Page 140 of Old Habits
I plop back down into my chair at the table and quickly start stacking the postcards away.
“What are these?” she asks over my shoulder.
“Never mind.”
She keeps moving to the other side of the round table, taking the hint not to ask again but she can’t help but glance at the last few remaining postcards before I can get to them.
“Is Hank around?”
“No, he’s at work.”
She clears her throat. “So, I guess you and Will didn’t have that great of a Valentine’s Day.”
I set the pile to the side. “We never do.”
“But the dance was a smash. People really liked the band. Natalie told me that was all you…”
I glare at her, urging her to get on with it.
“Okay, Jovie…” she exhales, “there’s really no great way to lead into this so I’m just going to say it. You… your baby.”
“What about it?”
Her hands twitch at her sides. “If you hadn’t have lost it, would you have kept it?” she asks. “Even with the money I gave you to…?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitation.
“Really?”
I grit my teeth. “I’m sorry, did you come here for any other reason than to humiliate me or to make me feel like dirt? Because I have better things to do…”
“I lost a baby, too,” she says, lowering her voice. “After Andrew. It was a girl.”
My heart clenches as she hangs her purse on the back of the chair and sits down across from me.
“Jovie, I know that I can be…”
“A massive bitch?”
“Difficult. Especially when it comes to Will. Our parents were always so busy and it was on me to look after him. I went too far with you. I was young and stupid and I’m sorry.”
“So, what?” I ask. “You discover empathy and, all of a sudden, it’s bygones?”
She hesitates. “I’m trying here, Jovie.”
I sit back to let her speak.
“We’re so secluded out here that we…” she scratches behind her ear, “we get so caught up in our perfect, little lives that we tend to forget that bad things happen and often to good people.”
I raise a brow. “Are you calling me a good person?”
“Well, I mean…” she scoffs, “on a scale of Charles Manson to Mother Teresa, you rank okay.”
“Oh.” I nod. “Neat.”
“I just mean to say that if you ever need to talk to someone whose been there before, I’m here.”
I look to the far corner of the kitchen. “I’ve kind of had a few years to digest it already, so…”