Page 19 of Thanks for the Memories
Ah, here we go again. It’s the perfect moment for me to excuse myself and get ready for bed.
“Thanks for talking to me, girls. The only thing I can do now is be patient.”
The question is, how? And for how long? I’m afraid my patience is wearing thin.
* * *
When I arrive at the office, Jeremy is showing Carl something on his phone.
“Morning,” I say cheerfully. I may not be in control of my personal life right now, but I can put all my energy into my job.
“Blondie, you have to see this video clip,” Jeremy calls.
Ugh. Not another video. Jeremy loves to find ridiculous clips of people doing embarrassing things online. Admittedly, some of them are hilarious, but I can’t take the cringey ones. Secondhand embarrassment is the worst. Maybe I’m too sensitive, but I just want to hug the people in the videos.
“That’s great,” Carl shouts in delight. He’s laughing so hard he’s practically in tears.
“How was the college drop off?” I ask Carl as soon as he recovers from laughing.
“It went well,” he exclaims. “Except Cherlyn is a mess. She spent all of yesterday looking at old photo albums of the kids. I keep telling her to enjoy the empty nest life, but she cries every time I say anything.”
“Aw. Poor thing.”
“She’ll be fine,” he says, waving his hand. “And now I can walk around in my birthday suit and not worry about some random teenager stopping in.”
Nope. I didn’t need to hear that. Jeremy stares at me with a look of horror. Obviously, he’s thinking the same thing I am.
“Carl, come on, man,” Jeremy shouts, covering his ears.
“Sorry. It’s the truth, though. Cherlyn and I can have some time alone for the first time in years.”
I sigh. I’m not a mother yet, but I can only imagine what it feels like to watch your babies go off to college. My mom had a similar reaction, but it was worse when I moved to Miami. Probably because Kennedy and I are both here. I’m sure my parents will retire down here eventually. This is Florida, the land of retirement. I could totally see my mother being one of those ladies who runs all the social committees at a retirement community. She lives for that kind of stuff. Not to mention, being wrapped up in all the gossip of the place. I’ve heard stories about some of these places in Florida. They’re infamous for their shenanigans. Who knew retired people were so scandalous? And my father would be perfectly content on a golf course for twelve hours a day. Like Kennedy says, our parents were made for Florida life.
“I’m pretty sure my mom threw a party when I finally left the house,” Jeremy says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “But in her defense, my brother and I were terrors.”
“Hmmm … why does that not surprise me?” I tease.
He scowls. “Well, she still calls me her baby boy. I just think she loves me more when I’m not under her roof.”
We all laugh.
Carl’s phone rings. “Ah … speaking of which, that’s my lovely wife now,” he says holding up the phone. “I have a feeling I’m going to be talking to her a lot over the next few days or maybe weeks.”
He hurries to his office to answer his phone.
“How was your weekend?” I ask Jeremy.
“Pretty good. I went to the Miami game with a few friends.”
I log in to my computer, and the first thing I do is check the weather. Another nice thing about being so preoccupied with Dante was that I didn’t worry about hurricanes.
“Ugh. This hurricane has slowed down its forward movement. Does this happen often?”
Jeremy slides his chair closer to me to look at the screen. “It can.”
I groan.
“Sorry,” I apologize for changing the subject. “How was the game?”
