Page 65 of Resisting the Grump

“So you want to work it out?”

“What I want is for the whole thing to have never happened.”

“Which part of the whole thing exactly?”

“I don’t want to get into it.”

She drizzled syrup on her stack of pancakes. “Did he cheat on you?”

“No,” I said. “We weren’t even an official thing…” The potential was there, though. Granted, he was a terrible neighbor, but he was certainly boyfriend material. If our budding romance hadn’t blown up that night, he probably would’ve ended up peeling that negligee off me with his teeth and inviting me to sit on his face.

“Did he hurt someone?”

“Yeah.” Me.

The set of her jaw hardened. “Was he rude to a waiter or something?”

“What? Why would you ask that?”

She shrugged. “I’m trying to guess obvious dealbreakers.”

“Oh.”

“Does he not want to make me a grandma?”

“Okay, that’s enough. I don’t like this game.”

“You’re such a tease,” she said. “Telling me nothing at all.”

I wasn’t a tease for this guy, I wanted to say. I gave it all up. And it was glorious. “Sorry I mentioned it. I know you can’t fix this.”

“I can’t even take your side without any details.”

I scoffed. “Thanks for nothing.”

“You want my two cents?”

I could always count on my mom to have an opinion, especially when it came to things she knew nothing about.

“Forgiveness can fix a lot.”

I shook my head. “Forgiveness makes me feel like a fool.”

“Better a free fool than an imprisoned one.”

“Touché.”

“Forgiveness is ultimately an act of self-love,” she said. “It’s not necessarily something you do for others.”

I took a sip of coffee, knowing she’d take the silence as an invitation to continue.

“It starts with forgiving yourself for the situation you’re in.”

“This situation isn’t my fault.”

“Then you forgive the other person for being instrumental in teaching you a lesson.”

“That’s sounds good, Mom, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to learn from this.”

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