Page 83 of Someone Just Like You

Insisting she sit down, I retrieved the platter of homemade mandelbrot, which was basically the Jewish version of biscotti, and placed it on the round glass coffee table.

From the armchair, Nani jutted her chin toward me. “Are you ready to tell me what’s troubling you or do you need more liquor?”

Since my career was less sensitive than my love life, I started with my current predicament at work. After I summed up the situation, I said, “I always check who else works at any company I’ve taken on as a client. Except the one time I let Michael into my head, I got lazy and sent out résumés relying on old information and now I don’t know what to do about Romero. Do I tell him about my experience with Maxine after cheering him on through two interviews, or do I feign ignorance and take the risk he either won’t get the job or she’ll be nicer to him than she was to me?”

Nani sipped from her mug. “What does your gut say?”

“It says it’s a huge risk.” I plucked a cookie from the plate. “I get that not everyone is going to love their jobs. It’s why it’s called work, blah, blah, blah. But at bare minimum, they should have a hospitable workplace, not one where they’re so tense, they look just as forward to an offensive co-worker or client’s vacation days as they do their own.” I took an aggressive chomp of my mandelbrot.

Nani nodded in sympathetic understanding. “It must have been awful for you at the law firm.”

My mouth full, I said, “It was!” before my good manners intervened, and I chewed and swallowed. “As a recruiter, I’m responsible for matching employer with employee and have some control over where my candidates gain employment. I’ll be damned if I knowingly place Romero in a bad situation without his knowledge and then pocket the commission.”

Nani leaned back in her chair. “There’s your answer.”

I glanced around the room. “Where?”

She chuckled. “You said it yourself. If you refuse to profit from putting your client in a bad situation without his knowledge, whatcanyou do?”

My breathing slowed. “I can tell Romero about my experience with Maxine, acknowledging it might not behisexperience with her, and let him decide for himself?”

Nani’s blue eyes twinkled. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

I giggled. “The latter.” I beamed at her. “I think I needed to talk it out, so thank you for listening.”

She regarded me with obvious affection. “You’re a shaina maidel, Molly Blum. Always have been.”

My face warmed at the compliment. “Thank you. I only wish being a good girl was always enough.” I took a gulp of coffee too fast to relish the chocolate flavor from the liquor and frowned into my now-empty mug.

Nani knitted her brows and extended the bottle of Bailey’s toward me. “Enough for what?”

I raised my mug for another shot. “To keep my parents from separating, for one. Like the last time.”

Her reaction was a blank look.

I sighed and slunk into the couch cushion. “Right before Dad moved out when we were kids, I overheard them fighting. It wasn’t about him not helping around the house enough or how much sex they weren’t having…” My cheeks burned like I’d guzzled a package of Red Hots candy, but Nani didn’t blink. “It was about us—their daughters—basically how difficult we were.” I gave her a knowing look. “Especially Michelle and Nicole.”

Nani snorted.

“When he moved back in, I was afraid to be naughty or rock the boat in case it caused more fighting and he moved out again, maybe permanently. Basically, I tried to make up for Michelle and Nicole’s clueless transgressions by being as easy to parent as possible so they wouldn’t fight about us.”

“Oh, honey!” Nani placed a hand against her heart. “It wasn’t your responsibility to keep your parents together, nor was it you or your sister’s fault they separated in the first place. Then or now.”

“But it’s been twenty years and it never happened again.”Until now.Until I’d let my guard down.

She shook her head of short silvery blond hair. “Not because their youngest child was an angel, but because deep inside, they weren’t ready to give up back then. It’s different this time. Trust me. I was there.”

I sat up straight. “So essentially I did it for nothing?” All those times I cleaned my room when I didn’t want to and volunteered to help Mom with some annoying chore. Or when I pretended not to care when my sisters called dibs on riding shotgun or dictated what TV show we watched because I didn’t want to make Mom moderate or break up a silly fight we wouldn’t even remember the next day. It hadn’t made an ant’s crap of difference.

Nani reached out and patted my leg. “It wasn’t for nothing. You were a delightful child then, and your parents are very proud of the woman you’ve become.”

“Even though I quit the law? I had my career all planned out. All I had to do was follow the path I carefully set for myself and everything else would seamlessly follow. Instead, they paid half my tuition for law school for me to switch careers after only one year.” My throat thickened from the shame.

“You were miserable. It takes chutzpah to do what you did. I mean it. In my day, if a woman chose to have a career, she lived with it no matter what. Overworked? Treated badly?Pfft. Suck it up.” She slammed her coffee down.

I squeaked out a laugh.

Nani relocated to the couch next to me. “I’m so sorry you felt responsible for your parents’ marriage and for keeping your family together for so long.” She squeezed my hand. “But there are things we can’t control no matter how methodical or well behaved we try to be. You need to let go of the notion mistakes can be prevented and try to focus on your happiness in the present, like with Jude.” Her cheeks brightened. “I always suspected there was a fine line between love and hate where you two were concerned. I’m glad I’m alive to see love win the day.”

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