Page 85 of Falling Backwards
ME:You’re welcome still
As I get back to my night, there’s no ignoring the sense of ease that’s settling on me—or the urge to keep talking to her that I feel.I listen to both and decide to continue our conversation with chit-chat that doesn’t involve apologies for past arguments.
Another smile comes to me when she goes right along with it.
Not wry or really even amused, though, this time.Just…pleased.
—
“What?”I ask into the phone, dumbfounded by what my dad’s sister has said.“Yougave him my address?”
“Oh, Luke, I’m sorry!I didn’t know it would bother you.”Her remorse is pouring through instead of her previous happiness.
Just like that, our nice morning conversation takes a dive for me.
She says, “You’ve never mentioned being really upset with him, so when he asked for your address, I just thought he’d lost the paper he wrote it on.I didn’t know he didn’t have it in the first place.”
As I pace around my kitchen, I rub at the side of my face, trying to stifle my irritation.Aunt Joni isn’t a spiteful person.I believe that she didn’t do this to be calculating.
Still, Iamirritated.
There’s a reason I don’t talk about my dad with people, and it’s that I don’t like to.Would it really have been so hard for her to deduce that?Seems like she’d have thought of me being walked out on all those years ago and then thought,‘He’s probably got some deep feelings about all that.I should try to respect them.’
“I’m sorry,” she says again.
I know she means it, but Jesus.
“You should’ve asked me first,” I tell her.“A person’s address is somethingtheyshould give out themselves.”
Imagine if Kyle approached an unsuspecting individual that Maggie knows and put on a friendly show about needing her address—that he wanted to surprise her with flowers or something—and then the other person was just like,‘Oh, okay, here you go.’
That situation and mine aren’t quite the same, obviously, but still.
I go on, “It’s bad enough that he keeps calling and texting even when I’ve made it clear I don’t wanna talk to him.Now he….”
Can send me bullshit holiday cards from him and his new family.
Can potentially drop by and force me to see him in person for the first time in years.
There’s no way around it: I feel betrayed here.
Aunt Joni apologizes again just as my phone vibrates against my ear.I pull it back and glimpse Maggie’s name at the top of a text message notification.
Since we’re going a few places today before work, I already knew this phone call couldn’t last a long time.Still, I’m probably about to sound abrupt to my aunt.
“Hey, I have to go, actually,” I say.“My girlfriend and I have errands to run before work, so I gotta go pick her up.”
My girlfriend.My girlfriend.
I haven’t said it out loud to anyone before now.
“Your girlfriend?Oh, how nice!I didn’t know you were seeing anyone!”
She’s trying to lighten the mood between us, and it irks me even more somehow.
“Yeah,” I mumble.
“How long have you been together?”
