Page 26 of Through the Snow Globe
“That’s not the point.” Addy looked up. Her cheeks had a ruddy hue now. “Old people are always talking about the future. Don’t you get that I’m stuck in today and today sucks?”
“Yeah. I get it.” Diana was quiet for a moment, scared to say anything more and make matters worse.
“Prove it,” Addy sniffled. “Tell me one thing about your life that sucks.”
Diana could choose from a mile-long list. Her fiancé was in a coma. They’d fought before his accident because Diana wasn’t ready to get married yet. She’d been pushing off the planning because of a promotion at work she didn’t even get. Instead, it had gone to the least experienced and most obnoxious person on the company’s payroll. Oh, and one of her patients had called her curt on the one and only Glow Card she’d ever received.
Diana met Addy’s gaze in the mirror. “The heater in my apartment is on the fritz.” At least it was true. The thermostat reading never got over sixty no matter how high Diana set it for.
“Oh.” Addy seemed to deflate, her body shrinking smaller somehow. “For a moment, I thought you were actually going to be real with me. Whatever.”
Diana’s mouth fell open. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, I thought you were going to drop the whole ice-queen thing.”
“I’m your physical therapist, Addy. Not your friend.”
Addy’s face scrunched up again. “Burn,” she mumbled.
“I didn’t mean it that way, okay?” Diana hoped Addy wasn’t about to start crying again.
“Sure, you did. No one wants to be my friend because my hair is falling out and soon I’ll be bald, and my former best friend will be dating my ex-boyfriend.” She stood on wobbly legs, pushing the chair out and knocking it into Diana’s midsection. Then she turned and headed toward her bed.
Diana followed close behind in case she fell. “Addy, I’m sorry. I just meant that I’m not here to share my life story with you. I’m here for you, not me. I’m a professional.”
Addy plopped onto her bed facedown. “Get your stupid heater fixed, but I doubt that’ll warm you up. You need a heart to be warm,Elsa.”
“Addy . . .” Diana sat on the bed next to the girl. Teenage years were hard without the added stress of a cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy. At Addy’s age, Diana had thought life pretty much sucked too. She was living with Grandma Denny and waiting for her mom to come by for the holidays because that was the only time Jackie Merriman seemed to remember that Diana existed. Her mom had forgotten the year that Diana was sixteen, though. It had been tough, and Grandma Denny’s only comforting words were tosuck it upanddry your eyes.
“I’m sorry about your hair,” Diana said gently. “And your friend, who doesn’t sound like a great friend at all if she’s making a play for your crush.”
Addy rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling again. “Jay was more than a crush. He was my boyfriend.”
“He broke up with you?” Diana asked, treading lightly.
“No. He’s just ghosting me. And so is Sierra. Rebecca told me that she saw Sierra eating lunch with Jay yesterday, so . . .” A tear streamed down Addy’s cheek.
Diana resisted wiping the girl’s tear away. “What does your mom say?”
Addy rolled her eyes, dislodging another tear that she quickly swiped away with the back of her hand. “My mom is so focused on my cancer. It’s all she can think about. She says she doesn’t want to hear me complain about”—Addy’s voice changed to a deeper version as she mocked her mom’s words—“something as superficial as hair when my life is hanging in the balance.” Addy blew out a breath. “It’s like, suddenly, all I am is a girl with cancer.”
Diana reached out and touched Addy’s arm. “You’re more than that.”
Addy sniffled quietly. “You say that now, but you’re just like everyone else. All I am to you is your patient. That’s why you don’t tell me about yourself. We’re not friends. This is all business for you.”
“That’s hardly fair,” Diana said, even though the truth punched her in the gut. She did care about Addy, but her actions weren’t showing that. Maybe she really was a curt therapist.
Addy blew up a breath to dry her eyes. “Well, in my experience, nothing in life is fair.”
* * *
“Ouch!” Rochelle said on the phone as Diana left Addy’s home and recapped what the girl had said. “Being called an ice queen is harsh. But not completely out of line.”
“I thought you were on my side,” Diana lamented.
“I am. And I’m looking forward to birthday drinks tonight to celebrate another year of me,” Rochelle said with an excited rise to her voice.
“About that.” Guilt knotted Diana’s stomach. Rochelle had been less than pleased the first time Diana had canceled on their birthday drink tradition. What could she do, though? There was no room for alcoholic beverages today.
