Page 81 of My Almost Ex

Igo out on the deck to call my mom, hoping that the beautiful scenery will keep me in a serenity state when I tell her I’ve reignited the flame with Adam. Although I’m not keen on everyone in town knowing about us, one thing is certain—it won’t stay only our business for long. If my mom hears it from someone else, her wrath will be worse.

She answers on the third ring, which tells me she’s probably busy. The woman usually answers my phone calls in one ring, sometimes half a ring, because she’s so worried about me.

“Lucy?” she answers as though she thinks someone else would be calling from my phone.

“Hey, Mom,” I say.

“How are you? Anything else come back?”

I’m quiet for a moment, knowing I need to find that old part of myself that was strong enough to walk away from my family because of their disapproval. Although I’m hoping this time is different. That we can figure this out.

“Well, I remember my wedding,” I say.

“That’s good.” She says it as if I just said I went on a walk. No inflection in her tone.

“Yeah, and I have some other news.”

“Oh?”

She’s pretending to be bored with the conversation. As though she doesn’t want to hear from me. I have to think she’s acting the same way she did then. Her indifference to what’s going on makes me angry.

“I’m seeing Adam again.”

Dead silence.

“Mom?”

“I’m here,” she says.

I blow out a breath and look at the trees and the mountains, wishing for some peace. “We’ve decided that we’re going to move forward even though my memory hasn’t returned.”

“Hmm.”

“Mom, please say something else.” I roll my eyes because she’s acting like a child.

It takes her a minute to speak. “And what happens when your memory does come back and you realize why you left him? What are you going to do? Run away again?”

“No.” I shake my head although she can’t see me. “I’m going to stay here. Whatever the reason was, it doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve agreed to be truthful with one another. Whatever it is, we’ll work through it.”

“How do you know the reason won’t still be an issue for you?”

I open my mouth and stop for a second. “You sound like you know what the reason is.”

She guffaws. “How would I know, Luce? You told me nothing. I’m just saying it could still come back and be an issue for you both. You’re both playing with your hearts if you think this is some love story gone wrong. You act like you’re naive as to how hard it is to love someone, like Cupid came and shot arrows in you, like nothing bad can happen.” Her voice grows louder.

“We love one another, yes. But we’re not naive. We know how hard we’ll have to work on this.”

“Jesus, Lucy,” she says.

There’s a long beat of deafening silence. I wait it out, denying the part of me that wants to fill it with something. But at this point, my words would only be mean-spirited and I want things to be different this time around.

“Fine. Good luck then. I hope it works out.”

“Doesn’t sound like you actually feel that way.”

“What do you want me to say? This is why I didn’t want you in that town. They swallow you up and before you know it, you’re drinking the Greene family Kool-Aid!” she yells.

A bunch of birds fly out of a tree near me. I wish I could fly away with them.

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