She’s actively looking for new artists to showcase at her gallery. She books these things out way in advance, and if we want to get you a show before our next birthday, we need to get over there with some of your pieces and—”
“Wait.” Maya held up her hand to put a stop to Julia’s incessant enthusiasm. “Just wait.” She got up from the couch where she was sitting beside her friend and walked to her kitchen.
Small as it was, Maya was proud of the tiny apartment she shared with no one. And being able to have a friend over on a Friday night for wine and cheesecake was one of her favorite advantages.
But this conversation required a second bottle of wine. Julia managed to stay quiet while Maya fetched another bottle of California red, uncorked it, and brought it back over to the coffee table, where she filled both their glasses.
“Back up and explain how, exactly, I came up in conversation with Melissa Mancini.” She sat back down beside Julia, shifted so she one foot was bent under her thigh and she was able to face her friend.
Julia took a long, slow sip of her wine. She seemed to be measuring her words. “I was telling her about how the four of us share the same birthday, and we got to talking about all of you. We talked about what everyone did, and one thing led to another. Next thing I knew I was talking about your artwork and showing her the picture I have on my phone of that piece you gave me for my office.”
Maya couldn’t explain her unwarranted suspicion, but it was throwing up red flags she couldn’t ignore. “How do you know Melissa Mancini, anyway?”
“I met her at something a few years back, a fundraiser or something. I don’t really remember. But we hit it off, and we’ve kept in touch ever since.” Julia’s face was so smooth, so perfectly unflinching, it had Maya narrowing her eyes. But before Maya could make another inquiry, Julia continued. “What difference does it make? Maya, she wants to see your work. This is your chance.”
Maya leaned back in the couch. Julia was right. This was an opportunity she’d be a fool to pass up. Melissa Mancini had been known to help artists’ careers take off. She set aside her skepticism and smiled at her friend. “Thank you, Julia. What’s my next step?”
****
“I don’t understand, Mom. You’re in some sort of adoption program?” Everett set the delicate teacup on the coffee table between him and his mother and leaned back in the floral-print couch.
Across from him, Trudy Evans perched leisurely in her favorite light pink chair and smiled indulgently. “Sort of.”
As far as Everett was concerned, Trudy was literally the greatest human being alive. After having a successful career as a lawyer, she had become pregnant with him, accidentally, at the age of forty-three. Taking the unplanned and unexpected in stride, she quit her job and stayed home to take of the new baby.
It wasn’t a financial hardship. Everett’s parents were wealthy. But after living a life planned out with no children, he had no doubt that raising one in midlife had been challenging.
“I’m lonely, Everett.” Trudy’s lips turned down in that way he’d come to associate with sadness in his mother.
A pang of regret struck him in the chest. He only lived a short twenty-minute drive from her across the bridge. And he did get up to the North Bay to see her a minimum of once a week. But he was busy with his business and his life.
“Your father has been gone for seven years now. And I don’t really have as many friends as I used to.” Trudy looked down sheepishly, examining the teacup that sat on her lap.
Everett looked at the top of her head. The wisps of gray hair in the dark curls were sparse for a woman over seventy. “Why not? You used to have all kinds of friends. What happened to the ladies in the lunch group or the book club?”
“I still go to book club, but other than that…”
“Mom, look at me.” He waited until she lifted her head and met his gaze. “What happened to all those ladies you used to hang out with? Lunches, teas, charity events?” His mother had lived the social life fitting of her wealth and station. Now she was telling him it was all gone.
Trudy lifted her head. “The election.”
Everett was shocked. “All those nice ladies…?”
She nodded. “Not all. But some. And politics is all they talk about anymore. I just can’t…”
“Okay. So you get involved in some new activities. Meet new people.”
Trudy moved her teacup from where it sat on her pressed turquoise slacks to the coffee table beside Everett’s empty cup. “That is precisely what I’m doing. This organization was recently started by staff and volunteers at the hospital.” Her voice was infused with energy, her eyes bright.
His mother had been volunteering at the hospital for as long as he could remember. She did all kinds of odd jobs, rocking babies in the NICU, taking flowers to old people with no family, playing with kids in the cancer ward.
He leaned back and threw an arm over the back of the couch. “So tell me about it.”
Her face became animated, her eyes, several shades lighter than his own, glowed. “It’s called Adopt-a-Senior. And the concept is that older seniors, mostly single ones, can sign up to be adopted by younger people. They have dinner together and socialize, but also, they can help with yard work or errands, things like that. It’s kind of like Big Brothers and Big Sisters for adults.”
