Chapter 15
“I’m here and I have liquor!” Winter shouted from outside the apartment, her voice followed by a heavy banging noise.
“Hold your horses, crazy!” Jasmine had no idea what Winter was thumping into her front door, but from the sound of it, it was as large as a small animal.
Swinging the door open, she smiled sadly at her best friend who stood there with her giant purse swinging from her elbow, the obvious culprit of the thumping. Winter also happened to be juggling three six packs of Henry’s Hard Grape Soda.
“You’re a life saver.” She sighed. Jasmine grabbed one of the packs before her friend somehow managed to drop them after making it all the way to the door without a mishap.
“I knew that the shit had hit the fan when your mom called me. I mean seriously. Why would she think that I would take her side? She fucking hates me!” Winter sat the rest of the liquor down on the kitchen counter and started moving around the apartment as if she still lived there. Grabbing a bag of chips from the cabinet over the microwave, Winter popped them open and offered the bag to Jasmine.
“She doesn’t hate you; she just doesn’t like you very much,” Jasmine said, trying to make it not sound as bad as it obviously was. “This just proves that she’s lost her mind. There isn’t any other way to explain it.” Jasmine shoved as many chips into her mouth as she could possibly fit before grabbing a soda out of the pack and unscrewing the top. “She said I’m ruining her life. Can you believe that shit?! Me ruining her life!”
“What exactly happened on that call? I didn’t understand half of what you tried to tell me over the phone.” Winter plopped down on the couch next to her and took her own handful of chips.
Jasmine tried to remember exactly how much of the rundown she had given Winter before sending the SOS. “Okay, I told you about the texts and what happened with Leo this morning.” When Winter nodded, Jasmine ran through her timeline in her head not wanting to miss telling Winter something important.
“You read me the texts and then said you sent one back basically coming clean on everything. Then she called and that’s when you started talking crazy, and I couldn’t follow anything after that point.” At Jasmine’s grumpy glare, Winter shrugged and added, “No offense.”
“Winter, I’ve fucked everything up and I don’t know how to fix it.” Jasmine took a couple long drinks from the bottle she was holding and whispered, “The worst part is that I’m pretty sure that Leo never wants to see me again.”
Winter took the drink away from Jasmine and set it down on the coffee table. “Don’t you do it, Jazz. Don’t you dare cry. I can’t handle it when my friends cry in front of me. It will make me cry and then we will both be two crying boogery messes.”
Jasmine sniffed. She had cried enough already this morning and didn’t want to sink back into that black hole anytime soon. “When she called, I was just so mad. I blamed everything on them even though I know that the situation with Leo was my own damn fault.”
“What did you say?”
“First, I told her about the job.” Jasmine took a deep breath and blew it out. “She was so mad at me that she said I had to quit. When I told her that there was no way I was quitting, she told me that I was ruining my career by making bad decisions. Then, she said that she and my father had not paid for seven years of school so I could work at a lowly pediatrician’s office. They acted like I was taking my nursing degree and waiting tables down at The Tinderbox. When I explained why this job was perfect for me, she tried to argue every single point. I’m too smart to work at a small clinic, this job is a dead end and beneath a Kingsford and all the shit that goes with it. It got really ugly when she said that they didn’t pay for my education for me to throw it away by taking the easy way out.”
Winter nodded, knowing that was something that Jasmine’s mother wouldn’t have held back on saying. “First, that’s a load of bullshit. Just because you don’t want to work ninety hours a week doesn’t mean that you’re lazy. It just shows that you have other priorities. What else did she say?”
“When I told her that I would pay her back for my tuition she laughed like some evil villain out of a Disney movie. Seriously, she sounded like she was going to steal my voice and then lock me up in a tower somewhere.” Jasmine shivered at the memory of the wicked sound. “It was at that point I decided to talk about the other problem they had created for me, and so I changed the subject and told her I had started seeing someone.”
Jasmine rubbed her forehead at the memory of the conversation that came after that. “I don’t think I have ever heard my mother be so hateful,” she continued. “I mean, I have heard her mad at the dry cleaner or a caterer when they do something wrong, and she makes them feel like they have personally ruined her life…but, I never imagined she would ever talk to me that way. The way she spoke to me—” She caught her breath for a moment. “She made me feel like I was less than nothing.”
“You are not less than nothing. I never want you to feel that way. And honestly, Jazz…” Winter slung her arm over Jasmine’s shoulder, and pulled her in for a side hug. “Your mom has always been kind of a bitch. You just never had it directed at you before because you let her have her way.”
Jasmine nodded. “Do you want to know what makes me really mad? She thinks that I need to be told what to do…like I’m still ten years old or something.”
“You have to admit that you have pretty much done exactly what they have said all your life without putting up a fuss. Your parents never expected you to stand up to them because you never have.”
“I think the only thing that I’ve ever stuck to my guns about was going into nursing and not continuing on to med school. Even then, I think they thought I would change my mind,” Jasmine admitted.
“So, what’s going on with Leo?”
