Page 19 of The Man in Mom's Bed
It rings again, and again, and again, until finally, I turn my phone off completely. The silence is louder than any ringtone.
Love. Love and agony, twisting around together inside me like two snakes fighting for survival. This is self-evisceration. A calculated amputation of my own heart. I know I have to let her go, but doing so might just kill me.
But Katie will be all right. She’ll heal, go to college, make friends, and build a life that’s beyond the one I can give her. She’ll look back on this blip in her life and realize how lucky she was to have escaped.
And I’ll have the garage. The dream I had built in my mind before she entered my world. And that should be enough.
It has to be…
Because the alternative—staying with Katie, forcing her to give up her scholarship—that’s not love.
That’s just a new kind of prison, and I’ve already helped her escape one of those.
I won’t build her another.
9
KATIE
Three days.Seventy-two hours. Four thousand, three hundred and twenty minutes of existing in this aluminum cage that used to be my home. My mother clanks dishes in the sink, still moving victoriously. She thinks I came home because I wanted to. She doesn’t know I’m just here because I have no other choice.
She hums off-key, a smug performance of maternal satisfaction. Everything feels smaller now. The walls closer, the ceilings lower, like I’ve grown too large for this space, the trailer no longer able to contain the woman I’ve become.
Cameron’s ring still sits heavily on my finger, hidden beneath the long sleeve of my sweater. A secret. A promise he made, pointing toward the life that’s no longer mine. A life I refuse to surrender.
“Glad you got your head on straight,” my mom says, leaning against the counter with her morning glass of wine. “Go to that college today and check it out. Forget that good for nothing man.”
Every one of her words feels like poison wrapped in a guise of affection.
I force myself to nearly smile. Better than starting yet another fight. “Maybe I’ll visit tomorrow.”
Her eyes flash with a victory she hasn’t really won. Inside, I’m already planning. Building my escape route with the same methodical precision Cam used to draw the blueprints of his new shop.
The campus sprawlsbefore me like a series of photographs taken professionally for its website. A montage of possibilities. Weathered brick buildings, students laughing over coffee, their biggest concern their next exam and not whether their parents’ welfare check will be delayed.
For a moment, I imagine myself being here. Walking these paths, sitting in the lecture halls, becoming someone who I never truly thought I could be. A smile manages to work its way across my face.
This place—it’s everything I ever wanted. But it doesn’t feel right. Not without him.
A couple passes, their fingers intertwined, causing a pang in my heart. I remember Cameron’s hands, permanently stained from days of honest work, callused and rough as they caressed my body. A man who built something from nothing.
And like his dream for his garage, my dream of a scholarship is no longer a dream—it’s a reality. A tool I can use in life but not an aspiration that defines me.
I take a seat on a bench and glance down at the acceptance packet on my lap, then reach into my pocket and pull out a tiny slip of paper from Cam’s garage. It has my writing on it. I was running some numbers for him. And that’s when an idea begins to form in my mind.
Maybe I can have both. The education I’ve always dreamt ofandthe man I fell in love with.
“Yeah…why can’t I?”
My fingers move slowly as I dial Cam’s number. My heart beats heavily with each ring, but as I expected, there’s no answer.
I call again.Pick up, Cam!
Still nothing.
I stand and stuff my things into my bag. Fine. If he won’t answer, I’ll go find him and make him talk to me.
The drive to Cam’s garage feels like a collection of heartbeats rather than a journey across miles. No music—my thoughts are loud enough. This is his fault. He’s the one who taught me to fight for what you want, to never let anyone tell you you can’t have it. And that’s what I’m doing now. Fighting. Not just for myself, but forus. For the future we deserve.
