“Whatever, Mom,” Lexie responded in a bored tone.
My eyes widened and I gave her my full attention. “Oh my God,” I exclaimed with a hand dramatically on my chest. “I just got my first sarcastic ‘whatever’ from my teenage daughter! A milestone. One that I never thought I’d get. We need a picture,” I surmised, glancing around for my phone.
Lexie rolled her eyes.
I went back a step. “An eye-roll too? Double whammy of teenage surliness.”
My phone rang from under a stack of papers. I pointed at Lexie as I went to grab it. “Don’t you move, young lady, we are documenting this moment.”
I glanced down at the screen to smile at the name that was flashing.
“Ava!” I answered warmly. “You have called in time to be involved in a milestone. Lexie’s first sarcastic ‘whatever’ and following eye roll,” I told her, wiping a fake tear for dramatic effect.
“Should I send I cake?” Ava replied seriously.
I pretended to ponder. “Maybe a small batch of brownies would be sufficient. And by small I mean enough to feed both Lexie and I.”
“So two batches then?”
“Bingo.” She knew me so well and luckily was also on board with Lexie’s and my particular sense of humor.
“Hey, Ava!” Lexie called from across the counter.
“Spawn says hi,” I repeated unnecessarily.
“Oh, I’ll have a chat with her in a moment, if she’s not too busy with schoolwork,” Ava replied.
“Oh, she’s not busy. We pulled her out of school, thinking performing on the street would be much more productive,” I deadpanned.
“I approve. School’s a waste of time these days anyway,” she agreed with a smile in her voice. “So,” Ava continued. “How’s it all going? I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to talk sooner—I’ve been thinking of you both,” she said apologetically.
“Don’t worry, we’ve been so busy I’ve barely had time to binge watch The Walking Dead,” I said, leaning next to Lexie.
We chatted for a couple of minutes and I was glad to talk to someone who I thought of as a second mother. Actually, considering the woman who birthed me could only be loosely described as a mother, and only in a purely biological sense, she was my only mom. Ava was the only grandmother figure Lexie had in her life, although, she did refuse to be called that. She loved Lexie with all of her heart, though.
After I had passed her on to Lexie, who wandered away into the depths of the hotel to talk, I tried to get myself back to work to get my mind off the incident. The fact I spent an hour looking at a computer screen without actually doing anything told me I failed.
“Remind me why I agreed to this again?” I asked, blowing a hair out of my face. I kicked a box out of the way as Lexie pulled a rug over the stained concrete floor of the garage.
“Because you love me?” she answered after she had straightened.
I thought for a moment, rubbing my aching back. “No, can’t be that.”
“Because I’m your only daughter?” she continued.
I paused and shook my head, squinting into the distance. “Oh, I know—it’s ‘cause you’re going to become rich and famous and look after me in my old age,” I said triumphantly.
Lexie stared at me. “That’s yet to be determined. If you don’t play your cards right, as soon as you’re of age I’m putting you in a home.”
I scowled at her. “I can’t believe I’m doing manual labor on my day off,” I whined. “It’s Saturday, the day of rest. We should be either vegged out catching up on Scandal, or shopping up a storm at some obscure vintage shop,” I told her while I stretched to place a box on a shelf. I refused to unpack anything that I didn’t need to, hence me shoving them anywhere out of the way.
Lexie was doing the same, though not out of laziness, like me. She was anxious to get her jam space ready. Her band was coming over for pizza tonight, therefore I was recruited as slave labor.
“Sunday is the day of rest, Mom,” she told me in a patronizing tone.
I poked my tongue out at her. She ignored me and went back to shuffle some more boxes around.
I was saved from having to continue my work with the ringing of my cellphone. “Whoever this is, I love you eternally for saving me from breaking my back in the name of music,” I greeted.
A masculine laugh sounded at the end of the line. “Well, babe, that’s twice now you’ve declared your undying love for me and we haven’t even had a first date. Things are looking promising.”
“Oh hey, Lucky,” I responded. One could not forget the sound of a particular hot guy’s voice. Especially when that particular hot guy had your beloved car in his care. And was also connected to the man you fucked against the wall a week ago.
“I’m hoping you’ve got some good news for me,” I continued, shaking my head to rid it of dangerous thoughts.
My car repair had taken longer than expected. Which would have mildly pissed me off, but I had transportation, and Lucky had called me twice this week with an update. My sex life was in the crapper, so my joking calls with the biker hottie were all I had.
“Yes, it’s finally ready. You can have Betty back,” he said, referring to my car by her proper name.
“That’s awesome! Can I come and pick her up now?” I asked hopefully. This would be killing two birds with one stone. Get my car, get out of the remainder of work left in the garage. My glance flickered over to the house across the street. The house that had been empty for over a week. My stomach dropped at the thought of running into Zane.
“Well, since you sound like you’ve got your hands full with whatever you’re doing, how about I come over, drop the car off and see if I can lend a hand?” he offered.
“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” I said in a weak tone. I totally wanted him to do that. Then I could get out of lifting stuff and watch a hot guy lift stuff. Win win.