The last thing Polly wanted on her day off was to deal with her mother. It wasn’t that she didn’t get along with her mom, just that they had nothing in common. It was difficult enough to relax in a house invaded by mice, but to have that invasion, too? All Polly wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep all day, try to shake the bone-aching tiredness. She guessed that she was coming down with a cold.
Polly hated being sick. She hated trying to pretend like she wasn’t getting sick even worse. She loved her mom, but she didn’t really know how to give people space… or that being selfless meant doing things for other people without expecting something in return. Still, she was her mom, and Polly couldn’t exactly tell her not to come around.
When she arrived, Polly invited her to sit outside and brought out a couple of glasses of juice. Her mother settled into one of the lawn chairs overlooking the pool and leaned back with a sigh.
“Ah, yes. This is the life, isn’t it? I always did say that you were lucky to get hired by the Freemans. It’s such a delightful life, isn’t it?” Her mother gave her a wide smile. “It’s not like me. The hot water tank broke, and that cost an arm and a leg to replace. Then I noticed some chipped tiles in the bathroom. What do you know, the plumber did it. Of course, he claims he wasn’t even in the bathroom, but where else was he meant to check the hot water?”
“He could have gone to the kitchen. Weren’t you home when he came to fix everything?”
“Oh, I was too busy. I had my hair done. How do you like it?”
She fluffed her shocking red hair and Polly nodded. “It looks nice.”
“You’re just saying that. The shade isn’t right at all. It looks like my head is on fire. But I’ll just have to get it redone with a new girl, I suppose. That’s all there is to it.” Her mother gave a world-weary sigh. “I don’t think you know how lucky you are, to have everything going right for you.”
Polly bit her tongue. Everything going right? Yeah… sure. “Actually, I haven’t been doing so great lately, Mom. Ever since my identity was stolen—”
“Pish.” She waved a pale hand and narrowed her eyes. “You got that all sorted out and I know that Shane Freeman offered to help you out with all of that stuff. But since we’re talking money, how soon can you get me what you still owe from school?”
That brought Polly up short. She could feel her face starting to warm and her hands clenched. After a minute of holding her breath, she allowed herself to relax. Her mother wasn’t looking at her, but instead was staring across the pool. If she had really thought there was a debt to be owed, then she wouldn’t be deliberately ignoring Polly’s look.
Don’t lose your temper, Polly told herself. “Mom, I don’t owe you any money.”
“Yes, you do. I know that it was a while ago, but you still owed me a thousand. Remember? The last you gave me was three hundred dollars two years ago, and we—”
“Mom. You said that that last thousand was a gift and I didn’t have to pay it back.”
She watched as her mother took a sip of her juice. Her hands remained clenched in her lap, trying desperately to keep herself from snapping at her mother. This sort of thing was common enough in her lifetime, to be given something only for it to be taken away. Polly had been hesitant about accepting the ‘gift’, but at the time she was so hard-up for money that trying to pay back her mom on top of everything else was making her sick. The stress had caused her to lose almost fifty pounds—she’d ended up in the hospital over that.
“Well…” Her mother sipped at her juice again. “Maybe I did say it was a gift after all. But that’s a lot of money, Pauline. I might not have needed it then but these days things are different. With the water heater and now having to renovate the bathroom—”
“Why do you have to renovate the whole thing over one chipped tile?”
Her mother set her glass down. “I understand why you’re upset, but I need that thousand dollars back, Pauline. I’m not being selfish, I just need it.”
“Mom, I—”
“Do you really think that I’d be asking for it if I wasn’t in desperate need?”
“Yes.”
Her mother narrowed her pale eyes and her jaw clenched. “Oh, really? And what makes you such an expert, young lady? You are working for billionaires, why can’t you just give me the money that you owe me?”
“I don’t have a thousand dollars just lying around.”
“I’ll take a check.”
Polly leaned back in her chair. Her teeth ground together. She’d been right, this was the last thing she needed on her day off! A headache started to pound behind her eyes and she had to resist the urge to start screaming. That wouldn’t help anybody. It would just make her feel guilty and she’d end up borrowing money from Tyler or Shane in order to assuage her shame.
“Mom,” she said, trying to force her voice calm, “I don’t have a thousand dollars at all.”
A disappointed sigh answered her. “Why are you so careless with your money?”
Careless? She was being careless by living off of leftovers from the Freeman household and Ichiban noodles so that she could pay off debts that weren’t even hers? She was careless because every time she managed to save a bit of money, something went horribly wrong and she had to spend it all? Or was she careless because she hadn’t had an actual vacation in five years? Her hands clenched.
“You didn’t even bother to ask me how I was before you launched into your spiel about how good my life is right now,” she spat. “For your information, my life is not good right now. My car broke down, I’ve got debt collectors breathing down my neck for money I didn’t even spend, I am loads in debt to my employers, and, what’s worse, my house has been invaded by mice!”
