Page 29 of There I Find Patience

I’m coming to see you tonight. Don’t eat supper, I’ll take you to the diner. Do they have anything good?

She read it out loud.

Mark snorted. “If you hadn’t told me that was from your mother, I could’ve guessed.”

They laughed together.

“She is a little bossy, isn’t she?”

“You did not get that from her. Are you sure you weren’t switched at the hospital?”

“I’ve asked myself that more than once over the years.” She flipped the phone over in her hand, trying to figure out what to say. She did not feel like dealing with her mom tonight.

“You look too much like her to not be her daughter. But you must act like your father.”

“I hope not. He didn’t stick around to raise his kids. I don’t want to be like him in anything.”

“Yeah.” Mark’s tone was subdued.

“I wasn’t yelling at you. I’m sorry. I just... I don’t know, I want to be different from both my parents. Even though I love my mom, she’s not my role model.”

“You have a healthy way of looking at it. I think sometimes we don’t just not want to be like them, we don’t want to be with them at all. And you always make time for her. I know you’re trying to figure out how to do that tonight.”

“I’m exhausted.”

“You’re also married.”

“Oh.” She totally forgot about that. “Um, can I say thank you for reminding me?” she said with a smile across the seat at him. She had just about been ready to make a big blunder and not ask Mark what he wanted and also tell her mom that she was too tired to eat and she was going straight to bed or something.

“I guess... I guess if you don’t mind, we’ll have to show up together.” She hadn’t considered any of this. She supposed she thought they just had time, and they would figure things out. “Do we live at my side of the duplex or yours?”

“Mine. The woman always moves in with the man.” He said that in a pseudo-macho voice, so she knew he was joking.

“All right. Is that what you prefer, truly?”

“I guess I don’t care, but if your mom’s gonna stay with you, I suppose I’d rather you and I be sleeping on the other side of a solid wall.”

She laughed. “You know, that’s how I know you actually like me. Because you put up with my mother over the years.”

“It’s been a trial. Although, she does have her moments. I wonder if she was treating both of us to dinner at the diner?”

“I’m going to assume that she was. After all, she knows I’m married now. It’s a two for one at this point.”

“All right. I guess I shouldn’t be nervous. But there is a part of me that’s concerned that I’m going to do something that’s going to tip her off and you’ll end up not getting your inheritance.”

“After you made a lifetime vow to me just so that you could help me get it, I would never in a million years believe that you would do something to try to keep me from it. Not on purpose anyway. And if that happens, I’m just going to assume that it wasn’t meant to be.” Although, she didn’t want to think that God would not want her to inherit the five million that her aunt had left her in her will, but if He threw yet another wrench into the plans, she’d be forced to consider that that was what He actually wanted.

“I guess God couldn’t be more clear, if I go through all this trouble to try to get what is rightfully mine, and He still doesn’t let me have it.”

“And you wouldn’t be mad about that?” Mark asked as he pulled into the drive.

“No. I mean, I’ll be bitterly disappointed. But God is still in charge, and I have to submit to Him.”

Her mom’s car wasn’t in the drive yet, and she breathed a sigh of relief

“All right. It’s good to know that you’re human at least. Sometimes, sometimes I just don’t understand how you can be so chill about things.”

“That’s funny. Out of the two of us, I think anyone who’s looking at us would call you the most chill.”

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