Page 32 of No One Like You

“If I live with Daddy, will I have to go to school?”

“Yes, sweetie. You aren’t getting out of school that easy.”

“Okay.” Sophia pouted, but Megan could see that her heart wasn’t in it.

“Thank you for talking with me, Sophia. After dinner, would you like to go roller skating again?”

“Yes! That sounds fun. Mommy, can I play roller derby?”

“I might need to talk to your dad about that, but if you want to play, then I am okay with you playing.”

“Do they have roller derby at our other home?”

“You mean where your dad lives? Let me look.” Megan pulled out her phone and searched. “The closest roller derby league to your dad is in Bend, and that is still a long drive. It looks like they have a junior roller derby team, but it doesn’t start until age ten.”

“Oh, okay.”

“What do you think, Sophia?” Megan said. “Should I try out for roller derby?”

“Mom! That would be so cool!”

“Who knows, maybe one day we could play roller derby together.”

“That would be awesome! What about you, Aunt Tasha?”

“Your Aunt Tasha is happy to go roller skating with you, sweetie, but I messed up my knee playing soccer in college. I’m not sure that it would be safe for me to play roller derby. But I will always come watch you, okay?”

“Okay! I love you, Aunt Tasha!”

“I love you, too, Sophia.”

CHAPTER 22

VENUS

Monday morning seemed to come far too soon. The teacher’s strike had ended over the weekend and school was starting back up, with a two-hour delay on the first day back. All four of them woke up when Tasha’s alarm went off. Megan looked across the red mop of Sophia’s hair and said good morning to Tasha. “Did I keep you awake with my snoring?” she asked with mock petulance.

“Good morning, and no. You only snored like a small bear last night, so I slept just fine.”

Megan grunted at that, then poked her daughter. “Come on, sleepyhead. Let’s get ourselves going. Just remember that we need to let Aunt Tasha get ready because she has to leave first, okay?”

There were a series of unintelligible mumbles from under the blankets, but Sophia did start to move. What followed was a whirlwind of activity as three humans and one cat got ready for the day. Nocturne was by far the easiest, as she just needed her breakfast and then an energetic round of post-poop-zoomies before she was ready for a long day of napping. The three humans engaged in a delicate dance to share one bathroom, get breakfast, get dressed, and then get out the door.

Megan walked Sophia to school, where she saw the principal greeting students as they returned to school for the first time since Halloween. They had a brief conversation, and the principal promised to keep an eye out for Sophia that day to make sure that she settled in okay. Feeling better, Megan headed downtown to the Portland Public Schools main offices. She arrived to find an ugly orangish-pink building whose architectural style could best be described as a bureaucratic blockhouse.

She got her paperwork squared away with HR and her photo taken at security. As a teacher transferring within the state, she was already background-checked and had all of her qualifications, so the whole process was mostly painless. After waiting a bit for her new ID badge, Megan was ready to go. Tasha had been right about PPS’ desperate need for substitutes—she already had an assignment booked at McDaniel High School the next day.

During the wait for her ID badge, Megan dug Maria’s card out of her purse and called her number. Maria greeted her warmly, and she kindly offered to buy Megan lunch. “Don’t even worry about it, I can write it off as a business expense,” Maria said. They met for lunch at Dar Salam, an Iraqi restaurant. Megan took Maria’s suggestion to start with the adis soup, which turned out to be excellent.

Over the course of their meal, Megan and Maria discussed her divorce and what Megan’s goals were. Maria made sure to emphasize that giving Sophia a choice could end with Sophia choosing Brad. Throughout the meal, Maria kept up a steady stream of questions, probing Megan’s goals and concerns, all the while taking copious notes. At the end, she tore off a sheet of paper and handed it to Megan, saying, “These are the outstanding questions that I need you to answer. I know it seems like a lot, but it isn’t really. I know your primary goals and requests. It’s unusual, but not unheard of. I hope that all of this can be settled amicably, but that decision lies with your soon-to-be ex-husband.”

“Thank you, Maria. And, thank you for lunch.”

“You are quite welcome. I really enjoyed meeting Sophia at the party. I’m having a similar event for Christmas, and you both are invited. All three of you, actually. Please pass along my invitation to Tasha. I trust that the two of you are still getting along well.”

“Very well, and thank you for the invitation. That sounds wonderful!”

“Again, you are very welcome. The Christmas party should be a grand time.” Maria checked her watch. “I do have to run, though. I have a meeting with another client soon.”

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