She ignored me. “Are you ever going to love me the way I love you?” she asked. She gave me several moments to answer but when I didn’t, she shook her head, laughing despite the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Should’ve known,” she muttered tiredly to herself. “Anyone dumb enough to love or trust you gets burned. Wyatt. Tess. Stupid me for letting you poison my head with the same bullshit hope you gave them. I thought you were going to make my life better but you only made it worse. You fucked them up, you fucked me up and I hope you fuck up that stupid slut you’re with now, too.” She hugged her arms around herself as she got up off the couch. “I’m leaving before the police get here,” she sniffled before turning to face me. “And I quit, so have a nice life. I doubt you will with all the skeletons hanging all over you but you can always keep trying,” she said, leaving just a few minutes before the police arrived.
21
LIA
I was floating on a cloud, practically skipping up the stairs of the townhouse as I returned from checking out a gorgeous commercial kitchen on Ninth Avenue. According to Elaine, she had “definite interest” in distribution from a friend who owned a "fairly large gourmet grocery.”
“Whether or not she confirms, I definitely have interest from stores across the five boroughs who would love to carry your product,” she had said on the phone, “so until you find the perfect lease for your store, start looking for commercial kitchen space. Because you’re about to have orders to fill, darlin’. Better get working STAT.”
Adrenaline was still surging through me as I got into my apartment.
It felt like I was finally starting to gain real traction on this business and I could hardly contain my excitement. I was so over the moon that when my phone rang with a call, I didn’t even look before answering with a bright and chipper, “Hello!”
“Lia?”
I stopped in the middle of the stairwell. “Dad?”
“Yes, hello.”
“Oh. Hey!” I said, my lingering brightness effectively masking my surprise. “Um… what’s up?”
“The usual, which is not a whole lot,” he said with what I hoped was content. I couldn’t tell. My father always had what Ritchie would call “old man voice.” It was just kind of a scratchy monotone. I liked to think it would be hard for me to read even if I did know him better.
“So…” I stared at the wall, hearing him lean back in his usual chair, an ugly plaid thing that sat in the corner of his room at Uncle Ted’s house. “What are you doing, Dad?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I was just sitting here. I was thinking about you and I don’t usually call when I do because I know you’re busy. But I went ahead today because I had a feeling you’d pick up as happy as you did just now. Because of all the good stuff happening for you lately.”
A smile spread across my lips as I sat right down on the steps. “Yeah. I actually just came back from looking at commercial kitchens to rent. So I can make bigger batches.”
“To sell more?” he asked with as much excitement as his voice could ever muster.
“Yep. I might have a distribution deal with some big grocery store my investor won’t tell me about yet.”
“Wow. Very fancy,” Dad said with a small laugh. Then it was silent for several seconds and I let myself get paranoid that I’d said something wrong or done something to offend him.
“So, what are you up to?” I asked to break the silence.
“You already asked me that. I’m just sitting here,” Dad replied. I couldn’t read his tone. “Well. I guess I was also calling to tell you I might have done something to upset you. I saw Ritchie at the store the day you told me about your investment deal, and I told him about it. I was excited and I didn’t consider that maybe you didn’t want him to know. It’s kind of been weighing on me, so… I’m sorry about that, Lia. I wasn’t thinking.”
My heart melted. “Dad. Really?” I covered my face with my hand and gave a little giggle. “You let that bother you for so long? I’m happy you were so proud of me you couldn’t contain it. Not even to my ex who you don’t even like.”
His laugh crackled into
the phone. “Okay then. I’m glad you’re not angry.”
“I’m not.”
“Good. I’m glad,” he said again. Normally, the repetition in our conversations depressed me and made me feel like we were two strangers. But not today. Maybe I was just happy but the conversation we were having felt like the best one we’d had in years. “Anyway, Lia, I’ll let you go. I know you’re busy. I hope I can find the energy to make a visit soon and see you.”
“Or I can come up to Warren,” I blurted, remembering what Ritchie said about the box his mom left me.
“Oh.” Dad sounded stunned. “That would be great. I just thought you said you were afraid of seeing people.”
“Yeah, but… things change,” I laughed. “I’m not scared anymore. All I’m scared of these days is paperwork and filling orders.”
“That’s not too bad,” Dad offered.
“No, it’s not. So maybe I’ll come see you. Maybe even tomorrow. I’ll catch a bus and take advantage of the rest of this weekend since it’ll probably be the last non-swamped weekend I’m gonna have in awhile.”