“So you are an organizer or you signed up to adopt someone, or what?”
“I’m helping to organize it all. But I also put myself up for adoption.”
“What?” Everett’s arms flopped down to his sides and he sat forward.
“Sure. Why not? I could use some companionship.”
“What about me?” He suddenly felt like the shittiest son in the world while at the same time feeling defensive as hell.
“Sweetie.” Trudy gracefully stood and shifted around the table so she sat beside him on the couch. “You are not being replaced.”
“That’s not what I…I just meant that I could do things with you…for you…”
Trudy placed her hand on his knee. “And you do. But what’s the harm in more friends. The couple that adopted me, they live nearby. They both work at the hospital. She’s a nurse and he’s a maintenance man. They’re sweet and fun, and they like me.”
She looked like a kid with a new set of friends. It made him want to melt into the floor. “How long have you been at this?”
“Just a couple weeks. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you about it before. I guess…”
“You thought I’d be an ass.” He squeezed her hand.
She smiled at him and didn’t reply.
Everett sighed. “Okay, so. What are their names, your new family?”
She ignored the sarcasm. “Henny and Bert. Henny and Bert McDonald.”
It was a common enough last name. And besides, the McDonald that made his heart clench at the mere mention of the name had grown up on the other side of the bridge. It had to be a coincidence. But just to be sure, he asked, “Do they have any kids?”
“They have twins, a boy and a girl.”
Everett’s body stiffened. “Where are they from?”
“Oakland. They moved here a few years ago. Henny worked at Children’s for years, and Bert used to commute to General. But they both got positions at our little hospital a few years back. They love it here.” She looked all dreamy when she said it, like she was caught up in what made these two people happy in the same way she was caught up in her own happiness, or his.
“Um…their daughter…she’s…” He swallowed hard.
“About your age, maybe a couple years younger. I’ve met the son, but I haven’t met her yet. They speak highly of her. She’s an artist. She has a day job, though…Oh, how silly of me! I completely forgot! She works for you at the candle company.”
“Oh, hell.”
****
Maya McDonald. She had completely rocked his world. He’d been ready to ask her to marry him that night seven years ago. Instead, he’d left her apartment the next morning before she was awake.
He hadn’t lied to her about Rebecca. Their relationship was an open one. In fact, he’d told Rebecca about the one-night stand the very next day. And while Rebecca had a few lovers, he hadn’t ever done anything like that before. In fact, it was always Rebecca’s idea that they be open. He’d never liked it or taken advantage of it until he’d laid eyes on Maya.
At first Rebecca had been completely blasé about the whole thing when he told her. So Everett didn’t feel guilty about continuing to communicate with Maya by text or trying to talk her into meeting up with him again. But Rebecca started getting stranger and stranger as the weeks went by. She started suggesting he should feel guilty about the one-night stand.
He didn’t regret his night with Maya. He did, however, feel bad about how desperate he was to see her again. He also disliked Maya’s discomfort with the whole open relationship thing. And that made him seriously reconsider it. But it wasn’t necessarily Rebecca he wanted to make an exclusive commitment to.
Then all hell had broken loose. His father had died suddenly of a heart attack. In the middle of the chaos and stress his texts with Maya increased. He didn’t tell her about the turmoil in his life. Instead, they went back and forth about dream cars, comfort foods, and the best and worst movie quotes. It was his escape from what was happening around him.
When he was picking out caskets with his mother, he was texting Maya about her broken refrigerator and the strange meals she and her roommate had been forced to consume as a result. When he was waiting for Rebecca to finish dressing for the funeral, he was engaged in a guessing game about where Maya planned to go with her friends that night.
But it had been nothing more than an escape. He had responsibilities to live up to. His mother was set financially, but he was all the family she had. All her hopes and dreams rested on him. She was aging and in desperate need of something to bring her joy, perhaps a wedding followed by grandkids. Her doctor had even suggested it as he prescribed an antidepressant.
So when Rebecca pressed him to get engaged one night in front his mother, and his mother ran to her safe to retrieve her grandmother’s antique ring, the joy on her face palpable, Everett reluctantly got down on one knee.
He’d had no idea how to tell Maya. So he’d avoided her for a couple days. When she texted, he wrote back saying he was busy and would contact her soon. And then the announcement had been in the paper. And he knew she’d seen it, or more likely the online version of it. It had gone a little viral locally, thanks to a big boost from Rebecca and Everett’s best friend, Elias.
