Page 10 of The Attraction File

FIVE

Evaleen

That was love. In its purest form.

The scent of my mother’s beef vegetable soup surrounded me as I emerged from the second-floor stairwell and into the hallway on a very cold Friday night. The warm prickly feeling that reminded me of everything wonderful from my youth ran down my neck and covered my body. It propelled me closer to the door of my apartment. When I opened it, the smell intensified and I salivated at its deliciousness.

“Lucy, I’m home,” I announced in my best Cuban accent.

I laughed every time I said that. My roommate, who happened to be my mom, was named Lucy. I Love Lucy, get it? Well, I thought it was funny.

“I’m in the kitchen.” Her voice mixed with the aroma, beckoning me.

Putting down my brown leather work bag, I shrugged off the cocoon-like black winter coat I named Big Earl. After placing everything away, I went into the kitchen and melted into the bar stool at the edge of the black granite island counter.

I LOVED my mom’s beef vegetable soup. It’s home. It’s hearty. It warmed my bones on those cold Chicago days. And, it was the perfect elixir for the rough week I had.

“Hey, I never got a chance to ask you. Did your boss, Mr. Mimir, accept the undercover idea about Morgana?” My mom stood in front of the stove stirring the pot in front of her.

I rolled my eyes because of Payne’s stupid idea.

“Surprisingly, yes he did. When Payne came up with that excuse as to why Morgana was working at RT Mitchell and not still at Mimir, I thought for sure Mr. Mimir would find the idea ludicrous. But, he nodded as if he completely understood.”

My mom turned, grabbing two white ceramic bowls from the counter and began ladling soup. “Great. So, did you tell her last night like you wanted to?”

“Yeah.” My eyes slid from her bright blue eyes as she turned to place a steaming bowl in front of me. She came around the kitchen island and sat beside me placing her bowl down.

“Just yeah? You were so eager to help her get her job back. From what you told me about Morgana she seems like a really sweet and smart woman.”

I groaned. Sometimes I hated that I told my mom everything. Well, not every single thing. There was one thing no one knew about, even her.

“I told her last night at the SWIM Meet but I had to lie,” I held up my thumb and index finger, “just a little. I told her I never wrote her up for what happened between her and Payne when I caught them, but I did.”

“Sometimes, Evaleen, we have to say or do things we don’t want to in order to protect them. I can’t say it’s a good thing to lie, but if it protects your friend, maybe it was for the best. Besides, I know you would never do anything to hurt someone.” She smiled and patted my back. “Anything else bothering you?”

I shook my head between bites of the roll I grabbed from the bread bowl that was in the middle of the island. As honest as I was with my mother I wasn’t ready to discuss how I spent the entire week avoiding Edgar since he came to me Thursday last week. Despite Edgar’s best efforts to discuss Ashton with me I ran from him every chance I got. Only responding to him via email.

My mother doesn’t need to know about my cowardly ways. Plus, she would just think I was being paranoid because I reached out to my contacts about Ashton. They told me none of his neighbors had seen him in weeks.

“Hmm.”

I knew that sound all too well. Having no father in the picture growing up, at least no one who acted like a father, my mother was the only constant presence in my life. She held me when I woke from a nightmare when I was little and gave me plenty of time-outs when I sassed her or anyone else as a kid. She was my mother and father, the nurturer and the disciplinarian, the good cop and the bad cop.

She was good at it, so much so that just one humming sound told me everything.

“Really, nothing is bothering me. I’m not going to argue with you about this for the millionth time, Mom. I love my job.”

She turned on her stool to face me and placed her hand on my arm. “I’m not saying you don’t. You are doing what you went to college for. I remember how nervous you were five years ago before the interview at Mimir. Then how equally excited you were when they called you the next day to tell you that you got the job.”

I put down my spoon and smiled. “No thanks to you and your boyfriend at the time. Who was that . . . Paul?”

My mom’s cheeks flushed with the memory. “No, it was Ronald. I miss Ronald.”

“Oh, yeah, the gymnast.”

Her cheeks flushed. “He even placed on the Olympic team but got an ankle injury that took him out. Anyway, I just think with the other work you do, you seem happier. That’s all I’m saying.”

Not wanting to talk about my work I decide to turn the subject back to her. “It’s too bad he had to move to Italy for that coaching job.”

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