27. Emotional Nonsense
27
EMOTIONAL NONSENSE
T oward the end of the following week, Tori was in her office when her cell phone rang.
She picked it up and saw it was her mother calling. It was only ten in the morning and the fact her mother hadn’t called her in a long time but just texted or emailed vents most of the time, she thought it might be an emergency.
“Hello,” she said.
“Tori,” her mother said, sobbing.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up straight and preparing herself for emergency mode. “Are you okay?”
“Dan left me.”
“What?” she asked, sagging back into the canvas of her chair. “Who is Dan?”
“My boyfriend,” her mother said.
“Since when?” she asked, flipping her hand up in agitation.
Normally her mother told her everything in her life, but lately, it was only some vents about the people she worked with, the neighbors in her building, sometimes the cost of food and gas, or that she was tired.
It was a nonstop endless string of complaints and she wished she’d never suggested her mother do that to feel better.
All it did was add to the toxic mess that Tori was trying to clean up.
It’s as if her mother used her to dump even more emotional nonsense on knowing that Tori wouldn’t reply, but didn’t stop to think that the sponge was filling up and ready to ooze out green bubbling slime everywhere with other people’s problems.
“It’s been about a month,” her mother said. “He’s the only good thing in my life. Or he was.”
“You never said one word of it when you’ve texted or emailed,” she said.
“Well, those are venting like you said. You could have called to check on me and you haven’t.”
Her lips twisted in frustration.
She hadn’t called because she didn’t want a half-hour dialogue of what was in the texts or emails. Maybe if her mother put anything else in them other than bitching, she would have called.
It’s not that Tori didn’t respond at all, she normally did. Or asked how everything was going only to get more negativity.
The fact her mother felt like there was something happy in her life should have been shared too.
That way she would have been prepared to deal with the breakup like she always had to do.
“Mom,” she said. “I ask you all the time how you’re doing. You never ask me, but I always do to you. Don’t give me that.”
“I don’t need a lecture,” her mother said, sniffling. “How can you be so unfeeling?”
Her teeth were ready to crack with the resistance to not snap. “You’ve dated this man for a month,” she said calmly. “Dan, right?”
“Yes,” her mother said. “And I thought everything was going so well and then last night he told me I was rushing and we needed to take a few steps back.”
Nothing new there with her mother. Maybe that was why Tori was so slow with all her relationships.
“That doesn’t sound like he’s breaking up with you, but just slowing down.”
“But he changed his status on the online site where I met him. After a few days with me, he said he was taken and took his profile down. But last night I checked and it was active again and he said he was single. That’s breaking up with me.”
In a nice passive-aggressive style.
Her mother sure knew how to pick and find a man.
“That’s where you met?” she asked. “Online?”
“Yes,” her mother said. “It’s hard to meet anyone in person around here. They are all younger than me in the bars.”
“Good point. Do you know why he wanted to slow down? What happened or what did you do he thought was rushing?”
Even though she was positive she knew the answer to this.
“I asked if I could move in with him,” her mother said. “I don’t like my place and the new neighbors are really loud. He even commented on it himself when he was here one night.”
“You thought after a month of dating that it was okay to move in with him?” she asked.
“You don’t understand,” her mother snapped. “If you ever dated anyone you’d know that. When you find someone you like you want to be with them all the time.”
She rolled her eyes.
That wasn’t true for her.
She’d never want to be with someone all the time like her mother was.
People need their space and privacy for all sorts of reasons in life.
Crowding was never a good thing.
“This isn’t about me,” she said. “It’s about you. It’s not the first time this has happened to you. You get attached too soon. Or you move too fast and scare people away.”
“He was helping me,” her mother whined. “Last week he put gas in my car for me because I was short on funds. He takes me out and we have a good time.”
“Have you done anything for him?” she asked. Her mother always needed someone to step up and care for her and not the other way around.
“I’ve cooked for him a few times,” her mother said. “He likes home-cooked meals. He said he really liked me, but now I think he was lying. Maybe it was his age.”
She put her head back on her chair and closed her eyes hissing out a breath. “How old was he, Mom?”
“Forty-five,” her mother said.
“That’s ten years younger than you,” she said.
“I know,” her mother said. “He didn’t have a problem with it. He loved when I was cooking and I did his laundry for him while he stayed here. He was staying here more nights than me going to his place.”
She held back the laugh. “Sounds like he wanted someone to take care of him.”
“No,” her mother said. “He just said he enjoyed being with me and it was closer to his work from my place.”
More like using her mother then.
“Well,” she said. “Now you don’t have to worry about cooking or doing his laundry either.”
“But I wasn’t putting money away while I was dating him. I thought for sure I’d end up in his place and not have to worry. He talked like we were heading that way.”
“Then what happened?” she asked rolling her eyes. Typical of her mother’s actions when she met a man.
“I don’t know,” her mother said. “I mentioned my lease was renewing in two months and that it’d be nice to move in with him and not worry.”
“When was this?” she asked.
“Yesterday morning before he was leaving for work.” Her mother stopped to blow her nose. “Then last night he came over to get his things and said he needed a break.”
“That’s when he said you were moving too fast?”
“Yes,” her mother said, crying. “I asked when I’d see him again. What he meant by a break.”
“Did he answer you?”
