“Oh, Mom!” I flung myself over her, burying my face into her shoulder. It took me a few seconds to realize I was sitting in her lap. I was a good five pounds heavier than her at this point, but when I tried to stand up, she pulled me back down, cupping my face with both her hands. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t help it. They just kept coming. But they felt good. Cleansing.
“I’m so sorry, Arya. All this time I’ve ignored you. Overlooked you. Gave myself excuses. That you and he had each other. That I was just standing in your way. That is all over, now. I have a new apartment, a new job, a new life. I know it’s late, but I hope it is not too late to be your mother.”
I shook my head sharply. “No. No.” I sniffed, pushing my head against her shoulder again. “Just don’t do that again. The thing where you disappear for days and weeks at a time. Even if you tell me things that I don’t want to hear. Even if it’s to tell me to back off and not butt into your business. Parent me, Mother.”
“I will, honey. I will.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
ARYA
Present
The next morning, I flicked my wrist and glanced at my watch, rearranging my skirt over my thighs for the millionth time. It was half past ten, and I was about to stand up and leave the restaurant where I was supposed to meet the potential client and Jillian.
The fact the client hadn’t come was bad enough. Purely unprofessional. But what irked me was that Jillian hadn’t shown up. Hadn’t even answered any of my calls. Just sent me a quick text saying something had come up and that she would love to hear all about the meeting when I came to the office afterward.
We must bag this one, Ari. She’s big $$$.
Well, heavy pockets or not, this Goodie woman wasn’t showing up.
I was waving for the waiter to get me the check when Mrs. Goodie finally made her grand entrance. More like barged into the tiny restaurant in an explosion of colors and laughter. She was talking on her phone, waving the hostess away when she tried to ask her if she was joining a party or needed a table.
She was, for lack of a better description, human Technicolor.
“. . . gotta run, honey. We should totally catch up while I’m in the city. Totally. Oops, here’s my date for the morning.” Mrs. Goodie waved at me with the tips of her fingernails, smiling brightly. “Gotta run. Yes. Tomorrow sounds good. I’ll have my PA talk to yours. Can’t wait to see you. Muah!”
She plopped on the seat in front of me, sighing as she grabbed my water glass and chugged the entire thing in one gulp. “As if I’m ever going to see that two-faced bitch again. Can you believe it? I stopped trying to figure out why people who hate me seek my company. The line between love and hate is fine indeed, but there’s no need to straddle it.”
I stared at her blankly.
“Oh!” She laughed, shaking her head as she flagged the waiter. I was pretty sure she blew a complete random a kiss. “I was late, wasn’t I? My apologies. I forgot how bad traffic is in the city.”
“No problem,” I said blandly, reminding myself that I’d screwed up several deals these past few months and that I owed Jillian this account.
The waiter arrived with the check, and Mrs. Goodie scolded him. “Why, I haven’t even had your pastry platter! Bring it immediately. It’s the best thing this town has to offer. And coffee. Lots of coffee. Irish coffee! It’s five o’clock somewhere.”
“In Saint Petersburg,” I supplied helpfully, figuring she’d do what she wanted to do anyway, including getting hammered first thing in the morning. I snapped my napkin over my lap, making myself comfortable.
Mrs. Goodie cocked her head sideways and smiled. “You’re a brainiac,” she observed.
“I don’t know about that, but I like to think of myself as well read.”
“No wonder he is so crazy about you,” she muttered, tugging at her colorful beach dress to cool down from the journey here.
I frowned. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Goodie?”
“Please, call me Alice.” She laughed, patting my hand across the table. “And it’s not Goodie. It’s Gudinski.”
The last name rang a bell, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “What do you mean by ‘he’s crazy about you’? Who is?”
The earth tilted beneath me just then. I sucked in a breath. A weird combination of jealousy, fury, and gratitude filled me. The latter, I suspected, was simply because I was sitting in front of a person who was close to Nicky. Alice must’ve seen the war waging within me by the look on my face, because she burst out in a loud, unladylike cackle, and suddenly, I knew exactly what Nicky had seen in this woman.
“Oh, bless your little heart, Arya, don’t be scared. I don’t bite. Christian told me you might not agree to see me if you knew who I was, so Jillian and I had to give you a little nudge.” She gave me a wink, peppering the gesture with a shoulder shimmy.
“And you still thought it would be a good idea?” I could kill Jillian for the way she’d schemed behind my back twice in a row this week.
Alice gave me a kind smile. “Absolutely. I was quite the stubborn woman myself when I was your age, but my late husband wore me down. I’m so glad he did, because otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, dining in a fancy restaurant in New York in the middle of the morning.”
“I’m sorry you lost him.” I dropped my voice.
She gave her (fantastic) hair a toss. A few years ago, I would have looked at this woman and thought to myself, I want her to be my mother. Now, after everything Beatrice and I had been through, I only wanted someone like Alice as a friend.