“They’re nice,” I comment. As I enter in one of the last Chicago bungalows on our block, I wonder how long before someone comes knocking on my mom’s door to try and buy it out from under her.
“That they are.”
“Are there any families? Kids for Jade to play with?”
She shoots me her you should know better look. “It’s the city dear. No one is playing hopscotch on the sidewalks or riding their bike down to Irving Park.”
I guess times are different than when I was a kid.
“I took that check you sent me down to St. Pat’s Catholic School yesterday. Made sure to double check with the secretary and she’s all set for Monday.”
“Great. Thank you, Mom.”
We walk into the house and instantly the smell of home wraps around me like a parka during a Chicago winter. Everything is the same as it was when I was here last, minus the snow thank goodness.
Jade throws her coat on the couch and runs down the hall. “Which bedroom is mine?” she screams.
“Your mom’s old room,” my mom calls down the hall.
I sit down on a chair in the living room, abandoning my own luggage by the front door.
“Do you want a drink or something to eat?” my mom asks.
“No, I just want to sit down for a second.”
“You sat for six hours on the plane,” she deadpans.
“Take a seven-year-old through two airports and tell me you aren’t bone tired after you’re done.”
Thankfully, Jade is a very helpful and mature seven-year-old, but I kind of wish I would’ve taken Pete up on his offer to escort us to Chicago. But part of leaving Los Angeles was to have a clean slate and I couldn’t do that with my ex footing the bill and helping me the entire way.
“She’s an angel compared to you at that age.” My mom tips her head and peers down at me.
“Why thanks, Mom.” I’m surprised when she doesn’t smack me on the back of the head over my sarcastic tone.
She sits down on the couch, her feet propped up on the coffee table. “When do you start?”
“I have to go in on Friday just to meet Hannah and the marketing manager and get acquainted. It will be quick and then I start on Monday.”
“I’ll take care of Jade. We have some catching up to do anyway. I can pick her up from school, too.”
“Mom. I didn’t move here so you could be Jade’s babysitter.”
“If you thought it was so you could be my babysitter, you’re wrong. I’m fine. I can walk and talk and feed myself.” There’s joking in her tone, but an underlay of warning.
She’s stubborn and what can I say? The apple fell right out of the tree with me. She’s hard-working and not about to let anything slow her down. I’m here to make sure she doesn’t overdo it.
“Walking three blocks to get her isn’t going to be a big deal. Not to mention it’ll be good for me.”
I’m not going to argue with her right now. I’ll wait until I can find a babysitter or maybe a mother who lives nearby to walk her home with her own child.
“Thanks, Mom,” I say, which is the only thing that will appease her in this moment because I’m not starting the next world war within the first five minutes of being here.
“You’re welcome. Glad that he let you come.” She pats my leg, standing up.
By he, she means Pete. We never refer to him by name in the house.
“He’s nice like that.”
“Don’t go letting him fool you. Now he can live the bachelor life all month long.” She leaves the room before I can argue back.
All she sees in Pete is the man who hurt her little girl similar to the ways my dad hurt her. Talk about a sick and twisted cycle.
“Mommy. Mom!” Jade runs into the living room with my mom’s cat Moe in her arms.
I inch back a little because he’s not always pleasant.
“Look at Moe.” She squeezes him so tight around the neck I fear his head is going to pop off. “Can he sleep with me?” she asks.
“Sure,” I say. I’ll let her know later that it’s never going to happen.
Moe is like a night crawler, suddenly you wake up and he’s wrapped around your neck. We’ll be shutting our doors.
“Who wants pizza?” My mom comes in with a stack of pizza place menus. Gotta love Chicago, there’s a pizza joint on every corner.
“Yay!” Jade starts jumping around the room with Moe hanging in her arms.
“How about Gino’s?” I ask.
“The one off Lincoln? I’ll call.” My mom disappears to use her home phone in the kitchen.
Jade sits on my lap with Moe who looks nothing short of unenthusiastic about his new house guests, especially the little one. “Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Is daddy going to come visit?”
I couldn’t tell Pete that he couldn’t see us off at the airport—I’m not that cruel—but it did leave a crying girl in my arms until after take-off. I couldn’t even bribe her with a Frappuccino from Starbucks.
“Yep and he promises to call.”
She shoots me a look because although Pete is hands on while face-to-face, time slips past him when it comes to phone calls.
“We can video chat with him, too.”
Her eyes light up. “He said he’s going to get me a phone.”
“We’ll talk about it.” I push the conversation away. She’s seven and does not need a phone. I mentally tag that topic in my head to discuss with Pete.
“Pizza is on its way.” My mom comes in and Moe squirms to get out of Jade’s hold, meowing and jumping next to my mom.
Jade isn’t easily detoured and follows him, petting him as he lays next to my mom. He decides to tolerate the unwanted attention.
“Thanks again, Mom.”
“Stop thanking me. You girls are the ones who uprooted your life to move here.”
“We’re happy to do it.” I smile.
“Yeah, we’re happy to do it.” Jade mimics me and smiles over at my mom.
“It’s so great to have my girls with me. We’re going to have so much fun.” She squeezes Jade into her side.
I watch the two knowing that regardless of how hard of a decision this was, it was the right one. I know Pete grabbed the short end of the straw on this one and I’ll have to remember that the next time we disagree on something. Right now, after all the disappointing men in my life, I’m happy to be surrounded by the female race.
Chapter Five
I stop outside the deli that Hannah told me was on the street level of our office building and take a deep breath, trying to shake the nerves away. After steeling myself for a moment, I open the door on the right to be greeted by a long hallway with elevators on the left-hand side.
“First day?” A woman’s voice says as I take another deep breath and hesitantly press the up button.
I turn to my left to find a blonde in a blue dress and heels who looks like she just stepped off the cover of Vogue. Strike that, not Vogue, more like Cosmo. Yeah, Cosmo.
“Kind of.” I hold my bag in front of me with both hands clasped to the handles.
“I’m Chelsea. I started working on the twenty-first floor with a non-profit a couple months ago. What floor do you work on?”