Soaring(181)

His eyes narrowed at my tone. Then again, he didn’t look happy before I sent him the ice.

Then, if it could be believed, he stated, “You are aware that at our ages, teenage antics are no longer appropriate. Say, when a man shows interest in you and phones you, if you don’t share those feelings, instead of ignoring him, you say that directly with him.”

I stared up at him knowing in that moment that the blow he wanted to land on Mickey was a blow he hoped to land on Mickey that was really directed at me.

Why were some people such assholes?

I stared coolly into his eyes. “And you should be aware that when a woman shows little enthusiasm for your calls, has no time for you, and stops answering, that’s her way of saying that she’s not interested. A gentleman would leave it at that without pushing her to doing more, which is always awkward and uncomfortable. But just to say, Boston, we’d had a single date. Frankly, I didn’t owe you anything.”

“I disagree,” he retorted.

“You’ve made that clear,” I assured him.

He looked down the aisle and back to me. “I guess there’s nothing more to say except have a good day.”

“The same to you.”

He didn’t mean it.

I didn’t either.

He nodded and walked down the aisle.

I didn’t nod and walked down my aisle thinking that perhaps I should start going to a different grocery store. Wayfarer’s was a gourmet market. I could get things a lot cheaper if I drove to the big supermarket in the next town.

The problem was, I liked Wayfarer’s and what was the point of being filthy rich if you couldn’t shop at expensive places that you liked?

When I had the groceries packed in the back and I was in the Rover, I called Mickey and told him what happened.

I did this hesitantly, thinking he might be mad that Boston confronted me.

He burst out laughing.

When I could get a word in he might hear, I asked, “You think it’s funny?”

“Hilarious,” he confirmed.

“Well…” I trailed off, not knowing if I liked that or not.

He heard my hesitation and explained, “Babe, you can stick up for yourself. My heiress is no doormat.”

I knew I liked that.

And in hearing it, I thought of that encounter and I thought about how I’d handled it. I didn’t go all Felicia Hathaway polite. I didn’t cower under the confrontation. I didn’t apologize about something I had no reason to apologize for.

I stuck up for myself.

I was no doormat.

This made me happy.

“I guess it was kinda funny,” I told him.

“Fuck, I hope that asshole finds a woman. I’ll feel bad for her but once he finds someone to put his dick in regularly, he might let the rest of the hot chick population of Magdalene out of their misery.”

To that, I giggled.

And soon after, we rang off.

I drove home in my Rover doing it not a doormat.

I had a firefighter boyfriend and I could cope with the danger of his job (outwardly, inwardly was my business). I had a position as a volunteer in a nursing home where part of the role was losing people I’d come to care about, this being regularly and without warning. And I had two kids that I’d forced to become estranged who were back with me, one bragging about how we were happy after all that had happened.

I was not a doormat.

I was not an heiress.

I was not a doctor’s wife.

I was me.

Amy.

And the best part about that?

I was pretty awesome.

* * * * *

“Erm…what?” I asked Mickey.

We were in his bedroom the evening of the Boston Stone incident. It was Thursday. He had his kids back.

And he’d just told me that Aisling had told him that she wanted me to go shopping to decorate her room.

The twist was that she wanted me to do this with her and Rhiannon.

And the twist to that was, Rhiannon had agreed.

So far, it had been a good week in a variety of ways. One of which was the discovery that Aisling was now showering regularly.

This was positive but not exactly surprising. Rhiannon had phoned Mickey and told him they’d had not one but three chats. The first one was reportedly dramatic, much like experienced by Mickey. The second one was surly.

Rhiannon didn’t give up and the third one was beneficial.

Apparently, Aisling wasn’t adjusting to high school very well. There were some girls she didn’t like, who she never really liked, but it was difficult to avoid them like she used to do as unfortunately they shared a number of classes. Classes that, also unfortunately, Aisling’s friends didn’t share so she had no one “at her back.”

According to Ash, “it wasn’t that big of a deal” and that “they just don’t get me, I’m not into the same crap as they are.”