Page 99 of Written in the Stars
Elle’s heart crawled into her throat. “I didn’t call anybody, right?”
Margot set her hands on her hips, an affronted frown on her face. “I’d never let you do that. You have another missed call from your mom.” Her mouth pinched. “And you have a text.”
“Did you... did you look?”
Margot bit her lip and nodded.
“Is it—” She stared at Margot, eyes wide and heart pounding inside her chest, pulse leaping painfully in her neck.
One little jerk of Margot’s head was all it took to send her spirits plummeting. “It’s Brendon.”
***
Inside her pocket, her phone buzzed. Brendon, maybe? She wasn’t running late.
No.Mom.
If she didn’t answer, Mom would just keep calling. The calls had escalated in frequency over the past two weeks, word no doubt getting back to Mom that Elle was no longer avoiding Jane and Daniel, just her. Better to bite the bullet than prolong the inevitable. “Hello.”
“Elle, you answered. Good.” She sounded relieved.
Elle shut her eyes and leaned against the stop-walk sign. “Look, Mom, now’s not a good time.”
“I’ve called half a dozen times. I left you messages.”
Something about the way she said it, as ifElleowedheran explanation made Elle grit her teeth.
“I didn’t have anything to say.” No, that wasn’t right. “Or I did, but it didn’t feel like you were ready to listen.”
Silence filled the line, until the clearing of Mom’s throat broke it. “Elle, I’m... I’m sorry. It was never my intention to belittle what you do.”
“But you did. You called it a pseudoscientific fad. Do you not realize how badly that hurt?”
Itstillhurt, the sting of her words fresher than ever after Elle’s falling-out with Darcy.
“I didn’t. I just...” Mom sighed. “I’m just worried. It’s my job to worry about you, Elle-belle. I want what’s best for you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
What about what she wanted? They’d been having some variation of this conversation for years, tiptoeing around it and Elle wastired. “I’m happy. Why can’t that be good enough?”
“I’ve gone about it all wrong. I know that now.”
“Let me guess. Jane said something? Daniel?”
“It was Lydia, actually.” At Elle’s stunned silence, Mom laughed. “She confessed that she agrees with a lot of what you said. That I put too much pressure on you,allof you, Lydia included. I had... I had no idea, Elle. But Lydia, she told me that she and Marcus are thinking about eloping, can you believe that? She doesn’t want to plan a wedding with me. Apparently, I haveimpossiblestandards and not just when it comes to color schemes and venues. Which makes me feel great, let me tell you.” Mom’s laughter took on a frantic edge. “I just want what’s best for all of you. The best, Elle. I read all these stories about no one being able to retire, that no one can buy a house, and there might be another recession, and it makes me nervous.”
“Look on the bright side, I might not be able to retire butat least I love what I do. I’ll be super happy working until the day I die.”
Elle cringed until Mom chuckled. “I don’t know if that’s supposed to be funny.”
“I don’t know either.” The light turned green and Elle hustled across the street.
“Maybe”—Mom coughed—“at our next brunch, you can tell me more about this consulting you’re doing for OTP. I promise to actually listen this time.”
Elle chewed on the side of her thumbnail, frowning at the brick building but not yet going inside. Brendon was waiting for her, waiting to talk. About what, Elle wasn’t sure, but she’d been having flashes of that stress dream, the one where Brendon ripped up their negotiations.
Contracts had been signed; there’d have to be some massive breach to void them, or else OTP would have to pay her and Margot out. Regardless of the legalities, Brendon wouldn’t be spiteful like that. Then again, what did Elle know? Nothing. Her gut was all wrong, miscalibrated.
Hopefully when this was all said and done there would still be a deal to tell Mom about. “Sure. But right now, I need to go. I’m meeting a friend for coffee.”
