19. Gabby
Ihold up my finger so my mom can see my silly ring on FaceTime. “It was all for the pictures,” I tell her with a shrug.
I see her sit on the edge of her bed. She props the phone up on her nightstand as she pulls her hair into a high ponytail. “I wouldn’t count on that, Gabby. I think he has serious feelings for you.”
“Mom, I sprayed him in the face with mace. Then I got mad at him for being a human being before he met me. And now, he has given me a ring I don’t know what to do with.”
Mom reaches outside the field of view and comes back with a cat in her arms. It’s yellowish-orange, so I know it’s Calamity Jane.
“You like him, right?” Mom asks as she nuzzles her face in Janie’s fur.
“More than that,” I admit.
Mom looks up at the camera. “I knew it,” she crows. She finally sobers, still cuddling the cat. “He didn’t ask you to marry him, Gabs. He just asked you to be willing to see where the future can take you.” She shrugs. “That’s all.”
“That’s all,” I mock.
She laughs. The cat squirms in her arms, and Mom sets her aside.
“How are the cats fitting in?” I ask.
Mom smiles. “Fine. Pop built some tiny stairs to put next to the beds, so Janie won’t try to hop up and fall.” She laughs. “She still falls, but it’s a little easier for her.” She looks across the room. “They’re so sweet. I think that Captain Twinkles is wearing a tutu somewhere. The last time I saw him, he was lying between Sally’s paws.”
“They’re old, Mom,” I warn.
“Yeah, well, so is Pop, and we still tolerate him.”
“I heard that!” someone calls from outside the field of vision.
“I don’t care, old man!” Mom yells back. She gets up and closes the door. As she settles back onto the bed, she asks, “What do you have against getting married, Gabby?”
“Nothing, I guess.” I just never met anyone I wanted to consider marrying. “I just didn’t imagine myself doing it. I want to travel. I want to be a doctor. I want to do volunteer work. I never considered having a family.”
“How does Seth feel about all that?” she asks.
“Believe it or not, he wants the same things.”
She smiles. “A match made in heaven,” she says dreamily.
“Mom,” I say with a groan.
“Loving him doesn’t have to derail your plans, Gabby,” she says. “Maybe now those plans can be for two instead of one.”
“Plans for two,” I repeat.
“As long as you’re both happy with the plans, I don’t see why not.”
“I love spending time with him,” I admit, and my face gets warm.
“I remember when I met your dad, Gabs. I wanted to spend every minute with him.” She stops and clears her throat. “Speaking of which, did you refill your birth control prescription?”
“Mom,” I warn.
“I didn’t have anyone who asked me about mine, Gabby. My parents were too afraid to talk about girly stuff with me. It was a little more taboo back then.” Two men were raising a daughter when neither of them had ever seen a vagina. “They would never have asked me about birth control.”
“That’s how you got me,” I say playfully. She has talked to me about this before.
“That’s how we got you,” she replies. “You were dearly wanted but certainly not planned.”
“Was Dad happy when you told him you were pregnant?”
Her smile gets soft. “He was over the moon, Gabs.” She’s told me this before. But I love to hear about how much he wanted me. That he never once doubted the change in plans for his life.
“So, Mom, I was thinking about something. Seth said that his mom left him a list of things he can do to make someone fall in love with him.”
“That was nice of her,” she says. “I”m not sure love works like that, but it’s a fun idea. Kind of like a whisper from the grave.”
“Anyway, it made me think of the letter that Dad left for the day I get married.”
She glances toward her closet. “I have it. Your dad trusted me to make sure it gets to you.”
“What if I never get married?” I ask.
“Why wouldn’t you get married?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. What if I never do? Do I never get to read what Dad wrote?”
“I’ll go and get it right now and read it to you if you want to know what it says. It’s not that kind of letter. It’s not a life lesson. If it’s anything like the letter he left for Jake, it’s just a welcome letter. Kind of an ‘I’m sorry I’m not there to meet you’ kind of thing.”
“You’ve never read it?”
She shakes her head. “No, I never did,” she says softly. “It wasn’t meant for me.” She clears her throat, which suddenly sounds like it has a lump in it. “Next time you come home, I’ll get it out for you. You can read it or take it with you or do whatever you want with it.”
I shake my head. “I can wait. I’d rather wait.”
“So, he got down on one knee?” she asks, her voice lilting and almost giddy.
“He did. But it was just for the pictures. It was to help Tasha.”
She snorts. “Think whatever you want, but I think it was more than that.”
A knock sounds on my door. I grab the phone from its stand and walk across the room to the door. I look through the peephole and see Seth standing there.
