Page 39 of No One Like You

“Yes.” Megan impulsively stood up and bolted for the door. She mouthed, “your mom” at Tasha before she shoved her phone into Tasha’s hand.

“Hello?”

Megan could faintly hear Estelle’s voice answer.

“Momma… I missed you, too.”

Megan quietly backed away, leaving the two of them to reconnect, hoping that she had done the right thing.

CHAPTER 25

THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

About an hour later, Megan and Sophia headed out for roller skating. Tasha wearily handed over Megan’s phone and said, “You two have fun.” She added, “Megan, can we talk later? It’s okay, I just need to talk.”

“Yeah, Tasha. Of course. Alright, let’s go, sweetheart.”

“Bye, Aunt Tasha!”

“Bye, munchkin.”

Megan did her best to have a good time roller skating with Sophia. She wouldn’t normally keep her out this late on a school night, but she figured that Tasha might need some space right now. She was also worried that she might have done the wrong thing by putting Tasha and Estelle on the phone together. At least part of the reason for keeping Sophia out late was her anxiety about Tasha’s reaction.

When they finally got home, Sophia was already half-asleep, which made getting into bed easier in some ways and harder in others. Once that was accomplished, she nervously went out and sat with Tasha.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, I think.”

“Uh oh. Any time I told Brad I was fine, I was never fine.”

“No, it’s good. Really. I’ll admit that I was taken aback when you shoved your phone in my hand. But… thank you for doing that. Momma and I have both been so stubborn about this. I don’t know if we would have talked any other way.”

“I’m sorry, Tasha. I shouldn’t have forced that on you. You told me how you haven’t talked with your parents in years and I should have respected that, but I was talking with your mom and she sounded like she really missed you but couldn’t see her own way to reaching out to you, so I just?”

Tasha held up her hand to stop her. “Megan, really, it’s good. Momma and I had a good talk. I missed her so much, but was too stubborn to pick up the phone… Megan, I told her about dating… about dating women. About me dating women.”

Megan grabbed Tasha’s hands and squeezed.

“She didn’t say anything for a minute when I told her. I thought I had ruined everything again. And then Momma told me it was okay. She told me that she didn’t care about any of that, just so long as I found happiness and love.”

“That’s amazing, Tasha. That was very brave of you!”

“Thank you. I almost chickened out.”

“You didn’t, though. You were honest, and I know that your mom respects that.”

“I feel like such an idiot. We missed so much time because of stupid pride. I talked to Dad for a bit, too. It was so nice to reconnect with both of them.”

“That’s so good to hear, Tasha.”

“And now I’m in this weird place where I’m happy and sad at the same time. But, how was your talk with Momma?”

“It was really helpful for me. Your parents are so cute! It’s different, but I also feel like I’ve wasted so much time.”

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