42. A Truth Fact
A TRUTH FACT
“ I t was a beautiful wedding, right, Mom?” Daphne asked her mother almost a month later.
Her parents flew in on Thursday afternoon and she picked them up at the airport since Aster was doing other things.
That was what she was going to do.
“It was nice,” her mother said. “Your brother did look handsome and your boyfriend is very good-looking. Wish I knew beforehand that you were dating someone and not just learning it a few weeks ago.”
“We’ve never talked about my personal life much,” she said. “You’ve never wanted to know.”
It wasn’t said carelessly. Just stating a truthful fact.
“You never wanted to be friends,” her mother said.
She sighed. There was no getting her mother to understand that they weren’t friends. It was a parent-child relationship.
But her parents were more interested in going out and having fun than they were about anything else.
She’d bet if she agreed and went along with her parents to their parties her life would be different.
She didn’t want to be like that. She didn’t want to go out multiple times a week, waste her money on booze and recreational drugs, then get up and go to work feeling like crap.
She wanted to grow up and be an adult. Her parents were still stuck in their twenties mentally. That was it, plain and simple, and they couldn’t understand why their children weren’t like that.
Just because her parents held down jobs and paid their bills, most times, they thought they were responsible adults.
In some people’s eyes, maybe they were.
But they weren’t responsible parents.
“Mom,” she said. “I’ve got friends. I need a mother and father in my life.”
Her mother snorted. “You never had that many friends.”
They were outside right now at Mona’s. The reception was still going on but winding down. Her mother came out to smoke a cigarette off to the side. Her father was at the bar.
“I had friends,” she argued. “But I put work first. Just like I’m doing here.”
“That isn’t a good way to keep a boyfriend,” her mother said. “But it seems like you got lucky with him owning that business and all. If you get to see him much. I bet he works more than you.”
“We see each other plenty enough,” she said. “We get along great. It’s only been about three months.”
“But you’re getting up there in age,” her mother said, smiling.
She rolled her eyes. She wanted to change the topic. “You look very pretty in your dress.”
“Thank you,” her mother said of a navy fitted dress that fell to the floor. It had lace over the top of it. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen her mother in a dress before.
Nor her father in a suit, but both of her parents did look the part. They even acted it last night at the rehearsal dinner too.
She wasn’t sure what she expected of them or their visit, but they were on their best behavior it seemed.
When the bill came for the dinner, Aster took care of it, not her parents. She didn’t expect any differently either.
But her mother and father were very nice and sweet to Raine and her family. She couldn’t ask for much more but hated that she felt as if some hammer was going to drop on her too.
It wasn’t like her parents to be this way. Unless it was because there was so much distance now that she had more tolerance for them. Or maybe she was just looking at them in a different light.
Nah, she knew them for who they were.
Not horrible people, just not the nice tidy family she would have liked growing up.
Nothing like Abe had.
“Did you pick your dress out yourself or go shopping with friends?”
Her mother almost always did things with friends. Never alone.
“Didi and I went together. I hadn’t realized how expensive dresses were. We got it on sale though. I’ll never wear it again. At least Dad might get use out of his suit again.”
“It’s nice to have one in the closet,” she said.
“Weddings and funerals and all,” her mother said, laughing. “Dad’s suit was more than my dress.”
Her mother always went back to money. “I’m sure you can afford it.”
Her mother smirked. Which said Aster paid for it all.
Not her problem. Nor her concern.
She felt a hand come around her back and turned to see Abe next to her.
“Hey,” he said. “I was looking for you.”
“Just getting some air and visiting with my mother.”
Her mother took her last drag on the cigarette and snuffed it out.
She could see her mother looking for a place to toss it and probably was going to put it on the ground, but Abe said, “There is a bin over there. I’ll take it for you.”
He reached his hand out to grab the butt and walked over to dispose of it.
“He has such manners,” her mother said. “No one would have known or cared if it was on the grass. They’ll have maintenance clean up after weddings.”
“I would have known,” she said. “There are bins there for a reason. Not to mention a lot of people use vape pens now so there is no waste left places.”
Her parents wouldn’t think that. They wouldn’t care either.
“It’s all good,” her mother said. “I don’t need to carry all that around when I can stuff a pack in my purse.”
