“But you and Darren were married for eighteen years. I think that’s what baffles me the most. You were always happy, Micky. Up until a few years ago, when you lost some of your luster. I never gave you a hard time about the divorce because it’s not my place and I’d like to think you have a decent head on your shoulders and you knew what you were doing, but this… this I can’t understand.”
“The information is still so new. You’re still absorbing the shock. At least I’ve had time to get used to it—it took me years, in fact, to get to this point. I don’t expect you to throw your arms around me and tell me you understand. I’m as much a realist as you.”
Gina nodded. “Just for the record, I love Amber, and I have no moral or other objections to her lifestyle. You know that. I’m not some homophobic bigot, I just… as your mother, I can’t help but question this. Are you sure, Micky? Isn’t this just some midlife thing? How old is this woman, anyway?”
“Not that much younger than I am.” How could Micky possibly explain that being with Robin felt so right, so satisfying, so like coming home after a lifetime of traveling nowhere, that she felt it in every cell of her body? “And no, I can assure you it’s not a midlife crisis, even though I have the age for it.”
“What did Darren say?” Gina kept fidgeting, her glance skittering around the room. This was a hard conversation for her to have as well, Micky imagined. She could only hope the hard line of questioning would soon make way for softer words of understanding.
“He was happy for me.” Micky tried to hold her mother’s gaze but failed.
“I’m not trying to give you a hard time here. I’m just trying to make sense of this. You’re my daughter and I love you more than words could ever say, and of course I want you to be happy, I just…” Gina fell silent. At seventy-three, she was still a striking woman, but suddenly, startlingly, she looked her age. As though Micky’s news had accelerated some processes inside of her that had been magically slowed before.
“It’s okay, Mom. You need time to digest.”
“I would like to meet her. It must be serious if you’re telling the kids about her.”
Define serious, Micky wanted to say. Of course, she was very serious about Robin, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still early days for them. “She’s pretty amazing,” Micky said, failing to keep her voice from sounding schmaltzy.
“Set it up then. I’ll be there with bells on and on my best behavior. I’m a Ferro, after all, you know I can turn it on for anyone.”
Micky knew it was meant as a joke—an inside joke they’d had between them forever—but still, it came out wrong. She was, however, in no position to demand an apology from her mother. Micky was also pretty certain that Robin would have no problem charming Gina Ferro.
“I watch Wentworth too, you know,” Gina said. “They’re all lesbians in that prison.”
Micky broke out in a chuckle. “Don’t worry, Mom. They won’t throw me in prison for falling in love with a woman.”
✶ ✶ ✶
“I think they just can’t imagine it,” Micky said. It was the day after she’d told her children and her mother, and she lay with her head in Robin’s lap, looking up at her. “Or they have all sorts of images running through their head of things that they should never imagine their mother doing.”
“You’ve done your part.” Robin was stroking her hair. “You’ve told them. They know you’re there for them if they have questions. That is really all you can do. It’s up to them now.”
“I keep thinking about how easy they were about Darren and Lisa. It’s so unfair. Why should it even still matter in this day and age? Aren’t we all supposed to be so much more evolved now?”
“Says the woman who took ages to admit to herself she had feelings for other women.”
“All I was waiting for was for the right woman to turn up in my life.”
“And there I was, ordering a wet cappuccino in The Pink Bean. Imagine if you hadn’t taken that job. We might have never met.”
“I’d be going out with Martha.”
“Much to Amber’s dismay,” Robin said.
“Christ, imagine the drama. Me dating Martha and Amber having the hots for her. She’s already so reluctant to do anything about it now, because she’s Amber and these things always have to be a huge deal, and thoroughly talked through and whatnot.”
“Maybe Martha would have dumped you for Amber.” Robin smirked down at her.