Page 115 of Loathe at First Sight

Walking to the door, I know it’s probably too early for them to be home from the bar, so I grab the key hidden under the frog statue and let myself in.

“Hello?” I call.

When I get no answer, I make my way to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. I have no idea how long I will stay, but right now, the smell of vanilla in the air and all of the photos on the wall are oddly comforting.

The moment I step into the kitchen, I scream at seeing my mom over at the sink, doing dishes. My scream makes her scream and turn around, holding a butter knife toward me.

“Mom!” I squeal.

“Eliza!” She cries, yanking an earbud out of her ear. “Announce yourself!”

“I tried! You didn’t hear me. Do you think maybe you could put down the knife?”

She looks at her outstretched arm before lowering it. “Sorry. I’m listening to some true crime podcast, which I’m sure doesn’t help with my nerves.”

She turns off the water at the sink and wipes her hands on a dish towel. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

“I just…Well, I…I mean.” I search for the words.

“Eliza, spit it out.”

Without warning, I start uncontrollably sobbing.

“Oh my gosh! What’s wrong?”

She walks over to me and embraces me in a warm hug. She may be petite, but the woman gives excellent bear hugs.

“Come on. Let’s go in the living room and talk.”

When my sisters and I were growing up, our mom could see through our crocodile tears in a heartbeat. She would tell us to buck up and stiffen that upper lip. But when we were in serious pain, she always knew.

And she was always there.

“Lizzie, I need you to calm down enough to where you’re able to breathe.”

She finally gets me calm enough to where I can talk.

“Mitch showed up at the inn yesterday,” I begin.

“I’m sorry. What? Does Jack know? Did he kick his ass? Did you videotape it?”

I let out a soft laugh. “Nothing quite like that.”

I spend the next couple minutes explaining to her the whole sordid mess and finally finishing with, “So, now I have to decide what I want to do. I have a huge chunk of money that I don’t even know if I want. I have a job back in LA that I’m also not sure that I want. And then, I have Jack who tells me he wants me to be happy, but I need to figure out what that is on my own.”

“That Jack is something else,” she says.

“Yeah, yeah. He’s the best of all of us.” I say it sarcastically, but after getting to know him, I honestly believe it. “What should I do, Mom?”

“You think that I’m going to make this decision for you?”

“Well, you’re good at telling us what to do. Can’t you just do that again? Just this once?”

She pokes me in the shoulder. “Not a chance. But I’m going to give you a few more things to think about.”

“That’s literally the exact opposite of what I need.”

“Oh, hush. When you saw Mitch yesterday, did it make you nostalgic?”

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