“He said he’d talk to me in a few days. But then I checked online and saw his profile was activated last night. Probably when he walked in the door to his place. What a jerk.”
“Sounds it to me,” she said.
“That’s not helping me any,” her mother screeched.
“I’m trying to be supportive,” she said, sighing again. “But we have these conversations all the time, Mom. You knew him for a month. You’ll find someone else.”
Her mother always did.
“I know,” her mother said. “But you said I could vent and that is what I’m doing. But I was too upset to type it.”
“Are you at work right now?” she asked. That just occurred to her.
“No,” her mother said. “I called in sick.”
Here they went again.
“Don’t do it too much, Mom. That is how you end up getting fired or written up.”
“I just needed today. I’ll be fine. I think so. In time.”
“I’m sure you’ll bounce back like you always do,” she said.
She said a few more appropriate things and then hung up the phone.
She got back to work and tried to put it from her mind.
When lunch rolled around, she ate at her desk and then decided to see if Raina was around. Not that she wanted to vent about her mother because she knew what that was like, but she needed to see someone with a happy family life.
She walked up the stairwell to just move her legs. The one thing she hated was sitting all the time.
“Hi, Tori. Looking for Raina or Hyde?” Maureen asked.
Nothing was a secret around here anymore. “Raina,” she said.
“Go on back,” Maureen said.
She moved down the hall and looked into Raina’s office, but didn’t see her.
Dang it. She didn’t want to walk around looking either. Maybe Raina was in a meeting for all she knew.
She turned and went back down the hallway toward Hyde’s office. When she’d gone by he wasn’t in there either and she figured he was out to lunch.
Sometimes he ate at his desk, other times in Ryder’s office or the cafeteria.
Nope, still not there.
“Tori.”
She turned the corner and ran into Garrett Fierce. “Not sure if you’re looking for Raina or Hyde, but they are both in Drake’s office.”
“Oh,” she said. “I decided to walk up on my lunch and stretch my legs to see if either were around. Not a big deal.”
“Nonsense,” Garrett said. “They are probably wrapping up now. Drake doesn’t normally run too late on his meetings through lunch because he spends some of that time with Kara.”
Kara was the CFO now. Someone who worked her way up since she was hired years ago and then one of those set-ups with Drake.
“I don’t want to bother them.”
“Follow me,” Garrett said, smirking. “I can interrupt anyone I want. No one tells me no.”
She laughed. “I’m sure they don’t. At least not to your face.”
“I like that spirit of yours, Tori,” Garrett said. “Look who we have here. She was walking the halls and looking lost.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not quite,” she said when Garrett nudged her into Drake’s open door. Raina and Hyde were standing so it wasn’t much of a meeting or it was ending.
“I know how my father is,” Drake said. “But we are done here.”
“Who do you want?” Garrett asked.
Nothing like putting her on the spot to choose between her best friend and boyfriend.
“She’s yours,” Raina said. “I’m starving and then have a call in ten minutes.”
Raina winked at her and dashed out of the office quickly.
“Guess I get to visit with my girlfriend,” Hyde said. “Want to go back to my office or take a walk?”
“How about a walk?” she said. She needed some air after she’d been put on the spot like that.
“I figured,” he said.
He put his hand on her back and led her toward the staircase, glad that he knew her well enough without saying the words.
“That wasn’t real smooth,” Drake said to Garrett.
“What?” he asked. “I saw her walking around and didn’t want her to think they weren’t here.”
“I doubt that,” Drake said. “You wanted to see how she and Hyde reacted to each other.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. It’s not like I’m getting much information on anything with them.”
“Which is the way it should be,” Drake said. “They are dating and you know it. There don’t seem to be any problems either.”
“I’m not so sure of that when it looked as if she didn’t know which one she wanted to talk to.”
Drake laughed. “Not your problem, is it?”
“No,” he said, frowning. “Don’t suppose Hyde ever talks about Tori with you?”
“Nope,” Drake said. “I don’t ask either. He has enough people bugging him about his personal life in this office. If he needs a shoulder to lean on, he’s got Ryder or he can come to me or Raina and he knows it. I don’t need to hound him like you and Uncle Grant.”
He all but sputtered. “We don’t hound.”
“Yep, you do,” Drake said. “You’re champions at it. You’ve been doing it for years.”
“You don’t seem too upset over it with those beautiful grandkids of mine. Though I wish I’d get some more.”
“Oh no,” he said. “Don’t turn this around on me. Or that. Kara and I are done. Owen and Olivia are more than enough for us.”
“But they are going into kindergarten next year. The perfect time to try for another.”
“Don’t you start again,” Kara said, moving into the office.
“I didn’t know you were here,” he said all but jumping out of his skin.
He knew enough not to speak to his daughter-in-law about that. He’d done it for a few years here and there and stopped. His wife got her licks in enough.
“I’m always here,” Kara said, laughing. “The same as Drake. And we love we can go home and get a good night’s sleep with the kids. A baby takes that all away. Maybe if your genes didn’t get me multiples the first time, I wouldn’t be fearful of it happening again. But there you go, blame yourself if anyone.”
“Oh,” Drake said. “She got you, Dad. Let’s go, honey. I love it when you make my parents speechless.”
Garrett watched his son leave with Kara and smiled.
Yeah, he liked it when Kara did that too. They’d done well with their kids.