Page 9 of Pillow Talk
Typical of her mother, Shona thought. Exaggerating. There was nothing barbaric about this argument.
‘Your daughter thinks we are fools. Shona knows everything,’ her father whined.
Shona took in the scene. It was like watching moments of her life on replay. The same scene had played out ten years ago when she’d suggested moving to a computerised accounting system. Then again five years ago when she suggested asocial media page. It had happened countless times. And it all involved change – the very thing that she yearned for was what her parents resisted the most. Shona could have come home pregnant as a teen or joined a crime syndicate now and the bigger shame would be her walking away from the family business. The only other person in the room who could sympathise with her was Drake. He’d been there long enough to know that nothing ever changed.
‘I’m leaving,’ Shona said.
Her mother gasped. Aruna stood up. Her father’s eyes were now popping out. Drake smiled.
‘I AM LEAVING,’ Shona said louder, more clearly, with more confidence.
‘You can’t leave. What do you mean you’re leaving?’ Her mother seemed shocked but was also calling her bluff.
‘I can leave. I’m handing in my resignation. Because we don’t have a formal contract, I think I can just walk out,’ Shona said. Her palms were sweaty, her throat was dry and her heart was racing.
‘Sho, don’t be—’ her sister started to say.
‘I am walking out of that door,’ Shona interrupted.
She quickly rounded up her bag and jacket and moved towards the front of the store.
Her family stood frozen. It was as if they wanted to say something but were frozen with shock. Drake was still smiling. Martha, a seamstress, had joined them and was smiling too.
When Shona got to the door, she turned to look at her bewildered family.
‘I’m walking away from the shop, not my family,’ she said, surprising herself with her even tone.
‘The shop is your family,’ her father spat out.
‘No Dad, it’s not. My family–you,Mom and Aruna – have always been more important than the shop and that’s why I mustwalk away,’ she said quietly.
The silence was deafening. Her father looked away. Her mother was wiping away tears. Aruna was too stunned to react.
Chapter
Three
Shona pushed open the door, threw her bag and jacket on the floor and ran to the bathroom, where she threw up.
She was shaking. She quickly undressed and stepped into the shower. The aroma of her shower gel filled the bathroom as the steam rose. The label on the bottle said ‘Calm Chamomile’. But there was nothing calm about Shona right now. She lathered the gel on her body and stood under the hot spray with her eyes closed. She stood there until the hot water ran out.
She stepped out of the shower cubicle and looked around. She loved everything about her bathroom: the hint of a deep red tone in a few wall tiles, the bigger-than-usual shower, the modern bathtub and the full-length mirror.
She looked at her reflection and coached herself silently:I can do this. I have a good life. I can follow my dreams.
She dried her hair and pulled on a fresh pair of PJs. It was 1 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and she was sitting in her pyjamas in her two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, which she would never have been able to afford without her dad and the shop’s help.
‘Don’t do this. You worked your butt off. You worked for this. Do not feel guilty for wanting your own life,’ she said out loud.
She looked at her phone. No missed calls. No messages.
She just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep. Usually, she would dial Anni whenever there was big news to share. But today she didn’t feel like reliving the scene in the shop.
She was about to walk into her bedroom to dive under the covers and sleep until she was no longer nauseous, guilty and scared, when her cellphone rang.
It was a number she didn’t recognise but she picked up anyway.
‘Hello?’
