Page 14 of Substitute for Love

“Do you need a ride?”

Oh, who cares.Her feet needed a break. She silently made her way around to the passenger side and got in. The truck lurched forward and made a weird noise.

“How old is this thing?”

“Old Cleopatra?” He patted the dashboard. “Probably as old as me. Found her out in the desert. Fixed her up. Isn’t she a beaut?”

She shook her head. Cleopatra was pretty beat up. Looked like it could fall apart any minute. “Totally. A beaut.” She couldn’t help but smile at his pride for his truck. Gabe stole a glance, so she stopped smiling. “You named your truck Cleopatra?”

“I kind of have a thing for ancient Egypt.”

She raised her eyebrows. Curious. Gabe had a passion in life. That was refreshing. Marshall’s only passion in life was mooching off of Avery then not being there when she needed him. She had thought her encouragement could help him, but he was always between jobs or semesters. Even when Marshall was at their place, she was lonely.

“I’m over there.” She pointed and their short ride was over. “Thanks for the ride. And for helping during third period.” Slowly she opened the door.

“And for unlocking your door? It’s not easy being a hero.”

“Uh huh,” Avery scoffed as she slipped out of the truck. He certainly made it look easy. Once she was in her car, Gabe waved and drove away. What was his deal? If he had passions in life, she wanted to know more about him. She was half-tempted to follow him. Which was stalkerish, and hadn’t she already followed Marshall to Flagstaff? That hadn’t turned out well.

Still, there was something about Gabe that intrigued her.

After a quick stop at the grocery store, she pulled into the driveway of Mom’s house. Not the house she grew up in, rather the rental Mom got after Dad had left. Which was when Avery was in high school. He hadn’t been around much her whole childhood. He was a truck driver, so was in a different city all the time and didn’t try to come home much, and it hadn’tchanged when he left. Then they lost the house, Mom ended up working two jobs, and after a while the stress of being on her feet all the time led to needing foot surgery. Which ended up making things worse, so now Mom was waiting for another surgery to fix the first one. It was a mess.

Avery hated thinking ill of anyone, especially her dad, but his actions had caused Mom pain. Now all Avery wanted to do was take care of her.

“I’m home!” She placed the grocery bags on the kitchen counter then went to find Mom dozing on the recliner in the living room.

“Oh, hey honey.” Mom stretched. “How was your first day of subbing?”

“Pretty good, I think,” Avery replied. Except third period, which she didn’t want to worry her mother about. “How are you feeling?”

Mom looked at her foot, which was elevated and in a boot. “Sleepy. I sit here all day, but am somehow still exhausted.”

Avery headed back to the kitchen. “Your body is healing. Sleep is good. How does chicken fettuccine alfredo sound for dinner?”

“Oh, my favorite,” Mom replied.

When the food was set on the table, Avery helped Mom limp over to the kitchen and sit in the chair next to hers.

“I wondered how subbing went, because your Aunt Janice said they need help at the chiropractic office,” Mom said in between bites of dinner.

Avery stopped twirling noodles with her fork. “No way. I’m not going back there. It’s so boring.”

Her mom sighed heavily. “Yeah, I know. But it’s a paycheck. It’s only part-time though. So I told her you’d have to think about it.”

After a few more bites of noodles, Avery added, “Oh, I forgot. I finally heard back from the library. They want me to come in for an interview on Friday.”

“Oh, that’s great! That would be the perfect job for you. But what about subbing?”

“I don’t know. It’s definitely not boring. I’m still getting used to it. The faculty seems nice. Some were even downright heroic,” she snarked.

“Is that so?” Mom wrinkled her nose.

“Oh, it was nothing. Just another substitute helping me out.” She didn’t know what to make of Gabe, but she wouldn’t mind bumping into him again. Even though she’d make sure things stayed platonic. It was too soon since her break-up to jump into anything so soon. Plus, she needed to focus on Mom and work.

Mom set her hand on Avery’s. “I want to tell you how proud I am of you. I know it wasn’t easy to come home and take care of me and help out with paying bills. I’d rather be helping you.” Mom smiled and her soft eyes glowed as she teared up.

Avery wrapped her arms around her. “Oh, Mom. It was an easy decision. We gotta stick together.” Since Dad had left, Avery had made a promise to herself to always be there for Mom. Only, she let Marshall get in the way. Guilt swept over her. If only she could go back in time, she would have done things differently.

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