I open the door, and he smiles at me. One side of his face is turning a little purple, and his eye is swollen. “What happened to your face?” I ask.
“Wait!” Mom asks. “What happened to whose face?”
“Seth’s face, Mom,” I say absently. I turn the phone toward him as he walks into my apartment and shuts the door behind him.
“Hi, Mrs. J.,” he says.
“What happened to your face, Seth?” Mom asks.
He reaches for his eye. “My dad hit me.”
Mom sits forward on the bed. “Your dad hit you?” she asks.
He nods, but he doesn’t say more.
“Are you all right?” Mom asks as she chews on a thumbnail.
“I’m fine. Dad got arrested for stealing from the diner. He’s being detained for petty theft. I’m sure they’ll let him out soon.”
Mom hops off the bed and walks to the door. “Jake!” she calls.
I see Jake walk into the camera field. “You bellowed?” he says.
“Jake, you might need to call Freddy.”
“Why would I need to call Freddy?”
She points toward the phone. “They just locked up Seth’s dad.”
Jake picks up the phone. “Do you need me to make a call, Seth?”
“No,” Seth replies. “Karma is catching up with him. Years of bad decisions have a way of doing that.”
“I can call and at least find out what’s going on,” Jake says.
“No need,” Seth assures him. Seth reaches for his eye. “That’s the first time he’s ever hit me. It’ll be the last if I have anything to do with it.”
Mom and Jake share a look. “I’m sorry he let you down,” Mom says. “Sometimes realizing that parents are people with flaws is a little hard.”
“He has never been a parent,” Seth says. “I’m thankful to have Aunt Sky and Matt.” He shrugs. “They’re pretty great.”
Mom’s voice gets soft. “Gabby was telling me that your mom left a list of things for you to help you make someone fall in love with you.” She smiles. “You know, her dad left a letter that she’s not supposed to get until the day she gets married. I told her she could have it sooner, but she said she wants to wait, just like he planned.”
Pop walks into the bedroom carrying two cats. “What’s this I hear about a letter?” he says.
“Gabby and Seth, Pop,” Mom explains. “They both lost a parent, and they both have letters from them.”
“Well, now that we know he didn’t fuck Mimi,” Pop says, “I like him a lot more.”
Seth’s face turns red. “I did not fuck Mimi.”
Gabby’s head falls back as she groans. “All it took was for Pop to walk into the room,” she says, “and now this conversation has devolved into nonsense.”
“Him fucking Mimi was not nonsense,” Pop complains.
“Can we stop saying ‘fucking Mimi’?” Jake grouses.
“We should hang up now!” I say loudly, but I laugh when I do it.
“Wait!” Mom says. She points her finger at the screen. “If you didn’t fill that prescription, you need to.”
“Mom!” I cry as my face floods with heat. “Oh, my god,” I whisper.
“I love you, Gabby,” she croons. “Talk to you later!”
“Later,” I say. “Love you all!”
I click the button to hang up the phone and flop onto the couch. Seth sinks down next to me. He lifts one arm to rest behind me on the back of the sofa. “Do I want to know what prescription she’s talking about?” he asks, wincing.
“No.”
“Are you sure?” He nudges me.
“She was reminding me to be safe.” I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.
“Oh, that kind of prescription.” He chuckles. “It’s not my business, so I’m not going to ask.”
“What if I made it your business?” I ask.
“What?” He grins.
“I can’t think of it being anybody else’s business. But it’s definitely your business. If you want it to be your business, I mean.”
He laughs. “I most definitely want it to be my business.” He leans close and kisses me. “But only if you want it to be my business.”
“Are we there? Are we at the point where we’re talking about this stuff?” I ask.
“Apparently, we are.” He chuckles. “But only if you want to be.” He holds up both hands. “No pressure.”
I show him the grass ring on my finger. “No pressure?” I say. I lift my eyebrows at him. “No pressure.” I shove him gently. “That’s all the pressure.”
He holds my hand and stares down at the ring. “My mom said in her list that random acts that tell someone how you feel are a good thing.” He drops his voice down to a playful whisper. “This was a random act. Was it a good thing?”
“It was a very good thing,” I say, and then I lean forward and kiss him. I push back. “I’m going to get some ice for that eye. And then you’re going to tell me what happened with your father.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says as he follows me to the kitchen. He grins. “I’m staying the night unless you tell me that you don’t want me to.”
He picks up an apple from a bowl on the counter and takes a bite.
“I want you to,” I say. My eyes meet his, and he smiles. And I swear it touches something deep inside me when he kisses the inside of my wrist as I put the ice pack on his eye.