Chapter Five
Nina
I sat at the cafe in the back of the bookstore, drinking a caramel macchiato while Lisa looked at me bug-eyed. “Oh my God. You’re dating West? The brooding hottie of Greenbrier High School?”
I wiped whipped cream off my upper lip. “It’s not like we’re actually dating.”
“It’s not like you’re not dating,” Lisa said.
“Interesting way to look at it. So I’m not not-dating West, which makes me not-not his girlfriend, which sounds like some sort of double speak from a dystopian novel.”
“It does,” she said, “and I can’t believe he’s fluent in Harry Potter.”
“I’m sure anyone living in that house needs the escapism of books.” I told her about West’s mom. “I never knew he had a mom, much less that she was ill. I guess he doesn’t tell a lot of people.”
“So I won’t share,” Lisa said.
“His house doesn’t sound like a fun place to live,” I said.
“Your house is like a hippie commune by comparison. I bet it drives his antisocial dad crazy.”
“We’re probably the calmest renters he could find,” I said.
Lisa nodded. “Bookworm hippies aren’t known for destroying property.”
“As long as you leave our books alone and don’t interrupt our flow of coffee and chocolate, we are a peaceful bunch.”
“Speaking of chocolate.” Lisa grabbed her wallet from her purse. “I think it’s cookie time.” She stood and headed back up to the counter. A few minutes later, she returned with a heart-shaped Rice Krispies Treat decorated with pink and red M&M’s.
“That is not a cookie.”
“I don’t understand your prejudice against Rice Krispies Treats. They’re yummy, and this one has chocolate in it.” She plucked out an M&M and popped it into her mouth.
“It’s a glorified cereal bar.”
“No one said you had to eat any.”
I grabbed my purse and pulled out a mini-chocolate bar. “Thankfully, I brought my own chocolate.”
After we finished our food and drinks, we paid for our books and left the store.
…
Saturday morning, I woke up to the delicious scent of fried dough. Downstairs, I found my mom making cinnamon doughnuts out of canned biscuits.
“Those smell wonderful.” I poured myself a glass of milk. “Any of them cool enough to eat?”
“Not yet.” My mom used a slotted spoon to dip out the golden puffy balls and dropped them into a shallow bowl of cinnamon and sugar. “Roll those for me.”
“Sure.” I coated the golden brown balls and then transferred them to another plate to cool.
“So how’d things go with West yesterday?”
“Pretty good. I think we could end up friends, if nothing else.”
“He seems like he could use some friends,” my mom said. “That is one uptight household.”
Should I tell my mom? “You can’t tell Jason, but I think I know why West and his dad are so…off-putting.”
“Your brother won’t tell—”
“I know you gave birth to him, and you love him, and so do I, but he is not to be trusted with sensitive information.” I’d never forgiven my brother for telling the entire world that I changed my eleventh birthday party from a pool party to a backyard barbecue because I’d gotten my period.
“Fine.”
“West didn’t give me any details, but it sounds like his mom is housebound and can’t have guests because of germs.”
“That’s terrible.” My mom set the slotted spoon down. “Is there anything we can do?”
“No, but it does explain the antisocial vibe that emanates from their house.”
“That makes my heart hurt.” My mom picked up the spoon and scooped out more doughnuts. “You realize I’m going to have to try to find a way to help them.”
“Yeah, I’ve been spinning that problem around in my head since he told me. And fair warning, no knocking on their door because it might wake his mom up.”
“So, no stopping over for coffee or dropping off cookies… There has to be something we can do.”
I picked up one of the cinnamon sugar donuts and blew on it before popping it into my mouth. Yum. “Let me know if you figure something out, but don’t do anything without talking to me first, okay?”
“I wouldn’t want to mess things up for you.” She went back to making doughnuts. “When we first signed the lease and moved in, I thought his dad was a single parent, like me. I had hoped we might bond over raising kids alone.”
Uh-oh. “Please tell me you didn’t hit on West’s dad.”
She laughed. “I might have tried if he’d ever given me the time of day, but he made it quite clear that he wasn’t interested in talking to me, except to remind me that I needed to pay the rent on time.”
“He’s definitely not a social guy. But hey, being a single parent isn’t all bad, right?”
“No, and considering I’ve ended up happier than your father, I feel like I’ve won the game of life, even if I didn’t end up where I thought I’d be.”
My dad was an over-the-road trucker, so it was natural that he was gone for long periods of time. What wasn’t natural was the fact that he had another wife and family two states away. A midlife crisis wife, as my mom liked to refer to Sheila, since she was ten years younger than him. He’d lived a double life long enough to have a four-year-old and a two-year-old before my mom figured out what was going on.
I didn’t understand why he thought he needed another family, why we hadn’t been enough. It was bad enough that he cheated on my mom, but the fact that he’d created a whole other family…that cut deep.
He’d been gone so much of the time that having him completely cut from our lives didn’t take much getting used to. At least that’s what I told myself.
“Heard anything from him lately?” I liked to think that he might miss us.
“He’s broken up about Sheila leaving him,” my mom said. “And he’s annoyed that I’m happy, which works for me.”
So nothing about Jason or me. That sucked. “Do you think you’d ever trust a guy enough to get married again?” Because from my viewpoint, marriage was a lost cause.
She picked up one of the donuts that had cooled off and took a bite. She chewed and stared off into the distance like she was really thinking about the question. “I’d be happy to date someone if I happened to find the right guy, but I have no desire to pick up after a man ever again. No matter how wonderful a guy may be, all males seem to be missing the gene that tells them the dirty socks are supposed to go in the hamper, rather than on the floor.”
My brother performed that same maneuver. Maybe I’d give him crap about it in an effort to help his future wife. My mind shifted to West. I bet all the socks in his house landed in the hamper. His dad had probably painted a square designating exactly where the hamper had to sit.
“Are you doing anything with West today?” my mom asked.
“Not unless he asks. It’s two weeks until the Valentine’s Dance. I suspect he’ll look for an easy out before then.”
“Why do you say that?”
I didn’t know him well enough to think he’d keep his word, but I couldn’t tell my mom that. “I don’t know. I think he was joking when he asked me to the dance. I don’t want to force him to take me, if he doesn’t want to go.”
“Wrong.” My mom sounded adamant. “He needs to stick to his commitments. You may not end up dating him for long, but he needs to learn that he can’t duck his responsibilities. You’ll be doing his future wife a favor.”
“Like someone should have done with dad?” I asked.
“Yes.” She frowned. “Exactly like that.”
The worst part about my dad’s defection is that none of us had seen it coming. He and my mom had seemed so happy together. I’d thought we were the perfect family. Turns out, I’d been living the perfect lie.