“I told you that you had this. Didn’t I tell you that you could do anything you put your mind to? Didn’t I tell you that?
I nodded the best I could with my face squished between Joan’s palms. It must have been almost a year since I saw her and I was almost floored when I heard her calling me from behind. She looked a bit different with the top of her hair colored in a dusty blond color and cut in a short pixie. She looked like she might have shed a few pounds too that she’d been complaining about since her last little boy she had at thirty-seven.
I hadn’t thought about how she was messing up my hair every time she shook my head back and forth, but only concentrated on the words she was practically screaming at me. Her wild emotions had sparked mine and I felt a rush of chills shoot through my body and a tightness in my chest. Seeing her so happy made me even more happy than the MRS award I was presented with and accepted a few moments earlier.
“Un huh.”
“It was true wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes were so deep inside mine that I could see the reflection of my electric pink calf length strapless dress in them.
“All that shit I put you through was worth it, right? It’s worth it now, right? Huh?”
Lowering my eyes and smiling, I remembered coming to her house from school and heading straight to the back of her apartment and basically locking myself in the room that I shared with her little boy, who was three years younger than me, and not coming out until it was all done. I remembered her eyes darkening and glowing with scorching flames of disappointment every time I came home with something less than a A- on my report card and threatened to kick me out. I knew she cared about me and she was only doing the best she could and what she thought was right for a kid who wasn’t even hers. Besides, when I got into college she turned into a completely different person, always praising me for some of the stupidest and simple shit.
“Yeah.” I said through a feathery sigh. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
“You proud of yourself?”
“I am.” I couldn’t catch my voice before it cracked and trailed off.
“Me too.”
She pulled me close, our cheeks touched, and her tears fell on mine. I sniffled as we separated. She laughed at me, teasing me about trying to be so tough and told me that she had to get going because she didn’t trust the young girl she had watching her four sons and she still had to fix them something for dinner.
“Wait right here.” I said gripping her arm and then scurrying to the long table where I had a coworker watching my purse. I dug into it and as quickly as I could spotted my checkbook and signed a check off to Joan for four thousand dollars. I knew I’d be cursing myself out later when the banks called my house for missing my loan payment, but I wasn’t thinking about it then. Giving Joan peace of mind if only for the week would make me feel better. “I’m not playing. I don’t want to hear anything this time. Just take it and thank me.”
Her lips loosened and her eyes softened. She looked to the ceiling, probably at the chandeliers, and chuckled.
“Well, can’t say ‘no’ to that can I? I’d be a fool.” She folded it and touched my face. “Thank you, darling.”
I nodded. She gave me one more quick glance and made her way through the modest crowd.
“I swear I didn’t come for this.” She called back to me. I smiled. Didn’t want to say anything else. “Oh, Simone told me to tell you ‘hi’.”
I slid my hands on my hips, laughed out loud, and watched her leave.
Out of the corner of my eyes I spotted Dorian coming in through the entrance.
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