Page 38 of Hot Blooded

“No?” Tessa guessed.

“No, she did not,” Ma answered, gesturing emphatically with the spatula.

Her chatter went on throughout breakfast. Tessa finished off her eggs and toast in relative silence, putting in a word only when her participation was necessary for what was otherwise intended as a monologue. When she and Ma had both finished eating, Tessa cleaned up the breakfast mess while Ma’s chatter went on.

Standing at the sink, Tessa yawned loudly, interrupting Ma’s story about the payroll clerk’s secret desk stash of THC gummies.

“Well,” Ma said archly. “I see it was a late night.”

“They’re all late nights for me. This is my normal bedtime. You know that.”

“Don’t let me keep you, then,” Ma huffed.

“Alright, I won’t,” Tessa answered, unable to keep her impatience in check. Instantly a flash of guilt made her say, “Sorry. I’m tired.”

Ma regarded her with wounded dignity. “I know you are. Sleep tight, then.”

Upstairs, Tessa pulled her curtains shut and dropped gratefully into her bed.

“Tessa. Baby. Wake up, quick. Tessa. Honey. Teresa!”

Tessa jerked awake, bleary and alarmed. “What?” she asked urgently, sitting bolt upright.

Ma was sitting on the edge of her bed, phone held out to Tessa. “Look at this.”

“What? Why?” Tessa took the phone, brain still foggy, and looked down. It took her a second to realize what she was looking at—someone’s big toe, with an overgrown yellow nail and pretty obvious inflammation on one side of the nail bed.

“Aunt Stacia wants to know if that looks infected. Should she go to the doctor?”

Tessa rubbed at her eyes. “You woke me up to show me Aunt Stacia’s ingrown toenail?” She wasn’t awake enough to keep the aggravation out of her voice.

“She needs a professional medical opinion,” Ma answered defensively.

“Ma, it’s noon. It’s basically the middle of the night for me.”

“It’s not the middle of the night.” Ma gestured at the bright light glowing around her closed curtains.

“No, it’s not,” Tessa agreed through gritted teeth. “Because in the actual middle of the night, I am usually working. So I sleep during the day. Ergo, noon is the equivalent of midnight for me. What if I woke you up at midnight to ask you for office administration advice? You’d bite my head off.”

Ma got up from the bed, wrapping her cardigan around herself with dignified affront. “Excuse me for asking you to spare two minutes for your aunt’s health.”

Tessa wanted to scream. She managed not to by curling her hands into fists until her knuckles ached. “If it throbs and it’s hot to the touch, tell Aunt Stacia to go to the walk-in clinic. They can remove the ingrown portion of the nail. She might need an antibiotic if it’s infected.”

“Thank you. Was that so hard?” Ma said as she left the room.

Tessa flopped back down on her bed, willing away the aggravation so that she could fall back asleep. She had just closed her eyes when the door swung open again.

“One more quick question,” Ma said, “And don’t bite my head off. Are you working on Saturday?”

“Saturday? Yes. Why?”

“There’s going to be a party for Uncle Leo’s birthday. He’s turning sixty. Aunt Debbie booked a hall—”

“Ma, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? There’s no way I can get off work with this short of notice.”

“Can’t you trade shifts with somebody?”

“No. That’s not how it works.”

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