Chapter 2
Having used up almost all her courage to confront Sasha in the bookstore, Callie found herself waiting for Sasha to speak first as they walked together.
Naturally, the young woman didn’t seem keen to jump into this conversation, so neither of them said anything for a while.
When they reached end of the block, Callie gave Sasha a look, and that seemed to be enough to break the ice.
“I know what you saw—it looked pretty bad,” she began. “But it wasn’t what you think. At all.”
“Then… what was it?” Callie didn’t see how what she saw could be anything other than Sasha rifling through her private papers. What she really wanted to know was why, but hopefully Sasha was getting to that part.
“I was looking for Dot’s pacifier. She’d lost it the day before and I had already searched everywhere.”
Callie deflated a little. She knew there was a chance Sasha was lying, but she hoped the young woman would be a little less obvious about it.
On the other hand, there was something a little charming about how terrible Sasha was at coming up with an alternative explanation.
It validated Callie’s earlier assumptions that she wasn’t capable of being a hardened scammer.
“But then I remembered that you were playing with her the day before,” Sasha continued. “And I thought maybe you brought her up to your bedroom. If she dropped it on the floor in there, it would’ve been very easy for someone to kick it under the bed, so that’s why—”
“Sasha, stop.”
“I’ve done it before,” she went on, laughing a little self-consciously, “kicked her pacifier under the bed, I mean. In fact, you don’t want to know how many pacifiers we lost while we were at the shelter. I moved those boxes out of the way just so that I could get a better look, and—”
“And then you started looking for the pacifier in the boxes?” Callie finished her words.
“You thought somehow it had not only been kicked under the bed, but that someone had then taken a lid off one of the bankers’ boxes and dropped the pacifier on top of all my important documents?
Is that really the story you want to go with? ”
“I—I—” Sasha stumbled over her words.
“Please,” Callie said before the young woman could come up with another ridiculous lie.
“Just tell me the truth, Sasha. Lying to me right now is only going to make me trust you even less. But I want to trust you. Help me understand what you were really doing with those boxes, and then maybe we can move past this.”
As they came to a stop at a crosswalk, Sasha shoved her hands into the pocket of her coat.
“I know it’s hard—”
“I was looking for money,” Sasha said plainly, although her voice cracked a little. This revelation hit Callie more than the slap of cold air that whipped past them, and she drew in a sharp breath. “That’s probably the last thing you want to hear, but there it is. That’s the truth.”
“You were going to steal from me? From us?” Callie couldn’t believe how quickly everything was falling apart. After all this time, after all the arguments she’d had in which she’d defended Sasha vehemently… “Why?”
“I just needed enough to get a bus ticket. That’s all I was going to take, fifty, maybe a hundred bucks. Enough to get back to the shelter and nothing more, I swear to God.”
Callie turned and gawked at her. Was this another lie? Sasha’s expression was stoic and sad, earnest even, but none of it made any sense to Callie. “Why would you want to go back to the shelter?”
“I don’t want to,” she said, tears coming to her eyes. “But I thought I might have to.”
“What are you talking about? Is there some kind of problem with the sponsorship program or something? Did the social worker say something?”
“No, it’s not that…” Sasha breathed in deeply and kicked a rock into the street.
“I’ve been thinking that you and David are going to kick me out any day now, and I didn’t want to be thrown out on my butt without any money.
I won’t get my first paycheck from the bookstore for another week or two, so I just wanted to make sure that I had something to help me get where I needed to go. ”
“But—why?” Callie shook her head in disbelief. “Where did you get the idea that David and I were going to kick you out? Did he say something that would make you think that?” Her brow furrowed with anger. “Did the kids?”
“No. Nobody said anything. It’s just that with your other two kids being in town, the house is so full… I was afraid that Dot might be a bother, or Mallory would want her room back… that eventually someone would decide I needed to go.”
“We would never do something like that to you. Haven’t we shown you we’re not those kinds of people?”
“It’s not personal.” Sasha was quick to clarify.
“It’s—it’s hard to explain.” She blew out a foggy breath and brought her hands up to her mouth, warming her cold fingers.
