Page 45 of From the Ashes
Phoenix
I’d been in town for over forty-eight hours, and I was fairly certain my mother hadn’t stopped talking. Even when I went to sleep, she was talking up a storm in my dreams. She was always telling me how proud she was of my accomplishments, telling me she always knew I’d make it. Which seemed hilarious considering she was the one that tried to get me to double major in accounting even though I was shit at math. When I was awake, she was grilling me about my life, wanting to know every tiny detail. And, as annoying as it was, I did everything I could to keep a level head. She’d missed me a lot. We’d never been apart this long before.
Still, come nine o’clock my second day home, I was about to tear my damn hair out if she didn’t give me a moment’s peace. And that’s when Ted, my savior, stepped in.
“Hey Phoenix,” he said, interrupting my mother’s ten-thousandth prying question. “I need some help in the garage with my car. Would you mind giving me a hand?”
“This late?” my mom scoffed. “Can’t it waituntil tomorrow?”
Ted shook his head. “I’m afraid not. If we wanna go out for a nice dinner tomorrow night in Eugene, we’re gonna need to take a look at it.”
“I don’t understand why you insist on leaving things until the last minute–”
“Sure. I’ll help,” I said, springing up from the couch. I glanced back at Tony who looked like he wanted to follow. “Keep Mom entertained with your charms, huh?”
“You okay with that, Ted?” he called. “Mind if I woo your wife?”
“Woo away,” he replied with a dismissive wave.
Mom made another noise of disbelief but dove right into talking to Tony. Shelovedtalking to Tony. And he loved undoing a couple buttons on his shirt to keep her entertained. It was weird and it made my skin crawl, but if it got her out of my hair, I’d let him do whatever he wanted. Besides, it wouldn’t go any further than flirtation. Tony loved attention, but he only got undressed for dick.
The moment Ted and I stepped into the garage, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Ted laughed, pulling a beer each out of the garage fridge for both of us.
“Thank you,” I muttered, cracking it open. “I needed this.”
“She means well.”
“I know,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It’s just…”
“A lot?”
I nodded. “And then some.”
“She’s been worried about you being away for so long. And after you called home asking for money, it took me three weeks to convince her you weren’t dead in an alley, having starved to death on the streets of Boston.” He grinned, nudging my shoulder. “If you thinkthis is bad, you should’ve seen her once we heard about your book deal. My god, she’s been telling every person in town who’ll stand still for more than two seconds that you’re god’s gift to planet earth.”
“Christ’s sake…”
“Yup.” He took a drink of his beer, chuckling to himself. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in this garage. It’s peaceful out here.”
“And the car’s running just fine now?”
He scoffed. “Of course it is! I take it to the dealer whenever it acts up. I don’t know how to fix this shit.” He glanced back at the door to the house. “Don’t let your mother know that though.”
I made a locking motion in front of my mouth. “My lips are sealed.”
We were quiet for a long moment, just sipping on our beers. But Ted kept throwing glances my way out of the corner of his eye. Eventually, when it became obvious he would burst if he didn’t speak, I spoke up first.
“Just say what you’re gonna say,” I sighed, grinning at him. “It’s fine. You’ve earned it.”
He grinned at that, while still looking a bit nervous. “I just… Well, I wanted to let you know how proud of you we are, Phoenix. You’ve done such an amazing job with your dreams that, frankly, I wasn’t sure it would ever come to fruition.”
“You and everyone else,” I sighed.
“It’s not that I didn’t believe in you,” he backtracked. “Because I do. I still do. You’re determined and ambitious and smart. I knew you’d end up somewhere important, eventually. I’m not sure I expected you to pull it all off by twenty-four though.”
“Tony is the real genius. I justwrote a book.”
“He’s a brilliant salesman, I’m sure,” Ted nodded. “But that book isyours. And it’s damn good too. You are the genius behind its success.”