California Girls

Finola opened her mouth, then closed it. “My mom’s not a fan. What I mean is you, um, you knew her. After my father died.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m not sure why this is hard to say. My mother is Mary Jo Schmitt now but you knew her as Mary Jo Corrado.”

Parker’s eyes widened and he swung his head toward the house. “Of course I remember her. She and I... Well, you girls don’t want to hear about that. I always regretted how things ended. Is she, ah, married?”

Finola grinned. “Divorced. Why don’t you go inside and talk to her?”

Parker nodded and slowly approached the house. Zennie pulled Finola into the garage and motioned for Ali to join them.

“Mom had an affair with Parker Crane?” Zennie asked. “When, and how do you know this?”

“What?” Ali yelped. “Are you serious?”

“It was before she married Dad,” Finola said. “I just found out a few weeks ago when we were going through boxes. She has a bunch of stuff he gave her. Apparently it was hot and heavy and he just walked out on her.”

“So he’s a dick,” Ali said firmly.

“It was a long time ago.” Finola glanced toward the house. “He said he had regrets and it’s been a long time. This could be interesting.”

“So we don’t hate him?” Ali asked. “Doesn’t it seem like we should hate him?”

Zennie hugged her baby sister. “Times are changing. We’re going to have to change with them.”

*

Monday morning Ali was wrestling with the fact that her mother had gone off for lunch with Parker in the middle of the sale and had not returned. Around three she’d texted that they should shut down the estate sale at four and close up the house. Oh, and anything that didn’t sell could just be donated.

The sisters had done as she’d asked. Daniel had come by with his truck. He and Clark had loaded the remaining items into the back of it, then Daniel and Ali had taken it to a donation center.

By noon on Sunday, all three sisters were texting each other to see if anyone knew where their mother was. Mary Jo had finally responded to their increasingly frantic texts with a brief, I’m at Parker’s, I’m fine. You all need to get a life. And that was that.

Ali told herself that of course she wanted her mother to be happy. It was just all so strange and a little uncomfortable to think that her mother would have sex with some guy she hadn’t seen in decades. When she’d said that to Daniel, he’d pointed out that at least she had a little ammunition the next time her mother got judgy about her life.

Ali spent Monday morning moving into Paul’s office. The owner of the company had surprised her with new furniture and carpeting, which was unexpected and nice. Paul would stay on as a consultant for a month, to make for a smooth transition. With the new responsibilities came a nice raise. Ali had run the numbers and figured she would be out of debt in six months. After that she could start saving and figuring out what she wanted to do about her living situation.

Daniel was a big piece of that. While he hadn’t said the L word again, she thought about it a lot. She wanted to say it back to him, but before that, she wanted to be sure. Given what had happened with Glen, she wanted to be super, super sure. Her feelings for Daniel were totally different and they got along so much better, but was that—

“Hello, Ali.”

She looked up and saw Glen standing in the entrance to her office, as if thinking about him had conjured him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Well, I don’t want to talk to you. Words that were both petulant and immature, she told herself.

She motioned for him to take a seat, then carefully closed the office door before returning to her chair.

“What’s up?” she asked.

He looked around. “This is new.”

“The promotion? It is, but it’s all good. I’m excited about the opportunity.”

He looked the same as always. Funny how she now saw him as a lesser version of Daniel. Lighter hair, lighter skin, thicker through the middle. She’d never cared about appearances, but having spent time with Daniel... Well, it was hard to think about going back.

He pushed up his glasses. “I went by your apartment over the weekend. You don’t live there anymore.” His tone was faintly accusing, as if she’d done something wrong.

“Of course I don’t live there. I gave notice because I was going to move in with you, remember? I’d already sold half my furniture when you dumped me. When I tried to get my apartment back, I couldn’t because they’d upped the rent to the point where I couldn’t afford it and they’d already leased it out to someone else. So I was stuck with nowhere to live.”

She paused for breath and to dial down the energy. She wasn’t mad at Glen, exactly—it was more that he simply didn’t seem to get all he’d done to her.

“You dumped me without warning,” she said, her voice more calm. “You didn’t have the decency to tell me yourself or give me an explanation. To this day, I don’t know why you ended things. You didn’t handle one single detail. Instead you left everything to me. I had to do it all, Glen. I had to make the calls and let our friends know and give away a wedding gown that wasn’t returnable. I did everything because you just disappeared.”

He shifted in his seat. “You don’t have to make it sound so awful.”

She was just about to shriek at him, then told herself it didn’t matter. Getting angry was too much energy and honestly, she didn’t care. Not anymore.

“It was awful,” she told him. “All of it, but that’s not why you’re here. Tell me what you want.” So then I can ask you to leave, she thought to herself.

“You have a new apartment?”

The question was so at odds with what she’d been thinking, it took her a second to figure out what he was asking. “What? No. I’m living with Daniel.”

She realized a second too late she should have phrased that differently, but oh, well.