Page 44 of Stuck with Me

MAMA

Merry Christmas, honey!

It’s later there so you must be sleeping. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Love you!

Good morning! Hope you make progress today. Let me know if I can do anything to help. Love you!

AMELIA

Mom is officially driving me CRAZY!

Do they have prescription medicine for Mom-is-driving-me-crazy? Or do you think if I double up on my anxiety meds it will help?

Mom is making us dress in matching ugly Christmas sweaters for church this Sunday. I think I’ll be sick. *cough cough*

That’s it. I’ve had it. I’m booking a ticket to Denver.

HAYDEN

I had my arm inside a heifer’s hoo-hah all night. What about you? Did Miss Rosie let you help her get off or did she take matters into her own hands?

I shake my head but can’t resist a chuckle at Hayden’s innuendo.

ME

Very fucking funny.

Let’s just say she did a good job at distracting me from a panic attack.

HAYDEN

Ohhhhh! You lucky son-of-a-bitch!

My brain wrestles with trying to come up with an even better text back when suddenly everything goes black in the cabin. The Christmas tree lights, the lamp in the living room, andshiiiiit—the coffee maker.

“You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding me,” I groan, crouching and looking into the coffee pot to see just how much coffee brewed.

“Power outage. Must be from the snowstorm,” Rosie observes, climbing out from her cocoon on the sofa to peer out the window.

“It couldn’t have waited until after my coffee finished brewing?”

Rosie giggles, not bothering to hide it.

“You think this is funny?”

“A little, yeah. Okay, a lot, actually.” She flashes me a smile.

“Ya know what’s even funnier? You’re the one who’s gonna be stuck with me all day. And I’ve got news for ya, Kit-Kat, I’m no picnic when I haven’t had my coffee.”

“Oh, you’re no picnic? Okay,” she mocks me. “What are you, a hundred? Who fucking says that?”

I glare at her. “My granddad.”

This shuts her up. And maybe even makes her feel bad.

“I mean, my granddad did. So I do. Ya know, because we were close.”

“Oh shit. I’m sorry. I’m an asshole.”

---