Chapter 1 #2
Upon re-entering the house, Callie nearly lost her footing as she walked right into one of Mallory’s duffle bags.
Sasha and the baby were nowhere to be seen, for which Mallory was eternally grateful.
She didn’t want there to be any witnesses to the conversation she knew she couldn’t avoid for much longer.
Rushing to move her bags off to the side, she caught a glimpse of her mother’s worried expression.
“You’re staying for a while then?” Callie asked.
“Yeah, well…” Mallory straightened up and forced a smile. “That’s sort of up to you and dad I suppose. Can we talk about it over coffee? I didn’t get any sleep last night and I feel like I could crash any second if I don’t get a sip or two of caffeine in my system.”
Callie pursed her lips but nodded and led the way into the kitchen.
Mallory looked around for her dad, but all was quiet in the house.
As if reading her mind, Callie said, “Your dad is on a work call right now. I think it’s international, and he’s got those noise cancelling headphones he uses, so he can’t hear a thing that’s going on outside of his office. I’m not sure when he’ll be done.”
“Ah. I see.” Mallory took a seat at the kitchen island and her mother got the coffee pot going. “So, how long has Sasha been here?”
“Two weeks.”
“Wow. And you didn’t think to tell me?”
Callie smiled thinly over her shoulder. “Sweetheart, it’s not like you’ve been great at keeping in touch with us either.
I was going to call and let everyone know before Thanksgiving, I just hadn’t had the time yet.
It wasn’t like I was keeping Sasha a secret.
” But the way her mom laughed after saying this, told Mallory that maybe she had been planning on hiding the truth.
At least for the time being.
“You’re right,” she admitted. “I’m sorry I haven’t called in a while.
Things have been pretty chaotic in Chicago.
I haven’t been great about keeping up with anyone.
I haven’t spoken to Ariel in probably close to a month.
” She mentioned Ariel since there was a time in Mallory’s life that she and her sister texted or talked on the phone nearly every single day.
Things had changed a lot once Ariel had her third kid, however, and there had been a few sisterly arguments over the years that left their relationship a little more timid that Mallory would’ve liked.
“Well, you’ll see her at Thanksgiving,” her mom said. “Taylor too. I’m going to make sure everyone's here for the holiday this year.” She hit the ‘brew’ button on the coffee maker and turned back to face her daughter. “I assume you’ll be staying here through the end of the month at least?”
“Uh, yeah… If that’s okay.”
“You know you’re always welcome to stay here, for as long as you’d like.” Callie raised a brow.
“But if I’m not mistaken, there were at least three overly stuffed bags in the entryway, so unless you brought us all presents from Chicago, I have a feeling you were actually planning to stay for longer than a couple of weeks… No?”
“Originally, yes.” Mallory sighed and let her head fall back for a moment. Her neck was killing her. “But that was before I knew you had another house guest. Two, actually.”
“There’s plenty of room,” Callie said. “So don’t worry about that.” She approached the island, face scrunched up with concern. “Honey, what happened? Is everything okay?”
“Define okay.”
“Did you get fired again?”
The defeated tone of her mom’s voice made Mallory feel like she was going to cry.
She fought back the tears, however, and cleared her throat before speaking.
“It’s a long story. I don’t really feel like getting into it right now, but the gist is that things didn’t work out.
And in a city like Chicago, where I was already living paycheck to paycheck, not having a job pretty much guarantees that you’re going to lose your apartment.
So, I decided to come back here while I figure out my next move.
” She hated the fact that these words sounded rehearsed.
It wasn’t that she had gone over them in her head beforehand or anything, it’s just that she’d said them multiple times in the past. This was the third—or maybe fourth—time she’d returned home after failing to get her life together, and now she was pushing forty.
Pathetic.
“I’m sorry to hear that things didn’t work out.” Her mom patted her hand lovingly, probably knowing on some level what was going through Mallory’s head just then. “I thought you were really enjoying that job. You kept it for a long time.”
By Mallory’s standards, this was true. She’d held down her previous job for longer than any that came before it, but to say she was ‘enjoying’ the work was a major exaggeration.
The work, up until recently, hadn’t been completely and entirely soul sucking, which was the bar Mallory had set for herself when she first moved to Chicago.
“Like I said… It’s a long story.”
“Right, I understand,” her mom said. “And anyway, I’m glad you’re home.”
Mallory felt a weak smile tug at the corners of her mouth. She knew her parents weren’t judgy people, and that they would always support her no matter what. She just wished she didn’t need so much help from them. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she figure things out on her own for a change?
“I’m not going to stay that long,” she said, mostly to herself. “It would be nice to spend the holidays here, so that I’m not alone in some new city, but after Christmas, I’m going to be leaving. I swear. I won’t allow myself to get too comfortable here and waste a lot of time.”
Callie smiled. “Sure, sweetie. Whatever you feel is right. Your father’s going to be so excited to see you.” She turned back to the coffee machine and retrieved a couple mugs from the shelf above the sink. “Now, remind me how you take it?”
“Black,” Mallory said. “And bleak.”
Just like my future.
But no, she couldn’t let herself think like that.
She needed to hang onto hope that things were going to get better, hope that she was capable of turning her life around.
It was possible, wasn’t it? This time, she would lean on her parents only as much as she absolutely had to, and in two months time, she was going to be on to bigger and better things.
I have to be.