23. Chapter 23 #2
“You don’t even know what this is,” she teased, stepping away to pull the bottles from the fridge, hoping everyone approved.
The sparkling wine was from a Minnesota winery that combined Minnesota grapes with California-grown ones.
The owners had stopped at the Galley last week with their sales pitch and Nelie had been impressed enough to buy several cases of their dry white bubbly, rosso, and sweet white bubbly.
Chet didn’t push for more before he carried the filled glasses to the table. Nelie handed a glass to Pris, with her sweater fixed, when she came back into the kitchen, and the two of them took their seats at the table.
“What’s the occasion?” Gus asked, looking at her expectantly, and Nelie felt flush.
Maybe pairing her announcements with wine was making a bigger deal of things than they had to be.
She should have been low key. Molehill not mountain.
She should have subtly made her changes instead of charging in like a bull and announcing them.
“I think we should celebrate every time we can all be together,” Mrs. Hart said. “Nelie, would you do us the honors of a toast?” she asked, tossing Nelie a line as if sensing she was going under.
Nelie licked her lips and raised her glass, saying, “To oysters and Legos.” The others joined, looking confused, but then smiled as the crisp bubbly hit their tongues.
“Nelie-girl, it’s a good thing this wine is tasty, because that’s the weirdest toast I’ve ever heard.” Leave it to Dad to call out the elephant in the room.
“Let the poor girl explain.” Mrs. Hart swatted at Gus.
“Thank you, Meemaw,” Nelie said. Everyone cringed.
“Oma?”
“I’m not German-enough,” Mrs. Hart replied, sounding amused as Nelie struggled to find a name for the woman who was her newfound grandmother.
“Nanna? Glammy? Gigi?” Mrs. Hart shook her head after each one.
“Ohh. Glammy’s not bad.” Suzanne patted her chin with her finger.
“Can I take that?” She looked at Jackson and Emily for approval.
Nelie liked that Suzanne had asked permission, since everyone would be stuck using the term.
They agreed, but Emily didn’t look sold on the moniker.
Nelie thought it was cute and fit Suzanne perfectly.
“How about babushka?” Jackson deadpanned, and Mrs. Hart glared at him. Gus chuckled.
“Nanny?” Pris suggested.
“That’s a goat, dear.” Mrs. Hart said, patting Pris’s hand. Nelie had tried all the nicknames she’d found. Back to square one. She sighed.
“Well, Rosie, I’ll keep working on it,” Nelie grumbled, lifting her glass to her lips.
“Oh, my,” Mrs. Hart gasped and touched her hand over her heart.
“I haven’t heard that in years. My father always called me that.
Mostly to aggravate my mother, I think, but still.
” She looked wistful, as if transported back to happy childhood memories.
“Can we try that and see how it goes? If not, I’m sure Jackson and Pris won’t mind you co-opting Gram. ”
Nelie slapped on a smile and nodded. She’d wanted a special grandmother-type name, not part of her first name. But Mrs. Hart, Rosie , had looked so happy hearing the name. As long as we know the truth, that’s all that matters , she consoled herself.
“Now that we’ve straightened that out, what’s with the oysters and Legos?” Gus asked.
Nelie took Chet’s hand and told the story about how he’d once said the world was her oyster, but she didn’t understand the phrase and she’d made him explain it to her.
How he’d forced her to open her eyes and see she was doing what she thought everyone wanted her to do, not what she wanted to do.
“I think you meant to use the phrase gently coerced ,” Chet said. Nelie snorted.
“More like nagged or blackmailed.” She gave him a small smile and a few people chuckled. Nelie sensed everyone around the table had been gently coerced by someone who loved them at some point. “I was afraid if I wasn’t helpful Nelie, I wouldn’t have anyone.”
“The consummate people-pleaser,” Emily said, and Nelie knew her friend understood.
Emily’s people-pleasing and perfectionist tendencies had led her into an eating disorder, but thankfully, with treatment and a lot of hard work, she’d battled her way out of it.
Emily admitted life was a slippery slope sometimes, but Jackson helped her maintain a firm footing.
“And in the last month, you all exploded my world,” Nelie said, looking at her dad, Rosie, and her birthmother.
They looked contrite. “My first thought was to put my world back together as it was, but I kept thinking about the world being my oyster. That I could reinvent or rebrand myself. But I l like me.” Nelie shrugged unapologetically, rubbing the wine glass’s stem between her fingers.
“Then I thought maybe life is more like a Lego set. When you’re done, you can break it and use the same pieces to build something else.
When I told Chet everything, he said I had to figure out what I wanted, not what I wanted because I thought other people wanted me to want it. Does that make sense?”
Heads nodded around the table and Nelie felt her shoulders relax. They understood, and it didn’t seem like she’d offended anyone. Yet. “I’m still working on it, but I wanted to tell everyone at the same time so I wouldn’t have to reexplain myself.”
“Go on,” her dad drawled, leaning his elbows on the table as if bracing himself. Nelie swallowed. Here goes.