She rolled her eyes. Nothing she could do about any of it and wasn’t going to even try.
Abe came back over. “Not many people left, is there?” she asked.
“Not really. Just immediate family at this point,” he said. “Most of those with kids left not that long ago.”
“Which is a lot,” she said, laughing. She’d said bye to her bosses about twenty minutes ago when she came out here to talk with her mother.
“Seems like you really struck gold with Poppy,” her mother said. “Both of my kids working for the same place.”
“Not sure it’s the same place or not,” Daphne said. “I work for Poppy and Reese and fall under his business. Aster works for Blossoms and falls under their business.”
“But you’ve got Poppy in common. She seems like a good time. I have to admit I was shocked to hear you got hurt. Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Who told you?” she asked. She hadn’t wanted them to know. They’d be filling her head with pressure to sue or take more time off.
“I overheard Aster’s doctor asking how your shoulder was doing and if it was giving you problems. What happened? It’s not like you to go to the doctor for anything, so it had to be bad.”
“Nothing much,” she said. “I fell and dislocated my shoulder.”
She looked at Abe to not say anything else. He held his lips sealed. For once!
“And knowing you, you would have continued to work rather than take it easy,” her mother said.
“I wanted to work,” she said. “There was no reason not to, but I did take the time off that I was instructed to. Then I returned and it’s all good.”
“I would have milked it,” her mother said. “But you’re only watching kids. Not a big deal. Just put the TV on.”
She heard Abe snort next to her after he stiffened. “Sure, Mom. It’s easy like that.”
It wasn’t worth her defending her career. Her mother wouldn’t care and never did.
She wouldn’t understand either.
“Daphne is great at her job,” he said. “She’s always engaged with the kids and teaching them.”
Her mother waved her hand. “No reason to do that. That’s why they go to school.”
She turned her head to Abe and shook it for him to not continue with this.
“Things are different now,” Daphne said. “What do you and Dad have planned for the rest of your time here?”
Might as well change the conversation back to her parents again. They always liked to talk about themselves anyway.
“Not sure yet,” her mother said. “Since Aster isn’t going on a honeymoon, we want to see him to talk. I’d love to drive by and see this new house he’s getting.”
Her brother was closing on his house next week. Lots of things happening at once for them.
Raine couldn’t get the time off as a teacher to go on a honeymoon now, so her brother and sister-in-law would be going over Christmas break.
It’d work out well, as she was going to Florida with Abe to spend Christmas with his mother.
“What is it you want to talk to him about?” she asked, frowning.
She was afraid she knew. Her parents had been a little quiet about what was going on with their house sale.
“We are closing on our house finally next month,” her mother said. “The original buyers backed out because we didn’t have the money to fix the things in the inspection. We got other buyers though and lowered the price. They accepted.”
“That’s good,” she said. “So what is the problem?”
“The place we were going to buy, we lost.”
“You never said anything,” she said.
Her mother shrugged. “It happened last week. We’ve got a short period of time to find a place and it’s not easy. We found one, but we need more money to put down.”
“Don’t even think about it,” she said. “This is Aster’s wedding day.”
“I’m not going to talk to him today,” her mother said, laughing. “Just before we leave.”
“Don’t do it,” she said. “Mom. Enough is enough. You guys got yourself into this and don’t expect Aster to bail you out.”
Abe squeezed her side. “Why don’t we go back in and say bye to everyone?”
She didn’t want to though. She needed to put an end to this.
Maybe it wasn’t the place, but it was time for her to put her foot down.
“No,” she said. “Mom. Don’t do this. Aster isn’t going to give you anything more and you know it. You’re only going to tick him off and then you’ll get mad and you’ll leave here at odds with each other. Is that what you want?”
Her mother seemed to hesitate. “It’s his money. He has enough of it to help us out.”
“You know what?” she said. “I tried. Do what you want. If you piss him off, he’ll have no problem cutting ties completely. Think of it that way.”
That must have been enough to get through to her mother. “How about you?” her mother said. “It’s only four thousand. Your father and I have the other six. We need ten thousand down. You aren’t paying anything to live where you are.”
“No,” Abe said. “Don’t you have any?—”
“Stop,” she said to Abe. “I don’t need you to fight my battles either.”
He stared at her hard and then turned to walk out.