Page 40 of Lorna's Savior
“What do you mean?”
“Before we continue this conversation, can we take a quick break?”
“Sure,” Andy said and grinned when she jumped to her feet and hurried down the hall. While he waited for her to return, he took care of his beer bottle and her wine glass, he had just sat back down when she returned.
Chapter 16
“First, thank you for taking care of the glasses. Did you want another beer?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Okay, so where was I?”
“You said if it wasn’t for your best friend, you wouldn’t be here right now. What does that actually mean? Are we talking living? Or what?”
“Oh, in this apartment. No, my life is good, I’d never think about ending it, if that’s what you thought.”
“It was, but thanks for letting me know. So, how did your friend help you?”
“Her name is Ronnie, I told you about her earlier. She’s the one that was in the accident up on a mountain. Engaged to Finn.”
“Ah, okay.” Andy nodded and pulled her feet into his lap to massage them. “Continue.”
Lorna snorted a laugh. “I met Ronnie my first day at work at the Larson Foundation. I thought she was the bug’s knees. She had it all together, and not only was she smart, but she’s beautiful too.”
“So are you.”
“I realize that now, but after living with Mother all those years, and being told that, ‘You’re too fat, too dull, too plain’, that I had nothing going for me in the looks department, you begin to believe it. When I first met Ronnie, I thought she was perfect, someone I wanted to be.”
“What changed?” Andy asked. “Because I can tell by your tone, that something changed.”
“She set me straight.” Lorna laughed. “I think it was a week after we first met, from that first day, we had lunch together, and on the Friday, she told me just where the bear shat in the woods. I’ve loved her ever since, and I’m not talking romantic love. I don’t swing that way. I’m talking about sisterly love.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me that I needed to buck up and stick up for myself. See, she knew who my mother was, and after she found out I wasn’t anything like her, Ronnie told me to buck up. At first I didn’t listen to her. But, finally, it wasn’t until late last summer that I set actions to her words.”
“How?”
“I had been wanting to move out of Mother’s house for a long, long time, but she never would allow it. I know, it sounds like I’m a wimp, but somehow, whenever Mother got the hint that I was thinking of moving out, she went ballistic. Hell, she even slept with the dean of the college I went to in order to keep me in line.”
“Really? How the hell did that work out?”
Lorna grinned, “I did something to piss her off. When I found out she was sleeping with him, I confronted him. I went through the proper channels of making an appointment, and when I arrived, I laid into him. I did not mince my words when I informed him that I knew he was sleeping with my mother. If I found out he had talked to any of my professors on her behalf to give me a good grade that I didn’t earn, then I would go to the board of directors, or the board of education. I forget which I threatened him with, and told him about his affair with my mother.
“Then, the next weekend I was home, which happened to be every weekend, by the way. Mother would have Murphy drive over to pick me up every Friday, and drop me off every Monday. Anyway, I told her that I didn’t care what she had between her legs to make men fall all over her, but if she was sleeping with the dean to make my life easier, then I was moving out. She broke it off with him, but only after I agreed to be home every weekend and every holiday.”
“Do you know why?”
“No clue, it was easier to give in than to listen to her bitch.” Lorna settled further down into the couch, and reached for the afghan she had laid over the back when she’d moved in. After covering her arms, she continued with her story.
“Anyway, one day last summer, I was bitching about Mother to Ronnie. She told me to move out. Said that I was a strong, beautiful, smart, sexy woman of twenty-seven. It was time to live on my own.” She grinned, then giggled. “That’s when she gave me some homework.”
“Homework?”
“When I told her I wanted to move out, she asked me a series of questions.”
“Which were?” Andy asked as he continued to rub her feet, then move his hands up her legs to the knee.
