Page 46 of A Spell of Midlife Mayhem

‘That’s great, Mum. I’m pleased for you. You won’t want to come back home.’

A pang of sadness stabbed me in the chest. ‘I miss you, though, darling daughter.’

‘Maybe I can come over and visit during the holidays. Though it’ll be winter then, won’t it?’

‘Yes. Anyway, apart from missing you as much as I do, getting away from Terry was the best thing for me. And changing my job. I’ve left all my problems behind me.’

Rose drew her lips tight and hesitated before commenting. ‘That’s just it, Mum. You’ve left them behind. You walked away from them.’

‘That’s right, I did.’

She didn’t reply.

‘That’s a good thing, isn’t it?’ I asked, confused.

‘I don’t know about that, Mum. You’re over there in Kingston, and you’ve taken the first job you found and you’re seeing the first guy you’ve met and you’re doing everything you can for Great-aunt Ruth. Have you learned to set any boundaries for yourself yet?’

She’d lost me. ‘What do you mean, love?’

‘Back here, with Dad and the school, you never said “no” to anything. You’d do whatever anyone wanted you to do, even if you were exhausted or you didn’t have time. Has anything changed? It sounds like it’s just the same to me.’

‘I’m a lot happier with my daily life. Apart from missing you, of course, and my friend Rachel, but you’d already moved to Wellington.’

‘Okay, Mum. I hope you know what you’re doing. I’ve gotta get ready for classes.’

We said goodbye and disconnected. I sat with the phone in my hand for a while. What did Rose mean? Did she have a point? She seemed to say that I wasn’t in control of my own life.

I am, I told myself determinedly. There hadn’t been the need to say ‘no’ to anyone yet in my new life.

My white hot chocolate was now a white cold chocolate. I went to bed without drinking it.

***

MY PHONE WOKE ME IN the morning. It wasn’t the alarm, so it was early. Was it Rose?

I rolled over and grabbed it from the side table to answer, glancing at the number. Terry.

‘Where are you?’ he demanded. ‘I need to talk with you about the house. I asked Rose, and she wouldn’t say where you are.’

Good.

‘What exactly do you want, Terry?’ I glanced at the clock. It was three fifteen in the morning. For Terry, though, it was early afternoon.

‘We’ve got an offer on the house. We need to discuss if we’re going to accept it or not. Can we meet over coffee somewhere?’

Fat chance. He thinks I’m still in Christchurch, or at least close to there. ‘No, I can’t do that. We can discuss it over the phone.’ I yawned. Thankfully, this wasn’t a video call. I wouldn’t have connected if it had been. He’d see me sitting up in bed and wonder what the hell was going on.

‘All right.’ He went on about the offer on the house for a while. I didn’t listen. The estate agent would send me an email about it, anyway. I’d check for that in the morning. The house was sitting empty, but still furnished, while our estate agent hunted for a buyer. Apparently, she’d found one.

Finally, Terry finished droning on. ‘So, I think we should push for a higher offer. It’s not enough.’

I was about to agree with him, which is something I would automatically have done in the past, but Rose’s words from last night echoed in my head. I don’t have to always agree if I don’t want to.

‘I’ll think about it and let you know.’ I fist-pumped silently. That was a win for me.

‘I’m glad you agree—wait, what did you say? You’ll think about it?’

‘Yes, I’ll let you know in a while. At the moment, I’d be happy to take the offer and get the whole thing over with.’

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