Page 31 of Bourbon and Bluebells

“I’m all right. As well as can be expected, anyway.”

Alyssa closed her eyes if only to stop herself from rolling them. “Why, what’s wrong?” she asked as she knew she was expected to.

“Oh, nothing much. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to worry about me. You’ve got your fabulous life and your fabulous job going on over there. You don’t need to be bothered with my problems.”

Alyssa gripped the phone tight as she went and flopped down on the sofa. Guilt trips had always been her mum’s thing. And she’d further perfected the art since Arthur had died.

“Tell me.”

“Well, if you really want to know …”

As she launched into her tirade against what seemed to be every person she’d interacted with since their last phone call, Alyssa rested her head back on the arm of the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.

Her mum had always been this way. She was just one of those people who saw the worst in everyone. She perceived a slight in what seemed to be every interaction she had. And she always expected the worst.

Alyssa smiled to herself when she remembered something her dad had said. He’d said that, back when he’d known her, she’d seemed to be more upbeat. But he’d said that in all his dealings with her since he’d gotten to know Alyssa, she seemed to have a problem for every solution.

It was a fair description. She didn’t even feel disloyal thinking it. She might have known and lived with her mum all her life, but if she was honest with herself, she felt more loyalty toward her dad.

She’d only gotten to know him since she came to America to go to university. And even then, her mum and Arthur had told her that he was just a family friend. They told her that he’d offered to help her out with anything that she needed and to be a kind of guardian or mentor of sorts. It had felt like a strange arrangement, but she’d been grateful to him even then. Having grown up in a small town in the Midlands of England, it had been reassuring to know when she came to California all by herself that she had an adult she could turn to if she needed one.

The first few times that she’d met him in person, she’d really liked him. They’d struck up a tentative friendship, and she’d known right from the beginning that he really would be there forher if she needed him. That had been strange in itself, since she’d never felt that way about her mum and Arthur.

Arthur had died not long before Alyssa graduated from UC Davis. She’d gone home for the funeral, and to comfort her mum. But when her mum had finally confessed that Arthur wasn’t her biological father, and that Russ was, Alyssa hadn’t felt bad about leaving her mum home alone while she came back to continue with her studies. Since then, she’d gotten to know and grown to love her dad.

As she listened to her mum drone on with all her negativity, she realized that she barely knew her. She’d never say that she didn’t love her, but they’d never been all that close, and whatever bond they had shared had been irreparably damaged by her mum’s choices.

“Don’t you think?”

Alyssa sat up, realizing that she hadn’t been paying much attention to whatever her mum was saying.

“Are you still there?”

“Yes, mum, I’m still here. But I’m going to have to go soon.” It wasn’t that she had anything pressing that she needed to do, it was just that she wanted to get off the phone.

“Okay. I’ll let you go then. But don’t forget to send me photos of your new place when you move in.” She let out a short laugh. “And don’t forget that I like purple.”

“Purple?” Alyssa had no idea what she was talking about.

“Yes, purple. For my room.”

Alyssa bit down on her bottom lip. She’d told her mum before that she planned to use the spare room in her new apartment as an office. Her mum had insisted that she should buy a bed for it,and a dresser and nightstand – since she planned to visit much more often in the future.

Alyssa was more interested in getting her off the phone than getting into an argument.

“That place is much bigger than where you are now, Lizzie. And with your new business, you’re going to be busy. You could hire me as a live-in housekeeper, you know.”

Alyssa shuddered. She couldn’t imagine anything worse. “You know you can’t work here, Mum. You don’t have a green card or a visa or anything. “

“I could get a visa, though. If you hired me. I’ve been looking into it.”

“I’m sorry Mum, I’ve got to go I have another call coming in. It’s work.”

“Oh well, okay. Call me back when you’re done.”

“It’ll be too late for you by then. I’ll call you again soon, okay?”

“Okay, but make sure you do. We need to make plans. One way or another I’m coming to see you again soon.” Her mum laughed. “You can introduce me to your new clients. If I meet a nice, wealthy American, you wouldn’t need to hire me. I could get a green card by marriage.”

---