“Well, after I told my mom that there was no way I was going on that date, she yelled and screamed. It only took her about five minutes to calm down. She didn’t let it go, though. According to her, I am not allowed to date a man that has a blue collar job. Apparently, I am permitted to have some input on my future love life, but not enough to date who I want and manage to get their blessing. Then, she said if I had a problem with dating a fifty-year-old doctor, then they would find a younger physician I would be more comfortable with romantically.”
At her words, Winter sprayed hard grape soda all over the table in front of them, choking on the drink she had taken. “He was fifty? Jazz, that’s old enough to be your father!”
“That’s what I said, and do you want to know how my dear sweet mother replied?” At Winter’s stunned nod, Jasmine dropped the Victoria bomb. “She said that she didn’t recommend me having children since I was unable to handle my own life and an older husband would be the perfect answer in that case.”
“Are you kidding me?” Winter sounded as shell shocked as Jasmine had felt.
Jasmine stood up and grabbed a new bottle after finishing the last one in record time. “I just can’t wrap my head around it. My mother, the person that birthed me, feels like I shouldn’t have children because I am unable to handle my own life!” Jasmine felt the familiar burn of tears that she had been fighting all day. She wasn’t sad. No, Jasmine had run all out of whatever sad emotion she had much earlier that day. No, she wasn’t sad at all.
She was pissed. She was angry. She had been pushed to a point that she never thought she would get.
All that frustration and anger at her parents was overwhelming. She had reached emotional overload to the point where she couldn’t help but cry. It was something that she hated, but was unable to control.
“Jazz, if anyone is meant to be a mother it is you. You love kids. I can’t imagine you not having kids.” Winter’s voice showed just how shocked even she was at Victoria’s words.
Jasmine threw her hands in the air. “I know! But you know what? It probably doesn’t even matter now because Leo isn’t talking to me.”
“Was it that serious with him, Jazz?” Winter probed gently.
“I thought it was.” Jasmine stopped when her voice cracked. The thought of Leo opened another hole in her chest. “He is so amazing, Winnie. He’s smart and funny and everything that I never knew I wanted. I know when I first told you about him that it was just fun and casual, but it felt like so much more. It feels like we have been together for longer than a week, and I know how stupid that sounds but it’s true. And now he’s not talking to me.”
“I felt the same way with Will. We had one date and he had started talking about how he was gonna marry me…. I would have thought he was crazy if I hadn’t felt the exact same way.”
“When you know, you know,” Jasmine whispered, sniffing and rubbing her nose.
“That’s what Will always said to me.”
“Leo said the same thing.” Jasmine finished off her second bottle with a hiccup following the last sip.
“Have you tried calling him?”
“I tried but it went to voicemail. I texted him twice before I realized that I needed to stop or else he would think I was psycho.”
“I bet he’s just taking time to think about things, Jazz. Will said he was going to the driving range with some of the guys, and I would bet that Leo’s in that group. Just give him a little time to take in all the craziness that is Reginald and Victoria. They can be a little overwhelming to deal with, and it sounds like you guys got the shit end of the stick today.”
“True. I just want to tell him that he’s perfect and I’m sorry.”
Winter nudged her with her elbow. “I wouldn’t go that far,” she said.
“Oh stop, I know this is my fault and have no problem owning up to it.”
“So, what are you going to do about your mom and dad?” Winter kept her voice casual, but Jasmine could tell that she was on pins and needles wondering how things were going to play out.
“Regardless of where I stand with Leo, I have to set some ground rules with my parents. I let their managing of my life get out of control. I mean, I knew they steered me where they wanted to go, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I tried to change course and saw how crazy it made them. Now, I have to get them off my back long enough for them to see that I can make my own decisions.”
“So, you’re keeping the job?”
“Yep.”
“And not dating doctor dad two-point-o?”
“Ewww, gross and no.” Jasmine shivered at even the creepy thought of that happening.
“And you told your mom this?”
“Yep.” Jasmine popped her lips on the ending of the word.
“That’s the Jazz I was waiting to see.” Winter tipped her bottle toward Jazz and they clinked the glass together. “Now, we just need to get Leo settled down and everything will be hunky dory again.”
“I don’t know if he’s going to forgive me,” Jasmine admitted, knowing that her spine may have shown up a bit too late to save the day.
“That’s bullshit,” Winter snapped. “You’re a fucking catch.”
“I totally am!” Jasmine wasn’t sure if it was the rapid consumption of alcohol on a very light stomach or the fact that she had stood up to her mom, but she was starting to feel pretty badass.
“So, you know what we are going to do?” Winter asked.
“What?”
“We are going to paint our nails and have a girl’s night,” Winter decreed.
“But, it’s a Sunday. Don’t you have to work tomorrow?”
“Not until my mall job tomorrow night. What do you say? We can pretend it’s like the good ol’ days and binge watch Parks and Rec and order Pyramid Pizza.”
Jasmine’s stomach growled as if on command. “Only if we get an order of bones with extra honey.”
“Deal. You’ll see, pizza fixes everything.” Winter picked up her cell to call in their order.
“Pizza can’t fix this, but it’s a good start,” Jasmine replied, reaching for another bottle of hard soda, popping the top and taking a big gulp. She sat quiet for a moment with the sound of Winter ordering simply white noise.
“I have to fix this,” she said aloud to herself.
She could fix this. She had to fix this.