Page 78 of Lovewell Lane

Margo stood there for a second, just inside the door, hands braced on her hips. I watched her take a deep breath and follow the woman outside into the street. They turned and walked out of view.

Only for Margo to appear in the doorway of the kitchen moments later. I watched her steady herself, put her smile on a mask, and walk toward us again.

And even though she was trying to look fine, I could see it in her eyes, something had just changed.

27

Margo

It wasn’t even noon yet, and I was already one minor inconvenience away from locking the diner’s front door and taking down the sign. Not actually. But I wanted to threaten the action to everyone who looked at me funny.

My mother was in Honeyfield.

She hadn’t said why she was in town, she just whisper-screamed at me. Something about ‘needing her daughter’ and how her latest relationship had imploded because her boyfriend was a complete man-child who couldn’t provide for her. Her words, not mine.

This was probably my fault. She’d been calling for the past few days. I just hadn’t wanted to answer her calls. One, because I was busy. And two, because I had much better people to talk to nowadays. There was no part of me that wanted to be whisked away to another country by my mother who had no respect for anyone else’s wishes.

And now she was perched at my desk in my office, slowly picking at a blueberry muffin with a fork and acting like this was all perfectly normal. Like she hadn’t just derailed my entire day. My entire life, even.

“I thought we could do a little mother-daughter getaway,” she said casually, as if that didn’t make my head want to implode.That was always her go-to if I resisted her little trips. It started out with guilt-tripping and then always evolved into tantrums and demands if I stood my ground. When I was in high school and didn’t want to miss class, she would always say “Ineedthis, Margo.” Translation:I’m spiraling and dragging you down with me.

I kept moving all morning, refilling coffee, taking orders, and carrying food to tables. I took as much time as possible to avoid coming back into this office and having this conversation. Leaning against the doorway, I sighed and looked down at her. She hated that she didn’t have my full undivided attention. That I was treating this ‘crisis’ like a minor inconvenience.

“A getaway?” I echoed hours after she proposed the idea, sipping on a to-go cup of coffee I’d poured for myself. I was going to need it.

“Just the two of us. We could drive up the coast and find someplace with things to do. Pick a random city on the map and find a concert there. Take a break from this… hovel.” Her eyes scanned the security cameras above my desk that tracked the diner in real-time, like it personally offended her.

“Thishovelis where I live. I like it here.” I didn’t bother softening my tone.

She sighed like I was still a small child and was refusing to come inside for dinner. “Margo. This place is beneath you. You can get another job working as wait staff anywhere. Why you chose this place to settle is beyond me— no matter how temporary it is.”

“It isn’t temporary,” I said firmly. “Iownthis place.”

She let out a condescending laugh and didn’t say anything. “I’m serious, Mom. This is my diner.”

“Look, dear. I had a quarter-life crisis too when I was your age. What do you think made me stick around with your father for so long? Now that was really a low point in my life. You need toget out of this place. Breathe some fresh air. You’ll come around once you take a step away from here.”

“I don’t need to do anything,” I said as calmly as I could manage.

My entire life, I’d been terrified of turning into my mother. For some reason, I clung to what she said was the biggest mistake of her life. She claimed that one instance was the reason she was like this. I was terrified of finding someone and settling with someone like my father. In reality, I should have been scared of this. Running. This was what infuriated me about her. It had nothing to do with my father, she’d always been this way. I guessed because her parents weren’t all that present in her life growing up either.

It was a lightbulb moment.

I refused to love anyone. Date anyone. Even befriend people to a certain degree, because of her. In her mind, everything was temporary and that kept life fun and interesting. Which I would have agreed with a few months ago, but after living in Honeyfield for almost half a year, I knew differently.

It was sad more than anything. She must be so tired after living in constant movement, never wanting to stay in one place for too long. I didn’t realize how tired I was before moving to Honeyfield. How unsatisfied I was.

“I love living here,” I said out loud. Though it was more to me than to my mother. A lot of things were clicking together in my mind. Something that had been holding me back my entire life had just broken free.

My insistence only made her laugh harder. “Look, I have to get back to work,” I sighed. “Just stay here. And don’t bother anyone.”

I returned to my customers and continued on as if my entire world hadn’t been invaded by my controlling yet absent mother. She was the ultimate contradiction. Meanwhile, I triedto pretend her presence wasn’t making my skin crawl and that Derek wasn’t lingering in the back of my mind.

By the time my last customer left, the air felt thick with the thoughts running around in my head. I cleared a table just to keep my hands busy.

My mother had left the office and sat at a table at some point. I’m sure as some kind of weird intimidation tactic.

“I’m not going on a road trip,” I said finally while flipping chairs upside down to sit on the table.

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