He knew Maya had in fact seen it when he saw her final text. FU Everett. Don’t ever contact me again. And that had been it. Over. Finished.
That is until she walked into his factory and asked for a job.
****
Three years ago…
Maya took one last look at her cell phone. Somehow rereading the news story about how Everett’s fiancée had taken off with his best friend, leaving his heart broken and his thriving company’s profits in question, made her feel like he did not lead as charmed a life as she had once believed. It made swallowing her pride just a touch easier. What she was about to do was humiliating enough.
“Ms. McDonald.” A slim woman in a pair of crisp white pants and an orange blouse stepped into the small waiting room holding a tablet and wearing a massive fake smile.
Maya stood quickly, spilling her purse onto the floor. She fumbled to grab the worn leather bag and shove all the contents back into it. Fearing the woman would leave, she turned her head up while still bent over. “That’s me. I’m coming…I just need…”
“Take your time,” Miss cool-as-a-cucumber said through her toothy grin.
Maya gathered her shit as quickly as she could and tried to regain her composure by walking tall, her mother’s old navy heels clicking on the laminate floor as she made her way over.
Maya managed to greet the woman, shake hands, and follow her into a small conference room without further incident. Once she was seated across from the woman, who’d introduced herself as Olivia, she threw the offending purse under her chair and folded her hands on the polished oval tabletop.
Olivia glanced down at her tablet, giving Maya a chance to shift in her seat and attempt to find some level of comfort. By the time Olivia looked up again, Maya had plastered her own false grin on her face.
“I’m wondering why you’re interested in this job, Maya. Your resume is a little more on the…creative side.” Olivia bit her lip and glanced away as if she’d offended Maya.
“Since getting my degree in Fine Arts, I’ve mostly worked at art galleries, reception, sales, that kind of thing. But I don’t think it precludes me from a job on the factory floor,” Maya argued.
“But why are you applying for a factory job instead of an office job? We have a human resources assistant position available.”
“The factory floor pays better.”
Olivia’s blue eyes widened to the size of salad plates. “Um…uh.”
“You okay?” Maya leaned toward her.
“Yeah. It’s just that…no one is ever so blunt about it.”
“It’s true though, right? The job has less prestige but more take home pay?”
Olivia nodded. Maya felt a little bad. Being in the HR department herself, Olivia probably only made slightly more than the factory workers she hired, or maybe she even made less. But Maya, quite literally, couldn’t afford to worry about that now.
“Can I be honest?” Maya pierced the woman with her gaze.
“Please.” Olivia nodded.
“I don’t want this job, or any other job for that matter. I want to make a living with my art. But I’m living in Richmond, and I need a way to pay the rent and student loans while I wait for my big break. This is one of the best-paying jobs in town that doesn’t require a degree in something other than fine arts and it doesn’t require a commute across the bridge. So that’s why I’m here, asking you for a job.”
Olivia shifted in her chair. Her forehead wrinkled up. “I hate to be so blunt, but…um…why would I hire you when you’ve told me this? It’s not exactly what we look for in a future employee, you know. And you need to get past me before you can interview with Kelly, the head of Production. Even if I did send you on to her…well…she won’t like this.”
This was the part where Maya had to sell her soul to the devil. But the art studio she’d just rented and the insurance she would need to pay for made this whole thing necessary. She took a deep breath and reached for her purse. She sat back and wrestled the beast onto her lap. The sound of the zipper being pulled open on the small outer compartment was like the sound of her pride dying. She reached in and grabbed the only thing that currently resided in that tiny pocket.
The feel of the expensive paper between her fingers was almost too much for her. But Maya persisted. She yanked the thing out and tossed it on the table as if it would burn her.
The offending square of paper was wrinkled and abused. It had arrived in the mail a few days after she’d sent a particularly angry text message to Everett four years before. She’d almost ripped it up as she did the note that came with it. Instead, she’d hung on to the thing for a rainy day.
This was that rainy day.
Olivia reached out and took the business card, sliding it across the slick surface and looking down to scrutinize it. There was an audible gasp. It almost made Maya break into a real smile. Rarely in her life had she been in possession of such a powerful object.
“I suppose…I guess this means…” Olivia looked back up, her face red as she stuttered.
“That I got the job?”
Olivia swallowed and handed the card back to Maya. “I will send your resume along to Kelly. If you want to go back in the other room and sit down, I’ll see if I can get you an appointment right now.”
Maya glanced down at the card. Before shoving it back in her purse, she reread the words scrawled in pen in the blank space beneath Everett’s name and phone number. Give the card bearer anything she needs.