Page 28 of Dangers of Love

My stomach twisted. That could be a lot closer than they knew.

“It doesn’t make what we said right,” she continued. “But I hope you can see that our intentions were in the right place.”

I was tempted to remind her of the common saying about the road to hell and good intentions, but I simply took the win and offered them some information as an expression of my gratitude. “I intend to look for substituting jobs for the second semester so that I can get a better idea of where I might like to look for more permanent work.”

“That’s a good idea.”

I would’ve appreciated Mom’s compliment more if she hadn’t sounded so surprised.

“While I don’tneedthe money from the job, I do like not having to use my trust fund for everything,” I continued. “I may want to get my doctorate one day, but it won’t be in the near future.”

Especially if I was pregnant.

“Freedom hasn’t said anything to us about her plans.”

Dad was trying too hard to sound casual, which meant I could guess what would follow. I wasn’t wrong.

“Has she said anything to you?”

“She hasn’t.”

Mom twisted her napkin between her fingers. “Have you talked to her at all?”

“Yes. Yesterday, as a matter of fact.”

“And?” Mom asked when I didn’t continue.

“And it was a short but polite conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with why I don’t want to speak to her right now.” I finished my water and signaled to the waiter that I wanted a refill.

“I hate seeing you girls fight,” Dad said. “Surely you can work it out. It can’t be worth ruining your relationship.”

“I’m not going to ignore her for the rest of my life, but I’m not ready to talk to her right now.”

“But with the holidays coming up…you must see how difficult it would be for the whole family.”

I gritted my teeth at my mother’s not-so-subtle attempt at manipulation. “I’ll try to talk to her before Christmas.”

“And you’ll come home for it?” Dad asked.

I didn’t remind him that, technically, their house wasn’t my home. After all, I wasn’t even sure where home was for me, since the only place I’d ever lived beside my childhood home was the apartment I shared with Freedom, and I didn’t plan on going back there any time soon.

“I’ll spend Christmas with you,” I agreed.

I glanced at my phone and wondered if I could get away with excusing myself yet. I wasn’t working today, but I was exhausted, and a nap sounded like the best idea in the world. I couldn’t tell them that was what I wanted to do, though. They’d immediately ask if something was wrong, and no truthful answer would be a good one. Fortunately, I did have something that needed to be done, and it was something I could do and still take a nap.

I didn’t think I’d ever been so pleased by the need to do laundry.

Seventeen

Eoin

I’d probably taken longerthan I should have to think about the situation, but it wasn’t like I’d had an uneventful two days. Still, I felt guilty that it had taken me a few hours to finally call her.

When she didn’t answer, I left a voicemail, asking her to call me when she could because I wanted to talk to her. Then I’d called Cain to check in about work and to let him know that I was feeling better. He’d tried to talk me into taking Monday off too, but I’d reminded him that Christmas was next week, which would make for a short week, and Cain had given in. He’d added that if he didn’t think I was up to being there on Monday, he’d tell me to go home, and if I didn’t listen, he’d call my parents.

At some point in time, I was going to call foul when someone threatened me with my parents, but this wasn’t the time to do it. I agreed to his terms.

A quick glance at the time showed that it’d been an hour since I’d called Aline, and she hadn’t called me back. I couldn’t remember if she was working, and I didn’t want to bother her if that was the case, so I sent a text this time, basically saying the same thing I had in the voicemail, except I added an apology where I said that I knew I hadn’t had the best reaction to her news but that I’d just been shocked and now wanted to talk about it.

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