“I just don’t know where we are. I’m pretty sure we are over, that’s for sure.”
“Nothing in life is certain, Amy,” she replied. “I learned that early one. And I went through the same thing with your father?”#p#分页标题#e#
“You did?” That dropped my jaw.
I always had it in my head that Mom and Dad were this perfect love story in a perfect world. She had even told me about their first date, about their wedding, everything. It had never occurred to me that they went through relationship problems.
“Of course. We were so young, Amy, not that much older than you are. He was just starting chef school, and I was working in the local store, nothing glamorous. But it was my first job, and everything was new and exciting to me, I had just moved into my first apartment, and I was newly independent. The only thing old and not necessarily exciting in my life was your father. I loved him, Amy, I did, but I was young and blinded by the difference of the situation. And there was a cute manager at work too.” She winked at me and my mind flashed to Drago. I wasn’t in love with him, or anything close to it, but my friendship with him lately had grown, especially in the hours he spent listening to me rant about Liam and whatever situation had angered me that day. Spending time with him was exactly as she put it, new and exciting. Liam wasn’t old and boring, but I was used to him; I had taken him for granted.
“So what did you do?” I asked.
“We went out on a date.”
This confused me and I furrowed my brow. “But hadn’t you already been out on several dates?”
“Sure. But not in a while. Things had become routine, easy. And remember?”
“Nothing in life is easy,” I repeated her advice.
She nodded. “That’s right. So things had become routine, he’d come over, we’d have dinner, sometimes he would stay, sometimes he would leave. And we got into a rut and got into a fight and we broke up. And then, one day, we agreed to ‘talk.’ We went out on a proper date, got dressed up for each other, he brought me flowers. At first, it had seemed silly. We had been going out for 3 years. But as we sat across the table from each other, over a candlelit dinner, and talked, really talked, and held hands as we walked down the street, I began to fall back in love with him.”
I turned this idea over in my mind. “I’m not sure that I’m still in love with Liam, Mom. I just don’t know what to do anymore, and I’m not sure what will fix it.”
“Well, it’s worth trying,” she said. “Trust me, you might be surprised.”
I heard noises at the far end of the theater, and I was shocked to realize it was 9:30. Classes were already starting, and Sarah was looking antsy.
“Can I come back to talk later?” I asked.
She nodded. “Of course, my love.”
I turned to Sarah. “Thank you.”
As we stood up, she grinned at me.
“Well, that should make you less bitchy for the next few days,” she replied. “Say goodbye to your mom and we’ll come back later.”
“Ok.” I gave her a giant hug and it wasn’t enough to last me even two seconds apart from her, but it would have to do. “I’ll see you soon, alright?”
She kissed me on the forehead.
Then I turned and before I could stop myself, I headed down the steps and out of the wings. Sarah followed close on my heels and I grabbed her hand.
“Thank you so much,” I said again. I wiped my eyes, fresh tears coming to them. “I’ve been so horrible to you and Liam and you did that for me.”
“It was actually his idea.” She grinned at me. “You totally should thank him. 150 times over, ok?”
“We’ll see about that.” I gave her a hip bump as we headed to class.
I haven’t been to class in a while, but I didn’t feel that panic that I had before. Somehow I knew that everything was going to be alright now, no matter what path I chose. And the path I was looking at was a lot brighter than the darkness behind me. Mothers really do fix everything.
Chapter 20: Liam
I slapped aftershave on my face and ran a hand through my hair one more time. It was the middle of the day, so it felt silly to be this dressed up, but it’s not like we could go out at night. When Sarah had told me about Amy’s mother’s suggestion, I imagined my expression was the same as Amy’s had been. I didn’t think anything would save us, especially after our last big blow up. But I was lonely, I was miserable and I knew that sitting around upending a bottle of bourbon wasn’t going to do any good either. Besides, the worst that could happen would be that we’d end up with more awkward glares and angry glances than ever before. Or she would stake me in the back in the middle of the night.