Fight With Mom Part II
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Kaylee took off out of the room as if excited to get away from the argument between the two matriarchs in her life.
“January, there is no need
“Don’t even. You snapped at me for being cranky. It’s clear you feel I’m using you or usurping my responsibilities because I went for coffee with Ernst.”
“He was here! Gulliver was right here and you left to go on a date with another man.”
“Do you forget he lied, Mom?”
“He had good reason!”
“He faked a fucking wedding! He faked documents. He put a baby in me in the hopes that it would trap me to him so I would be stuck with him and guess what? Here I am, stuck with him. You’re so fucking team Gulliver all of a sudden after all the hell of the last eight years, all the fears, all the worries and all the stress. You forget he broke me. He broke my fucking heart, and I was the one who needed to deal with it all and you’re standing here telling me it’s some kind of terrible thing to get a coffee with another man because he was here spending time with his daughter?”
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Fight With Mom Part II
“You left me to deal with it!”
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“You didn’t have to deal with it! He’s a grown man. He can deal with it himself. However, if you feel I’m such a burden and it’s such a problem for you to be involved in this, you can now count yourself out of it. I won’t be asking you to intervene or stand guard. I’ll manage it on my own without your help. Clearly you feel I’ve used you too much.”
“Now hold on.”
“It’s fine, Mom.” She dumped her coffee into the sink. “Moving forward you don’t need to do anything for me because it’s clearly such a fucking imposition. Maybe it’s time Kaylee and I moved out. I mean there is no reason now for us to all live
together like we’re hiding right? Your lord and savior, King Gulliver is back and he’s proven he’s the best thing since sliced bread and he’s no danger to us so I can find a place of our own to live. You and Dad can finally get rid of the burden of me and that way, when I go on dates, I don’t have to have your judgmental ass coming at me over it.”
“January, you’re blowing this out of proportion.”
“Am I? You told my daughter in front of me that you felt I abandoned the situation yesterday and forced you to play hostess to a man who broke me in ways I can’t even begin to explain because I needed to leave and get a breath. You’re accusing me of shirking responsibilities and it’s clear you’re not
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Fight With Mom Part II
on my side but on his and that,” she clicked her tongue reproachfully, “well that is not something I am cool with.”
“I’m sorry.”
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“Save it, Mom. Seriously. I am so fucking tired of people saying and doing hurtful things and then saying sorry like it’s supposed to be this major reset button in life. I didn’t ask anything of you yesterday. I told Gulliver that he wanted to be dad in the situation, he could handle it. You could have gone and left him to it. You made a choice. You are coming at me today because you feel sorry for him. I don’t know what he said or did to you yesterday that made you suddenly forgive him for the pain he caused me but I’m glad he got through to you. You get your son back.”
She shoved her way out of the kitchen and up to her bedroom to grab her sweater and the things she needed for the shop. When she returned back downstairs her mother was sitting at the kitchen table and Kaylee was waiting nearby.
“Let’s go.” She waved at the door to Kaylee.
“January.”
“Later, Mom.” She followed her daughter out of the house and refused to look up at her mother who moved to stand in the goorway as she backed the vehicle down the driveway
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Fight With Mom Part II
“Mom,” Kaylee whispered from the back seat.
&t
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“What Kaylee?” she tried hard not to snap at the child, but her mood was a mess. She rubbed her neck frustratedly.
“Are you and Nana having a fight?”
“Yes.”
“You told Nana we were going to find a new place to live.”
“Yeah, I did.” She felt the sting of remorse as she realized her daughter had been listening in to a hostile conversation.
“Can we live with my dad? He said he’s going to buy a house nearby so he can see me as much as possible. What if we just live with him?”
She wanted to close her eyes in frustration and slam her forehead against the steering wheel. “Kaylee, only people who love each other can live together.”
“That’s not true. You can go to college and live with strangers like in the toothpaste commercial.”
“Kaylee, it’s complicated.”
“Do you hate my dad?”
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Fight With Mom Part II
18
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“No. I don’t hate your dad. I just don’t want to live with him.”
“You don’t want to live with Nana. You don’t want to live with my dad. Do you want to live with Darwin’s dad?” Kaylee asked hopefully.
January looked at her daughter in the rearview mirror and wondered why she was questioning her own morality so much as of late as she considered, for the briefest of moments, what kind of peace she might find if she simply dropped Kaylee off and then drove away and kept on driving.
