Page 46 of The Incredible Kindness of Paper
“If you’re going to be so quick, I don’t see the point of coming all the way in.”
“Your brother was much sweeter when I visited him.”
Oliver’s fingers burrowed red crescents into his palms. It was one thing for Jennifer to show up here. It was another for her to be digging her tentacles into Ben’s life after they’d finally gotten free of her…
Ben had a family. More for their mom to destroy. She would drain them of their savings, bankrupt his restaurant, trample over everything to serve her own egocentric needs.
“Your brother told me you were in New York and gave me the train fare to get up here. And… I met Noah and Davy.” Jennifer’s usually intense gaze misted over. “My grandbabies.”
“Don’t,” Oliver said.
She frowned. “Don’t what?”
“Whatever is going on in that mind of yours, leave them out of it. If you need money, I’ll give it to you. We both know that’s why you sought me out anyway. Just leave Ben and his family alone.”
Jennifer shook her head sadly. “I’m different now, Oliver, I swear. Prison changed me, and I want to be a better person.”
“Sure you do.”
“Honest!” She reached through the narrow opening of the door and gripped his forearm. “I’m trying. I’m going to make a difference in the world, I can feel it.”
Oliver rolled his eyes. “That’s what you say about all of your schemes.” He peeled her hand off his arm. “How much money do you want, Jennifer?”
“I just wanted to see and hug you. And why won’t you call me ‘Mom’ anymore?”
“How. Much. Money?”
“I only want to hug my boy, all grown up now.”
Oliver crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “Tell me a number now or I’ll close the door in your face.”
Jennifer shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Well, if you’re offering… Five thousand dollars would help me out a lot.”
He snorted. “That’s what I thought.”
“Baby, it’s so I can rent a proper apartment with a security deposit and buy some clothes to help me interview for jobs.”
“Sure it is.”
“If you don’t have five grand, I’ll take anything you’ve got right now.”
Oliver let out a long exhale and shook his head. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
He closed the door, leaving her in the hall. Was it blunt? Yes. But he wasn’t about to let Jennifer into his apartment.
Oliver strode into his bedroom and removed a beat-upIntroduction to Statisticstextbook from his bookshelf. He flipped it open, revealing a shallow compartment carved into the chapter about stochastic processes, and pulled out two thousand dollars. The trauma of his family fleeing Kansas in the middle of the night meant he always kept a significant amount of cash immediately accessible.
A minute later, he reopened the front door and shoved the wad of cash at Jennifer. “Here. Two grand. It’s all I have on me.”
Jennifer smiled and tucked it into her purse. “That’ll get me started. Thank you, Oliver. I’ll pay you back, I promise. I really am turning over a new leaf.”
He never expected to see the money again.
When she finally left, Oliver closed the door and pressed his forehead against it. He had thought he was rid of his mother for good, but she was like a virus lying dormant in your body, hidden for years so that you started believing you were cured, then rearing its head when you least expected it and reminding you that you were woefully infected for life.
“Wine,” he muttered. After a day that began with Zac and ended with Jennifer, Oliver needed to get drunk. He shuffled into the kitchen, leaned against the counter, and downed half the bottle with his eyes shut. Then heforced himself to use a glass, and he drank more like a civilized person. Still too fast, but at least he wasn’t chugging straight from the bottle now.
Within minutes, his head started to go pleasantly swimmy. Oliver picked up the unfolded paper rose.
