Page 19 of I'm Looking for a Man in Finance
“Yes, a bigger column and it was a request from my boss. I couldn’t really say no, and to be honest, my career depends on it.”
I glanced at them through the screen. They were frozen. My dad’s expression had gone completely blank, while my mom’s face twisted into something dangerously close to skepticism.
“If I write this column, I get a shot at my dream job.”
“The restaurant critic position?” I could always trust my father to be overly excited for every opportunity that came my way.
“Yes, the restaurant critic position.”
Despite my parents’ inability to see the love I had for this city, for the work I wanted to do here, they both looked thoroughly excited for me.
“That’s great, honey.” My mother’s smile was wide and genuine. Growing up, they’d watched me develop my love of food. Two regular parents that tried their best to provide their daughter with as many cultural food experiences as their predominantly white community had in store.
“How’s Kate?” I asked.
With my little sister being pregnant with her first kid,and me being hundreds of miles away, we’d had little time to see each other. Doctors deemed her pregnancy risky early on, eliminating air travel as an option. It had been nearly two years since I’d taken the time to fly back to Ohio. Every time my parents picked me up from the airport and we pulled onto the two-lane road that led into my old hometown, I felt cast into limbo. No longer the little kid that played on the playground in the town’s only park. No longer the teenager that had her first kiss in the tiny drive-in movie theater with one screen. Not even the fledgling adult that packed up all her belongings and left all she knew behind for whatever lay beyond the town’s limits.
The person I’d become no longer fit into the constraints of my hometown. While a part of me would always belong there, that person no longer existed.
Sometimes it was easier to justnottry to fit myself back into that old body, the previous version of me that no longer felt right.
“Kate’s doing well. Her doctor will probably make her bedridden starting next week. They said she has preeclampsia. So better safe than sorry.” My mother sighed. “It would be nice for you to visit before the baby arrives.”
“I’ll try my best.” It was the same excuse I used every time they asked. “I will definitely be there after the baby is born.”
My phone buzzed on the table next to my laptop.
Roxie:
Whiskey Locker in an hour?
Hallie:
Wrapping up a call with my parents. I’ll meet you there?