Her mother spat out the juice and set the cup down. “Now you tell me!”
“I washed the cups with a bleach solution and kept them in a container mice can’t get into,” Polly said quickly. “And the juice was in the fridge, so—"
“Polly, I need that money. You’ve already borrowed money from the Freemans, what is one more loan to them?”
Before Polly could respond to that, a cheerful voice called from inside the house.
“Knock, knock!”
Polly’s shoulders tensed as she got to her feet. In just a few moments, Bernie and Xavier, Tyler’s mate and infant son, appeared. Bernie’s smile was huge as she carried the gurgling baby over.
“We were going into town for some frozen yogurt, do you—” Bernie caught sight of Polly’s mom and cutoff. “Oh! I didn’t realize you had company. I’m sorry for interrupting.”
“It’s fine.” Polly made herself smile. She and Bernie got along just fine, but she didn’t want to have to do this song and dance with her mother. It was like she didn’t have a filter, just blurting out everything that came to her mind. She would no doubt embarrass her in front of her new friend. Her relationship with Bernie was still developing, and it was too soon to subject her to her mom… too late now, though. “Bernie, this is my mom, Jessica. Mom, this is Bernie.”
“Bernie?” Her mom got to her feet and cocked her head to one side. “Why does a pretty girl like you have a boy’s name?”
Polly bit back a groan.
“It’s short for Bernice,” Bernie explained. “I just hate being called that, so Bernie it is.”
“And this is Bernie’s son, Xavier,” Polly continued. “She and Tyler are engaged.”
Bernie gave her a surprised look; they hadn’t told Polly anything about getting married. Her mother was traditional about these things, though. Polly remembered the many, many lectures she had gotten as she grew up about keeping herself ‘pure’. Which was hypocritical, considering that Polly herself had been conceived and born out of wedlock. Jessica claimed that her father was a dragon shifter, but that was impossible. If he was, she’d be able to shift by now. But she couldn’t even make smoke, let alone fire.
“Well, I had better get going.” Jessica smiled stiffly at Bernie. “Polly, we can continue this discussion another time. Love you, darling.”
“Love you, too.” Bernie made herself hug her mother, but a sigh of relief escaped her once she was gone.
Bernie gave her a sharp, knowing look. “Family trouble?”
Polly let out a sigh, debating how much she wanted to tell her friend. Not much, as it turned out. In the end, she just shrugged. “It’s just my mom being my mom. Nothing unusual.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. Let’s just go get some fro-yo.” Polly tried to force herself to smile.
She really shouldn’t be spending money on this right now. After everything, though, a little treat seemed like just the thing to perk her up. Besides, what difference did five dollars make, really? It wasn’t like she went out and bought fro-yo every day. It was maybe once a month. With the frustration in her chest and the anger burning through her fingertips, Polly needed something to give her a little bit of satisfaction.
If you can afford a treat that will just go to your waist, then you can afford to pay your mother back.
She could almost hear her mother’s voice in her head. She scowled and shook her head. She was going to enjoy this, dammit!
Xavier gurgled as they drove into town, talking to himself the way babies do. Polly tried to keep her mind on the small talk conversation she had with Bernie, but it was difficult to concentrate. Once they got the yogurt, they went to the park and walked around while eating their treat. Eventually, Bernie hesitantly brought up Jessica again.
“She’s just unpredictable,” Polly sighed. “Everything revolves around her, and she thinks that if my life isn’t how she envisions it, that means either I am lying or I’ve done something stupid. Like when my identity was stolen? She said it was because I didn’t collect my receipt when I went to the store and that one of the cashiers used it to steal my money. And now she wants me to borrow a thousand dollars from Shane so that I can pay her back for my university, five years after she said that debt was forgiven. And you know why she needs it? To redo her bathroom! I know that she’s lonely and it’s hard for her, but it’s frustrating!”
Bernie sighed. “Sorry to hear that. I know something about lousy family. Parents shouldn’t treat their kids like that.”
Polly nodded, a melancholy mood hanging over her head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m the one being unreasonable. I mean, she did just have to replace her hot water tank, too.”
“Well, there is only one way to deal with all these money issues. You have to marry Gilbert.”
Bernie’s words were matter-of-fact. Heat flared to Polly’s face and she choked on the spoonful of yogurt she had just put into her mouth. The image of Gilbert, shirtless, splayed out on a bed with a come-hither look on his face made something tighten inside of her. The smolder in his eyes…
Polly forced a laugh, as though Bernie’s suggestion had been funny. “Yeah. And then we’d divorce in a month because I bankrupted him with my bad luck. No, I just need time to think and figure this out.”
“Well, if you need to talk, I’m here.”
“Thanks.” Polly smiled at her. “I appreciate it. Now, when are you and Tyler getting married?”