Page 23 of Unlikely to Stay
Chapter 6
“Are you gonna bid on any of the hotties, Missy Poo?”
CC rolled her eyes.Shehatedthe nickname her mom had given her when she was six years old.CC had carried a stuffed Miss Piggy around wherever she went, hence the nickname.Even though she had outgrown the stupid pig wearing a dress, heels, and blonde wig by her seventh birthday, the nickname had stuck.At least where her mom was concerned.
“No, I’m not going to bid on any of thehotties.Most of the hotties are of the elderly variety, anyway.”
CC was currently slumped on her mom’s orange velour couch staring at the huge mural of Bob Marley painted on the main living room wall.Plastic purple beads hung between the living room and kitchen, a peace sign painted above them.No one could say her mother’s home was dreary, that was for sure.
“Not the rumor I heard,” CC’s mom said, taking a sip of her herbal tea.“I heard your friends have gotten eligible bachelors from LakeviewandOklahoma City.And there’s also that yummy doctor in town.Why don’t you bid on him?Lord knows I would if my working parts were still up and running.”
CC wrinkled her nose.“Mom…ew.TMI.”
“I’m just sayin’…that man is one fine male specimen.If you don’t snatch him up, I’m sure someone else will.”
“Well, I have no intention of snatching him up, so if anyone is interested, let them have him.”
Even as she said the words, the memory of Brant’s hands on her arms and the feel of his chest as she ran into him the other night at Annie’s sent a flush through her body.His hands were warm, his chest firm, his eyes the color of melted chocolate.She should’ve never looked into his eyes.She’d always had an affinity for anything chocolate.
“Well, it’s a pity.You two would make beautiful babies.”
“Mo-om!”Her mother’s words always made her revert to teenage whining.
“ColleenJanis.”
CC had always hated, not just her mom’s nickname for her, but also her actual name.Her first name after her great-grandmother, her middle name after her mother’s favorite singer, Janis Joplin.She never felt like she had any identity of her own.As soon as she could give herself a nickname, and not one of the Muppet variety, she settled on the first letter of her first and last name.No matter how many times her friends tried to convince her the coolness of DJ Tanner’s name fromFull House,CJ sounded too much like a boy.
“I’ve been to the clinic a time or two,” her mother continued, not letting it go.“He’s very nice on top of being a hottie.Well-mannered, firm hands.I bet those hands are really gentle when he’s making love.”
CC covered her face with her hands.“Mom!”
“What?It’s not like you’re a virgin, Missy Poo.”
“It doesn’t mean I want to talk about it with mymom.I don’t need answers about the birds and the bees.I don’t want to talk about it, period.Especially something that isnotgoing to happen with Brant Billings.Ever.”
Her mom wagged her eyebrows.“So you know his name.”
CC covered her face with a fake purple fur pillow and screamed.
Her mom started pouting.“I bet you talk to Annie and Breckin about it.”
CC let out a breath.“That’s because they’re my friends.”
“And I’m not your friend?”
“You’re my mom!I’m supposed to go to you when I need hot tea and honey when I’m sick or what color to use when I need to get a really hard dye out of a client’s hair.Notadvice about sex.”
This was the problem with her mom, had always been the problem.She wanted to be CC’s friend more than she ever wanted to be a mother.When CC’s dad left them for one of the waitresses at Griff’s bar when CC was just a kid, her mom just seemed to drift off.
Most of the time, CC felt like she had to be the one who acted like the adult.When her mom forgot to pay the bills, CC was the one who got out the checkbook and wrote them.When their kitchen cabinets were empty except for her mom’s herbal tea and weird organic food, CC went to the grocery store and bought kid-friendly items she could eat without gagging.CC was the one who blew out the candles and her mom’s incense so their house wouldn’t burn down in the middle of the night.CC would probably be watching over her mom until the day she died.
It was why she went on ridiculous trips with her mom.As an adult, Thanksgiving in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, cooking tofu hotdogs in a fireplace.As a teen, hostels in the desert with weird people who smoked so much marijuana CC had to either leave the tent or get a secondhand high.
Her mom had no thought of the consequences of her actions, no idea of what others wanted or expected.She only thought of whatshewanted, whatshethought would make her happy and fulfilled.CC tried to tell herself it wasn’t personal, even though her mom proved time and again it was.When CC returned home after cosmetology school and told her mom she was renting the apartment over Sadie’s Café, her mom hadn’t spoken to her for two weeks.
“Fine, have it your way,” her mom said, taking the last sip of her tea before placing her chipped mug on the purple saucer.“I need to smoke.”
Her mother rose from her wicker papasan chair and put the empty mug and saucer on the coffee table in front of her.“Don’t worry,” she called, walking through the beads of the kitchen.“I’m going to the sunroom.”