Page 84 of Overdue I Love You's
Rhys Silver is what every woman wants their man to be.
Yet I don’t need two weeks to decide how I feel about him.
Because deep down, the architecture of my ribs are getting replaced with vines.
“Deal,” I say instead.
CHAPTER 19
“Hello?” I groggily answer the phone.
“Nova,honey.” There’s that warmth of motherly affection. “How are you?” She sounds relieved, breathless, and grateful all in one.
Whispering “Ma,” I turn to make sure Hina hasn’t woken up before quietly lifting the blanket off of me and heading onto the balcony. “I’m good.”
“Did I wake you?”
“It’s two in the morning.” Hoping that’ll answer her question. “Is everything okay?”
“Does there need to be something wrong in order for me to call my daughter?”
“No,” a cool breeze brushes through my silk pyjamas. “Of course not.”
Awkward silence.
I rub a finger to get rid of any eye boogers. “How’sTatay?” Not that I know much of dad or what he’s been up to, I ask because there’s no other conversation for us to have.
It’s been like this since I was ten and he got released from prison. It’s not that I didn’t have a relationship with him, but we aren’t close.Tatayand I are the product of familiarity but there’s no connection between us.
Mastarted paying more attention to me afterwards, but it was too late by then. Puberty hit me with a personal grudge, and Nadine and Rosa had already taken up the gaping role of my parents by then.
“He’s been wanting you to visit us. Ever since you moved to Toronto, you never come home.” WithoutAteand Rosa, it isn’t home.
“After I return from Switzerland, I’ll see if I can.” I won’t, but it’s better than telling her that. It never fails to get me a lecture.
Lucerne is extremely quiet right now. Not a pin drop of noise, other than leaves shuffling in the wind and the sound of water tugging beneath the bridge. I drop my elbows onto the ledge.
“Oh!” Papers shuffle in the background. “Before I forget to tell you. We got a visit from Mr?—”
“Ma, it’s getting late.”
Quietly, “Oh, right. Of course. I’ll let you go,” the initial cheeriness in mom’s voice disappears. I try not to feel like a terrible person, but it isn’t working.
“I love you, Nova honey.” She says it with ease like she’s spent my whole life saying those words and never taking them back. But I haven’t forgotten the rejection, the pain, or the loneliness of being loved but never feeling it.
“We’ll talk soon,” I promise before hanging up.
My thumb hovers over her contact information. Debating whether I should let her keep calling me or...
Mute messages and calls.
We can talk when I’m home.
Hair curtains around my face when I lean forward, resting myelbows on the ledge, forehead in my palms.
Grow up, I can hear Rosa in the background. Stop moping over the past when they’re trying to make an effort.
They don’t understand that while I’ve grown up, parts of my brain stopped developing when they weren’t understood.
