Page 17 of The Snowball Effect

Her gram had always thrived on stability. She’d kept the same schedule for Emma’s entire life, only deviating when life necessitated an emergency. She’d liked to talk to her small handful of friends who’d all lived in the building Emma had grown up in, she’d liked to go to her job as the head administrator at Rettol Academy, and she’d enjoyed indulging inher hobbies – cards, gardening, and knitting – during her free time.

When she’d had her first massive heart attack nearly four years ago, she’d been sixty-six, and while she’d eventually made a full recovery – thankgod– her healing process had necessitated somewhat of a forced retirement. And with that forced retirement had come Sheryl’s loss of ability to pay the rent in the apartment she’d lived in for nearly forty years, even when Emma had been paying her own portion of rent and bills.

She’d resolutely demanded that Emma, who’d already been working full-time to slowly put herself through undergrad with as little debt as possible,notquit school to take on more work.

Instead, they’d both left the apartment. Emma had found herself sharing her shitty little place with her roommates, and her gram had found a studio that she’d beenjustbeen able to afford.

And that had worked… for a little while. Her grandmother had adjusted to her new life – away from her social network, out of the job she’d had since she’d been in her twenties – but she’d managed.

Until four months ago, when she’d had her second heart attack.

This one had been even worse than the first, and she’d been in the hospital for nearly a month.

She’d vehemently resisted going to Primrose Grove, citing that she wasn’t even old enough for “that place” yet.

This was somewhat true; her grandmother was only seventy, and she was one of the youngest residents here.

But Emma knew her grandmother. And she knew she’d been terrified of moving into a brand new locale, surrounded by brand new people and routines.

Emma had felt fucking terrible about it – shestilldid – but the reality was that her gram needed to live somewhere that hadmedical staff on-site, and Emma was far from a place in her life where she could afford to provide something like that for the woman who’d raised her.

She wished things were different, but they weren’t. So mostly, she wished her grandmother, who’d never been comfortable pushing outside of her comfort zone, could somehow find a way to slip into making some friends. To find something that would make living here enjoyable.

“Maybe we could take a look at the events calendar when we swing through the lobby?” She suggested. “They might have something going on that you’d like?”

Gram hesitated ever so briefly before she shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she murmured before she cleared her throat and aimed a very direct look at Emma. “You know, little lady, I’d like to talk aboutyourather thanmefor a while. How about that?”

Emma couldn’t help but scoff out a smile at thelittle ladynickname that her gram had used for her entire life. Even when Emma had hit her growth spurt at thirteen and stood a solid six inches taller than the short, slight older woman ever since. “What do you want to know?”

“First of all, I want to know how you’re feeling. You keep looking at me like my health is in question, butyouwere in the hospital far more recently than I was!”

Emma’s eyes rolled involuntarily as she thought about her almond flour-induced allergic reaction last week. “Yeah, I guess so,” she grumbled, narrowing her eyes at Regan’s total disregard for her roommate contract.

Like, whosaidthey read a roommate contract, and said they agreed to abide by it, only to be a total fucking liar?!

She wished she could say she was shocked by it, but unfortunately, given that this was Regan she was dealing with, she wasn’t.

Shaking her head, she grit her teeth, and looked at her grandmother. “But I’m one hundred percent okay, haven’t had any other issues since that night. Good as new.”

The one andonlything she would give to Regan was that she had insisted on handling all of Emma’s hospital bills, including the ambulance. Emma hadn’t wanted to call one, knowing the hefty charge she’d receive for it after the fact, and she’d been fairly certain that after her first epinephrine dose, she could reasonably take the subway to the closest hospital; it wasn’t very far.

Regan had called the ambulance, anyway, gently keeping her hand on Emma’s shoulder to keep her sitting at their kitchen table.

She supposed that paying exorbitant hospital fees to someone like Regan, who had a hefty trust fund to rely on, wasn’t such a big deal.

Her gram studied her closely. “All right; I trust you to be able to take care of yourself.”

Emma nodded, feeling that sense of pride at knowing she had her grams’ trust. It had been something she’d felt honored by since she’d been a teenager.

As they turned another corner, Emma spotted the pair of women she’d hoped to find on their walk. As far as she’d seen, there were six other women who were under eighty, all of whom seemed to clique up in different permutations. Two of them seemed to always be chatty and in good spirits whenever Emma saw them – typically in the large, communal kitchen – and she’d been subtly trying to nudge Gram toward them for months, now.

She tilted her head toward them. “Oh, hey – have you chatted with those ladies yet? We could go over and see what they have going on?”

Her grandmother looked at them for several beats before she looked back at Emma and shook her head. “No, little lady, I don’t think so. Not today.”

Before Emma could even try to insist, her gram asked, “Have you made any plans with your mom yet? She said she may be coming by this evening.”

Ugh, Emma felt the question land in her stomach like she’d swallowed a lead weight. She was immediately thankful she’d come to hang out with Gram early, so she could easily leave before the evening.

---