Chapter 21
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
ANNIE
I can’t believe my resignation from Drizzle is official. Human Resources told me no one had filed for my termination, so I went ahead and did the dirty work myself. I wasn’t entitled to anything if they fired me anyway, because I only worked for Drizzle as a contracted worker.
I made sure to go in on a Saturday so there was no chance of me running into Kurt. He can keep the I told you so that I’m sure he’s thinking to himself.
As soon as I pull into the motel parking lot, I know something is wrong. I can see my mom standing outside of our room with her phone to her ear. She isn’t facing the parking lot but her shoulders are hunched and she’s gesturing wildly with sharp movements like she’s upset about something.
I climb out of the Jeep cautiously. The only word I hear clearly from her shrill rambling into the phone is “flooded.” My stomach sinks.
I want to believe that she’s invested in a movie plot that she’s relaying to someone, but reality sinks in as I make my way toward our room. Water has seeped out beyond the doorway, spilling onto the concrete landing.
“What’s going on?” I ask with a quivering voice, interrupting my mom’s call.
“I have to go,” she speaks quickly into the phone and hangs up without giving the person on the other line a chance to respond. She turns to me and her face is so pale she looks almost gray. “A pipe burst in the room behind ours. Both of our room neighbors got flooded, too, but our room got the worst of things. Maintenance just left. They offered to pay for a professional cleaner to take care of the stuff I had on the floor that got wet and to refund the rest of our payment for the month.”
“Refund? They aren’t going to move us to another room?” This isn’t our fault!
“Apparently they don’t have another room. They’ve been remodeling the vacant rooms and they’re not inhabitable.” Mom scrubs her hands over her face.
I shouldn’t have resigned from Drizzle. Continuing to work there would be awkward and embarrassing but Kurt wouldn’t have an easy time firing me for breaking up with his son. I could have survived a few more weeks working there to make sure one emergency wouldn’t eat my mediocre savings.
I thought I would be able to finish this semester off of my savings and then get a work-study once the new semester starts when there are more openings. I didn’t expect to need more money than my mom is bringing in right now until the insurance comes in.
“What was the last update on the bed and breakfast insurance?” The tone of my voice is hollow. I’m not prepared to let any emotion trickle in yet.
Mom shakes her head. “Luca helped me finally get them to start processing everything but the check might not come for weeks still. He didn’t seem optimistic when I called to ask if he thinks there’s anything I can do to expedite it.”
“Is he generally optimistic?”
She purses her lips to consider this question. “Not especially so, no.”
Well, maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll find the magic words to convince the insurance people to grow a conscience. Betty White knows they’ve given us the run around long enough. The fire was cleared as an electrical fire accident right after it happened.
“We’re going to have to go somewhere sketchier, aren’t we?” I dread looking at our other options for a place to stay. We chose this motel because it’s the safest of the options. I’m not sure we’ll have as much luck with the next place.
“I’m sorry, kid.” Mom sniffles. “Things weren’t supposed to go like this. I thought everything was finally going in our favor.”
I reach for her, pulling her into a tight squeeze. “Hey, we’ll land on our feet. We always do.”
The weight of this disaster weighs heavily on my chest, but none of this is my mom’s fault. She’s been doing her best for me my whole life. And sure, sometimes she’s a little flighty or too whimsical when I want her to be serious, but she’s a good mom. A good person . I don’t want her to shoulder the weight of this new problem all by herself.
“We’ll figure this out,” I reassure her. “For now, let’s see what we can salvage to take with us.”
I’m thankful we generally kept our things off of the ground. Some of my mom’s costume boxes from storage are damp but that stuff can be cleaned. The electronics and our regular clothes are all fine.
We lost far less in this flood than we did in the fire. We’re going to be okay… somehow.
We manage to pack up most of our things in record time since we didn’t have much left after the fire to begin with. There are a few boxes of costumes sitting up high enough they didn’t get wet that we’ll have to come back for.
I wince as I splash through the worst of the residual water in the bathroom. The puddle is ankle-deep in one spot where the floor dips a little. Luckily, I thought to change into my rain boots while we pack up instead of scoping things out in wet socks.
“Should I leave our towels?” We bought our own towels to avoid using the motel’s threadbare ones.
“Shit.” My mom shuffles around in the other room for a moment before popping up in the bathroom doorway. “I used them when the water first started gushing in from behind the sink. Just leave those with the stuff that needs to be cleaned.”
My mom looks like she’s aged more in the past hour than she did my whole childhood combined. Her eyes are drooping at the corner with exhaustion. She’s expending twice as much energy as I am while we pack because she has to give every item she packs its own backstory and voice, as if all of our items have come to life like the furniture in Beauty and the Beast. I’m trying not to judge her too much for her strange coping mechanisms.
This is all incredibly stressful. We’re about to be displaced for the second time this year.
“Hello?” a deep voice calls into the room.
Mom and I both startle at the unexpected intrusion. Then, her face lights up as she realizes whose voice that is.
“Luca!” She bounds out of the bathroom and I follow.
Her boss scowls from the doorway as his gaze scans the room, taking stock of the situation. Apparently, he decided to do more than make some calls about her insurance payout. There’s something kind of nice about him showing up for my mom in her time of need.
I don’t remember the last time a guy was around flying any green flags instead of the usual red ones. I’m not crazy about the fact that he’s her boss, but I know better than to think logic will keep my mom from pursuing something if that’s what she wants.
And I’m honestly too grateful for the potential help to care right now.
“Hey,” I greet Luca far more calmly than my mom, who only manages to get about halfway across the room before launching herself at him.
He doesn’t seem particularly comfortable with my mom wrapping herself around him like a spider monkey. He does relax after a moment though, patting her back in an unpracticed way that looks like he’s just trying his best.
The thing I’m happy to read into his discomfort is that while he doesn’t push her away, they also don’t seem overly intimate together.
Luca cares enough to show up for my mom, but they haven’t rushed into anything yet. I’m relieved to know that they didn’t immediately cross those boundaries as soon as my mom started working for him, even if that’s the direction things are headed between them. She could use something a little closer to a slow burn.
My mom needs someone who takes their time to be sure about her. She can be… a lot.
“I’m glad the two of you are okay. Is all of your stuff packed?” Luca asks.
“Mostly,” I answer as my mom disentangles herself from her boss. “I have a few things left to grab in the bathroom, and we have a few boxes that didn’t fit in the Jeep.”
Luca crosses his arms over his chest and points a stern look first at my mom and then at me. He looks so capable and ready to take charge as he stands in our doorway dressed in slacks and a button-down.
“I’ll help put the boxes in my car. The two of you are going home with me.”