Page 39 of The Boyfriend Boycott
“My mother. She’s like Jennifer Coolidge inA Cinderella Story.”
“I’m not following.”
“A Cinderella Story?” She pauses and waits as if repeating the name of a movie I’ve never even heard of will jog my memory. “I guess you probably haven’t seen it. Jennifer Coolidge is the evil stepmother, and she tells Hilary Duff that she’s not very pretty and not very bright while she’s baking in the sun with tanning goggles on. That’s my mother.”
“Ah. Well, that’s simply not true. You are bright, Spencer. In so many ways.”
“I never went to university. Now that’s costing me job opportunities, as you are aware.” Spencer’s beautiful green eyes roll as she takes another bite of cheesecake.
“So? When have you ever let that stop you? You have single-handedly gone out there and gotten everything you ever wanted. You dreamt of travelling as a little girl, look at you. You did that. You got paid to do it. You hit an obstacle, not having PR experience, and you found a way around that. Not very many people can do what you do.”
Spencer doesn’t answer me, because her phone has started ringing, and she’s fishing it out of her purse.
“Hey,” she answers, and mouthsit’s Allyto me. “What the fuck? Why?”
Spencer pales as a look of pure shock and panic washes over her face. She finishes the conversation with a frantic “I’ll be right there” and hangs up.
“Speaking of Jennifer Coolidge. My mother is here.”
CHAPTER 16
SPENCER
My mother is alreadyinto Ally’s wine when we arrive. She looks exactly how I’m used to seeing her, curled up on the couch under a blanket, cradling a glass in her hand, looking forlorn and mopey.
“How long has she been here?” I ask Ally as she swings open the front door. Her eyes shift between Grady and me. Ally is apparently so distracted by our appearance that she’s rendered speechless, so I decide to clear things up for her. “Yes, Grady and I were out.Together.” I watch as her face changes from confusion to complete and utter elation. Great.
“Took you idiots long enough,” she quips, her face beaming. “I thought I was going to have to force you into a room alone together, but you figured it out.”
Ally is still blocking our entry into the cabin, looking a little too pleased with herself. My eyes flick back towards Grady, standing behind my shoulder, and I can tell by the smug way his lip just twitched that he’s just as satisfied. He’ll be able to rub it in my face later thatIwas the one who broke the ‘don’t tell Ally’ rule.
Remembering why we came over in the first place, Ally opens the front door wider and steps aside, allowing us in. She gestures towards my mother on the couch.
“She’s been here for about a half hour. I haven’t been able to get anything out of her, just that she wanted to know where you were and that she needed wine. I supplied both,” Ally explains.
“Thanks,” I say, flashing her an apologetic smile. I round the large wooden coffee table and sink down onto the couch next to my mom. Ally, Mason, and Grady retreat to the kitchen to create an illusion of privacy, but in this tiny cabin, I know they can still hear every word. I trust Ally will provide enough detailed commentary to bring everyone up to speed on the chaos that is the Sinclairs.
“Hey, Mom,” I say, keeping my tone gentle and light, as if I might spook her. “What’s going on?”
“You saw that your father got married,” she says, and I suddenly feel very stupid for not anticipating that she might show up in town. All the feelings I had earlier in the day threaten to bubble up to the surface. My dinner with Grady had been a nice distraction for a few hours, but the pain is still lurking there, waiting until just the right opportunity to rear its ugly head. I know I haven’t fully dealt with it, but I shove it down, ignoring it for the moment. My mother is clearly handling this situation worse than I am, numbing herself with wine. She needs me to be her support in this moment, the way I always have been. It’s why she came here in the first place; she knows she can rely on me to console her. And I will. Just like I always have.
“I did see that, yeah.” Anger and betrayal nip at my words despite any attempt to hide it. “How are you feeling about it?” It’s no use telling my mom that she’s being unreasonable. Even though she is. She’s remarried three whole times to my father’s one. Marla will feel the way she needs to feel, and she’ll let everyone around her know it.
“Awful. Just awful. How dare he do this, and right now of all times?” She says it as if my father intentionally did thisto her. What she doesn’t realize is that my father doesn’t think about us at all, not even enough to do anything vindictive. Her words spark another question within me.
“What do you meanright now?”
She takes a long pull of her wine and tips her head back, struggling to find the words to answer me.I’m momentarily distracted by the rom-com playing on the TV, and I notice that Marla’s gaze has drifted there too, so I pick the remote up off the coffee table and click the screen off. Marla looks up at me finally, the sudden silence jarring her.
“Roy wants a divorce,” she spits out, and I’m taken aback. Whatever I thought might have brought her here, it wasn’t this.
“What? Why? Did he find someone else?” I hate to assume that’s the reason, but it’s the one that occurs the most frequently in my mother’s relationships, so statistically speaking, it’s the most likely scenario.
“No. Not even,” she says, forlorn. “I’m just not enough for him anymore.”
“Mom, that’s not even remotely the conclusion you should draw from this.”
“It’s the only conclusion to draw, Spencer. I don’t have what Roy is looking for in a wife, to spend his golden years with. He didn’t even trade me in for a younger model. He traded me in because he’d rather be alone than with me. I think it’s my boobs. Never have children, Spencer, keep your boobs as perky as they are now, and you’ll be able to hang onto a man.”