Sasha seemed to be clamming up, possibly from the cold, but Callie couldn’t let that happen—not when they were starting to get somewhere.
Callie looked around and saw that the coffee shop across the street was open. “C’mon,” she said, motioning with her head. “Let’s go warm up and we can finish this conversation over coffee.”
“My break is only twenty minutes.”
“We’ve got time,” Callie assured her. “And if I’m late getting you back, then I’ll tell Kate it was my fault. It’s just too cold out here, but I want to make sure we get everything out on the table before either of us goes back home.”
*
“This isn’t an excuse,” Sasha said once the two of them were seated with pastries and steaming mugs of coffee in front of them. “Because I feel terrible for going through your things, and for even thinking about stealing. But… this sort of thing has become second nature to me in a way.”
“Explain.”
“I always like having a back-up plan. An escape route in case I need one. It’s something I’ve learned is very important, since I’ve basically been living on the run for my entire life.”
“On the run?” Callie blinked quickly. Thankfully, she had already swallowed her coffee when Sasha said this, otherwise she might’ve choked. “You mean… like running from the law?”
“What?” Sasha balked. “No! Why would you assume that?”
Callie opened her mouth, but Sasha put a hand up to stop her.
“No, you know what, never mind. I understand why you would say something like that, I literally just admitted to trying to steal from you.” Sasha let out an awkward laugh.
“But that’s not what I meant. My mom and I never had a stable place to live when I was little.
When we couldn’t crash with my grandmother, we were constantly moving, or getting kicked out of our apartment because we weren’t able to pay rent.
Over time, I realized I shouldn’t ever get too comfortable living in one place, because chances are, I’d end up having to leave again.
And when I was forced to leave, I knew I should always have a back-up plan, or else things would get bad. Like sleeping on a park bench bad.”
“Oh.” Callie’s heart sank into a sea of guilt. How could she have accused Sasha of being a criminal? She sheepishly took a sip of coffee. “That… makes sense, but I’m sorry to hear that you were raised with that kind of stress.”
“Please don’t say you’re sorry,” Sasha said. “It’s not your fault, and besides, I’m the one who should be apologizing. I never should’ve gone through your stuff and even though I didn’t find any money, I’m also sorry for even thinking about stealing from you.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not!” Sasha shook her head. “It’s completely immature. The adult thing to do would’ve been to talk to you about this, instead of stealing your money and preparing for the worst without a good reason. If you want to kick me out now that you know the truth, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Callie gave her a stern, but loving look.
“I’d never throw you out for something like this.
Sasha, the reason I brought you into my house in the first place was because I wanted to help you.
I’m not doing this to get a pat on the back from my friends, and I’m too old to be seeking a charity badge from the girl scouts. ”
This got the smallest smile from the girl, which helped Callie feel a bit more at ease.
“I actually want to make a difference, which is why I wasn’t planning on ever asking you to leave.”
Sasha’s eyes widened. “W–what? You mean, like, ever ever?”
“You heard me,” Callie said. “Unless something happened that made it impossible to live with each other, I was going to let you stay for as long as you wanted, or as long as you needed. You don’t have to leave until you’re ready, basically. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
“Really?”
“Well, sure.” Callie beamed. “It’s been so nice having you around.
And you know I adore Dot, so I don’t see any reason why you would need to clear out any time soon.
I’m sure David would agree with me. I’m not positive what the rules are with this sponsorship program, but if they have some kind of time limit, I’m not going to enforce it.
As far as I’m concerned, you always have a place with us. ”
“Wow.” Sasha sat back in her chair and sighed with relief. “This is… not how I expected this conversation to go. Then again, nothing with you and David has been what I expected. You two are very different than I thought you’d be.”
“How’s that?” Callie’s chest constricted as she recalled the last time they had a conversation about her and her husband. She was still uncomfortably aware of the fact that Sasha had once assumed she was a cheater, and she really wanted to avoid steering the conversation in that direction again.
“Oh—nothing really. I guess, I just thought you’d be less welcoming or something.”
“Why?”