Page 102 of Full Circle

CELESTE

I could barely see the road through my tears, but I could probably drive through town while blindfolded. The brakes squealed as I hastily pulled into a parking space behind Marla’s apartment. Maggie’s rented car was nowhere to be seen, so she must have been over at her mama’s place for the night. For once, I was grateful for her absence because it meant I could go to bed without playing a round of Twenty Questions.

Exhaustion hit hard and I didn’t bother to turn on a light as I sank onto the mattress to pull off my shoes. What I didn’t expect was the mattress to rumble underneath me.

“OH MY GOD!” I screamed, jumping three feet into the air as another voice shouted with me.

Marla came flying into the bedroom, flipping on the light with a metal baseball bat in hand.

“Is this how you greet an old lady?!”

“NANA?!” I cried. My breaths were still coming out in heavy pants as I waited for my pulse to return to normal.

Nana sat up in bed, her gray hair disheveled and her signature scowl intact. “Were you expecting the queen of France?”

“You scared the dickens outta me!” Marla sighed. She leaned the bat against the doorway and came to sit on the edge of the mattress next to Nana. “I called her and told her you needed her, Celeste. It’s time for everything to get settled, once and for all.”

I sighed in exasperation. “How did you afford the ticket to get here, Nana? You’re on a fixed income!”

She rolled her eyes. “You sure know how to roll out the welcome mat, don’t you, girl? Get on into these arms for a hug!”

Nana smelled like peanuts and Downey fabric softener, and it wasn’t until the combination hit my nostrils that I realized how much I missed the smell. I felt like a little girl again, running into Nana’s arms when the thunderstorms got too loud for my liking. She held me so tight until they were over, just as she did now.

“It’s so good to see you,” I whispered.

“Sure would be nice to see my son-in-law,” Nana commented. “I don’t suppose you brought him with you.”

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “Wesley and I aren’t married, Nana, you know that.”

“I know it’s not every day you land a man who was on the cover of GQ magazine,” she snapped back. “Do NOT let him slip by again.”

It was such a Nana argument that I couldn’t help but laugh. If there was a southern version of the grandmother in Mulan, it was Suzanne Moffitt.

Shrugging one shoulder, I joked, “I’ll take my chances.”

Marla gasped. “Didn’t y’all work things out?”

I shook my head. It was too late to have this conversation without sleep to clear the fuzziness in my brain. “It’s not that simple, Marla. The last thing I need is to focus on romance.”

“Yeah, ‘cause nothing good ever comes of that!” Nana replied sarcastically.

Pursing her lips into a thin line, Marla stared at me for a full minute before answering. “Celeste, I love you,” she began. “So it’s high time you start listening. Get your man, get your kid, and live your dang life!”

“Let me start by getting some sleep first, alright?” I snatched the extra pillow from the bed. “Sorry I scared, y’all. Good night.”

I settled onto the couch with a fluffy blanket and contemplated everyone’s advice from the past 24 hours. Wesley’s accusations stung. But they stung because they were so true. It was too painful to consider what I wanted from life because it would only lead to disappointment when I didn’t get them. Operating on autopilot was second nature because when you’re too numb to feel anything, nothing can happen to you. Except when nothing can happen to you, it means nothing ever happens. Was that the life I was going to settle for? Did I want Iris to get that kind of message?

Yet how could I be expected to jump into a committed relationship with Wesley after ten years’ worth of separation? Sharing a child meant we needed to co-parent, not end up together. And while the lovestruck teenager he left behind wanted nothing more than the fairytale ending, the levelheaded woman I was now wanted consistency, reliability, and peace. Three things I had yet to see from Wes.

I did believe him about Iris and my custody issue with Desiree. Come first light, I was heading over to Desiree’s and getting my daughter back. We could figure out where to go from there.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was enough for me to fall into another weary, fitful sleep.

* * *

Habit woke me up in just a few short hours as the first rays of sunshine pierced the sky. Given the situation, I refused to open The Comfy Cushion. It was a knife to the heart to make such a choice, however. Mama rolled over in her grave the moment Desiree threatened our restaurant, and I amused myself by imagining her ghost smiting my stepmother during one of her laser treatments.

I was too much of a coward to face Nana and Marla again, so I splashed some cold water on my face in the bathroom and tiptoed out the door. I always kept a spare set of clothes and toothbrush down at the diner because of how many times I ended up staying in town when the work ran too late. Sending a quick text to Marla so she didn’t worry about me when she woke up and found me gone, I drove to the restaurant and let myself in the backdoor.

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