Page 95 of Games We Play
Because… well… perhaps she loved her as well.
That wasn’t easy for Sloan to admit. The last time she allowed her heart to swell with love, she ended up in a fucked-up marriage that left her unable to tell the difference between sweet surrender and abusive misgivings.
***
Leah had barely settled into her room that evening when she heard a knock at the bedroom door.
It was Karlie, entering with a mug of her mother’s favorite decaf tea and looking like she had something serious to say.If one can look serious in a Victoria’s Secret Pink dress-shirt.Karlie had recently washed her hair, and her curls had yet to return. Her flattened, slightly matted hair was a far cry from the locks Leah kept protected in a ponytail when she took a shower five minutes before.
“Can we talk?” Karlie asked.
“If you bring me tea,” Leah said with a smile, “we can talk about anything.”
The mug was hot in Leah’s hands. She pulled her bed covers around her waist and motioned for her daughter to hop up next to her.You don’t remember this, Karlie, but I used to sleep with you tucked next to my chest.She only got away with that when she was the only one at home during the day. Janet said it wasn’t good for them to bond too much. Not when Leah was giving up her motherhood so she could continue her childhood.Instead, I was left in a terrible limbo.No longer a child, but not allowed to be an adult. Maybe Leah had fucked herself over when she insisted on treating her daughter as her own, but what was she supposed to do? Convince herself that she hadn’t carried and given birth to this girl?
“It’s about the bakery.”
Leah needed to put down her mug before it burned her fingertips, but the shock of her daughter’s words nearly killed her. “What about it? Did they call and…”
“Not Rose City.” Karlie finally sat next to her mother. “The one Ms. Sloan bought.”
Leah gasped. “How did you hear about that?”
Karlie averted her gaze. “Why won’t you do it?”
Way to dodge the question.What had Karlie overheard? Read? Did the real estate agent come by, or… did Sloan? “Do what? Take something that’s a big fat mess and will take up all my time away from home?”
“You always talked about having your own bakery someday. Whatever happened to that Instagram account you used to have? Remember when you made those super fancy cupcakes and took glamour shots? You used to get thousands of likes!”
“I don’t have much time for that anymore.”
“Yeah, because you spend all your time at the dead-end job fulfilling other people’s ideas. When do you get to do your own?”
“One day you’ll understand, sunshine. It’s not so easy when you’re an adult and have to work for others. That’s how it is when you’re employed.”
“Listen to yourself!” The rise in Karlie’s attitude coincided with a heavy rain hitting the roof and bedroom window. Leah almost jumped from the surprise of both. “You have the opportunity to do something you’re really good at! How many people would kill to be you right now? Seriously, Leah, why won’t you do it? What’s stopping you? Are you that scared?”
Leah blew the steam off her tea. “Don’t tell me about being scared, okay? I’ve been scared before. This is nothing like that.”
Karlie continued to pout on the other end of the bed. “It’s because of Ms. Sloan, huh?”
“What would you know about her?”
“I know that you won’t talk much about her, though you two spent so much time together. She’s the one trying to hook you up with the bakery, right?”
“Seriously, how do you know this?”
“Forget how I know about it, Leah.” It now felt like heresy to hear Leah’s name come out of her daughter’s mouth. “The point is that you have this opportunity you refuse to take. I don’t get it. I know you’re not happy at Rose City. Enid sucks to work for. So, be your own boss! Ask Gina to work with you! Is it really that hard?”
“Says the girl whose only work experience is getting a discount at Hot Topic.”
Karlie rolled her eyes, as if she couldn’t believe her own mother – sister, whatever – would downplay work experience like that. “You don’t wanna do it because you’re mad at Ms. Sloan. I don’t know what she did, Leah, but it can’t be that bad if she’s trying to get you back by buying you such a great present.”
No… she’s not trying to get me back.Sloan had said as much. She saw an investment opportunity. That was it. If not Leah, then someone else would get it. That’s how it worked. That’s how clean their breakup really could be.
“That’s absurd. She’s not trying to get me back. Besides,” Leah sipped her tea, “you want to know what she did to make me break up with her? She lied about being married. She also…” This was embarrassing enough to share with a little sister. With a daughter? Ugh. “She used me, okay? I wasn’t comfortable with how our personal affair was going.”
“Did you talk to her about it?”
