The Blessings of the Animals_A Novel

CHAPTER Forty-One

MIMI

A LOT OF DAMN GOOD IT DID HER, ALL HER WORK TO GET Bobby to go back to Cami. She’d told him from day one, “Your sorry ass is not spending one f*cking night on my couch. You go back home to the best woman you’ll ever have.” The problem was he didn’t need her couch. He already had an apartment with that redheaded tramp. What’s with the red hair? His new wife had red hair, too. For the love of Christ, if that’s what he was after, Cami could’ve gotten a dye job.
What a disaster today, this shower. Jen. They never should’ve invited her. And Lydia! Bobby should’ve told her not to come. Why the hell did she want to be there? Poor Cami. As if she hadn’t been through enough.
Cami. Mimi loved her like a daughter. She was her daughter, and she always would be. Mimi had stayed to help her with all the dishes after the shower. She needed to make it up to her, the whole Jen incident. Cami was a strong woman. She was strong enough for Bobby; this Lydia wasn’t. What Bobby saw in that pale, frumpy Lydia was beyond her, not that anyone asked.
Bobby should be home. What was this shit about not being happy? He’d told her, “We’ve drifted apart.” Well, Christ, put your oars in the water and row the hell back together. What was he, a moron? Where did everyone get off thinking happiness was going to be handed down to them from on high? You had to earn your own goddamn happiness.
Like Olive and Nick writing their own vows. For a while, they’d actually wanted to pledge to honor and cherish each other “for as long as our love shall last” instead of “for as long as we both shall live.” Thank God, Mimi had talked them out of that. Why get married at all if you were gonna cut out the minute you weren’t feeling loving? What, were all her children half-wits? When you weren’t feeling loving, then you rowed harder. Christ, everyone had to put up with a certain amount of shit. It was worth it to belong, to be somebody.
“It’s been a long day,” Cami said. “You still have to drive home. I can take it from here.”
“No, no. I can’t leave you with all this, doll. Especially after how it ended.”
Cami laughed. She actually laughed. “Don’t worry about that. It was entertaining, at least.”
Mimi couldn’t believe it was over with the Indian. She wanted Cami taken care of. Cami said she didn’t feel lonely, but she’d see. You were invisible without a man. Cami thought her life was full, but she’d get tired of going out with couples, riding in the backseat like a child. You weren’t somebody in this world unless you were with someone.
Mimi scrubbed the tile island. “Who did she think she was?” she couldn’t help but say out loud of Lydia. “Chatting with you? Laughing with you? Like you were long-lost friends!”
Cami stopped washing dishes. “I liked her. I’m glad she talked to me.”
Mimi kept scrubbing the cracks between the tiles. “And who did she think she was standing up and bossing everyone around? She needs to know her place. Whore.”
“All right. Enough.” Cami’s tone stopped her. “You tell me what’s so bad about her, Mimi. Name one thing.”
Mimi’s mouth wrinkled up like a baby’s. She felt a decade older. One thing? She sniffed and whispered, “She’s not you.”