“Of course not!” But I wish it was, something I won’t admit even to her.
“I’m not surprised. He doesn’t worry me like that Paul character, but he looks like he’d charm the booties off the Thanksgiving turkey if you left them alone together. Handsome too.” She sighs. “Like father, like son. They apparently like us Wilson girls. Or did.”
“How do you know we argued?” Is it that obvious?
“Oh Honey, I didn’t. I was talking about Herb and me.” Suddenly all the humor is gone from her voice.
“Wait, what? What happened?” I can’t believe the same couple I saw the other night is already in trouble. No matter how I feel about how fast they’ve moved, I want it to work for Mom’s sake.
She sighs again, sounding exactly like I’ve been feeling the last couple hours. “Remember when I told you about the secret investor? Turns out it wasn’t Herb. I don’t know who it was, or why they did it, but now Herb thinks I used our relationship to talk someone in his company into giving me the money. But I have no idea who did it if it wasn’t him.”
“And now he thinks you’re just another gold digger.” They really are like father, like son. “Well, that’s about what Gavin thinks of me too, if it makes you feel any better.”
“The Caldwells are a pair of grade A bastards.”
My eyes go wide. She never swears. “Well, it’s their loss. Screw him. Screw them. Screw the whole Caldwell Enterprises and its paranoid owners.” Misery loves company, but company makes me feel better, too. We’ll get through this.
“Language, Angie.” Mom’s voice is stern.
“Seriously, Mom?”
She breaks into laughter. “Oh, God no. Fuck’em.”
“Mom!” Now I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve heard her swear. I can’t believe she just said that.
“Angie? They’re breaking our hearts. It’s worth a little swearing. Love sucks, but we have each other and we’ve made it through far worse.” She sounds sad and resigned. I hate that someone has done that to her and I can’t even hug her. We’re both silent. I have no idea what to say, but then Mom speaks. “Hey, do you have TV? Wi-Fi?”
What? “Yeah, of course. This is a luxury liner, after all. All the comforts of home sweet mansion.” I put all the snootiness into my voice that I can while I put my nose in the air. I’m pretty sure that’s required, even when pretending. “Only the best champagne, the best caviar and every television channel on the planet.”
“Alright, then we’re doing girls’ night over the phone. Order up some popcorn from room service and I’ll find a movie to stream. Something good to moon and cry over. I’m just going to run and get mine popping.” There’s a thunk as she puts her phone on the table.
I plug my phone in so it won’t run out of juice, and call room service. They seem a bit confused by my order for root beer and popcorn, but they do their job. Fifteen minutes later, Mom and I are watching Love Story, which is like, so ancient Leo wasn’t even born, but I decide a young Ryan O’Neil more than makes up for it.
Girls’ night over the phone is completely ridiculous, but it does the trick. It’s not quite like being huddled up on the couch at home, but with our phones on speaker mode, it sort of works. The sound’s a little funny when it’s coming from two places at once, but it’s really about us hanging out the best we can. Reminding each other that there is life outside of the male ego. Who knew I needed to take a cruise for some mother-daughter time?
When the movie’s over, we call it a night. Next month’s phone bill is going to hurt, but she totally made me feel better. At least for a while. Hopefully I did the same for her.
Crawling into bed, I wonder what Gavin’s up to. Did he eat dinner with the Captain? It’s almost eleven, so they should be done by now. Is he coming back at all? The thought of him flirting with someone else, maybe even going back to her room, brings tears to my eyes but I refuse to cry. I throw a pillow and a blanket on the couch just in case. More to make it obvious I’m not sharing the bed than to be nice.
My eyelids droop as soon as my head hits the pillow. I didn’t do much today, but emotionally, it’s been exhausting. Our birth control mistake, the fight, the other fight, finding out the Caldwells just have an asshole gene in the family tree somewhere. There’s been a lot to take in.
If I think too hard my chest still aches, and the bed feels cold and empty, but the sound of rain pounding against the windows lulls me to sleep.