CHAPTER 20
“C an I talk to you about something?” Elisa asked after she pushed the wrapper from the most delicious sandwich she had ever had away.
“Sure,” Myra replied.
“I was talking to Gwen earlier, filling her in on what Archie had suggested about the guest house, and at first, before she knew all that he had told me, she suggested I consider it.”
Myra took the final bite of her sandwich and chewed as she seemed to consider what Elisa had just said.
“She told you to move back?”
“Not exactly. She said I should consider staying there when the kids are on breaks.”
“Oh,” Myra said. “What did you want to ask me?”
“Well, I can’t just not see my kids, and if they prefer to be there, they won’t spend much time, if at all, here.
If and when they do, they’ll be miserable, and I don’t want that.
I know he’s an asshole, and I don’t want to give him what he wants, but I was thinking that if this is what the kids really want, I might just stay there for part of their breaks to spend time with them but never go in the main house.
I could get a hotel, I guess, but that would get pretty expensive, and they wouldn’t want to just hang out with their mom in a hotel room.
I suppose there’s always a vacation rental thing, but the town is so small, it’s not like there are a lot of those around. ”
“You’re thinking of staying in the guest house?” Myra asked.
“Maybe for a couple of nights when the kids are there. I don’t know.
” Elisa sighed. “They’re coming home tomorrow, so I’m going to talk to them then, but I can’t not see my kids.
If they want to be there, I can suck it up for a few school breaks.
We’ll figure out summer when we get there, I guess.
I know I’m not going to stay there for three months. ”
Myra cleared her throat.
“What do you think?” Elisa continued as she shrugged a shoulder.
“About?”
“Myra, I’m asking you what you think I should do.”
“Elisa, I can’t make this decision for you.”
“I know, but I’m looking for some advice here. Gwen is too close to it, I think.”
“So am I,” Myra stated. “Not related to your ex, but I still have a vested interest in you.”
Elisa smiled and asked, “Vested interest?”
“Yeah. This is our second date. I was hoping for a third, a fourth, and so on. If you’re two hours away, living in a guest house, and he doesn’t want you to have me there, that could be a problem, but it’s not about me or what I want. It’s about you.”
“I wouldn’t be moving there,” Elisa told her.
“I know. But whether it’s me or it’s another woman in your future, I suspect you’d be there for major holidays, and he doesn’t want you to have anyone there.”
“It’s just for this year. We will figure something out before summer.
The kids will also start to lose touch with their hometown friends, so they won’t mind being here as much.
Besides, AJ will be at school earlier next year for his soccer, and I’m sure Adele will get into some internship or something. It’ll get easier.”
Myra gave her a soft smile and replied, “It’s your call.
If you think you can stand it, I get wanting to spend time with your kids, Elisa.
I want you to be happy. I just think if you do this, he’ll find a way to make your life miserable while you’re there as much as he can, so maybe talk to the kids first and see what they say before you make a decision. ”
After the tour, they had said goodbye to Rory back at NOLA Guides and walked hand in hand back to the truck.
Myra had invited Elisa inside for dinner, and things had been great.
They had talked and laughed about the tour, and Elisa had told Myra that she would be keeping her ghost sticker forever.
Myra had stuck hers to a napkin and used a magnet to stick it to the refrigerator, which Elisa had deemed very cute.
Then, Elisa had stupidly brought up the guest house, and Myra had given her good advice, but now, it was a little awkward between them when things had been so great before.
Elisa had gone and brought up all of her baggage, and things were now a little less cute and romantic, with the real world seemingly breaking into their perfect night.
◆◆◆
“Hey, Mom,” Adele said as she walked through the front door with her duffle bag.
“Hi, honey,” she replied and put her laptop on the coffee table.
“Hey, Mom,” AJ said, mimicking his sister.
“Hey, baby,” she replied, causing him to promptly roll his eyes at the term of endearment before he closed the door behind them. “How was it with Dad?”
“Cool,” he said and walked into the living room, where he grabbed the bag of chips that she had open and flopped down next to her. “I got to hang out with Mike, Lee, Gavin, Wendy, and Tucker.”
“Yeah?”
“He also tried to ask Wendy out, but she turned him down,” Adele added as she sat down on Elisa’s other side.
“She said no because she’s going to school far away from me.”
“She still said no,” Adele teased.
“And how was it with Dad?” Elisa asked, trying to get to the point.
“I don’t know. He was gone all the time, like usual. He has a new maid, I guess,” Adele replied.
“Housekeeper,” Elisa corrected.
“Yeah, okay. Anyway, she’s cool. She’s a good cook.”
“Yeah?” Elisa asked .
“She made us dinner a couple of times and had breakfast for us in the morning. You still make the best pancakes, though, Mom,” AJ said to her as he shoved a few chips into his mouth.
“Oh, I do?”
“Yes. You do blueberries,” he said.
“She did chocolate chips. We don’t like chocolate chips in pancakes,” Adele added.
“Did you get to see your friends?” Elisa asked Adele.
“Yeah, a few of them. It was fun,” her daughter replied nonchalantly.
Elisa hesitated then because she didn’t want to put this on her children, but she needed to know how much of what Archie Senior had said was true.
“So, your dad talked to me the other day,” she began. “He mentioned that you two wanted to stay there until school started and maybe on your breaks.”
Adele looked down at her hands and said, “Mom, we love you.”
“I know that, honey.”
“We want you to have the life you want.”
“Yeah, Mom. We want you to be happy,” AJ added.
“But all of our friends are there. We’re missing things,” Adele said.
“And when they all come home from school for fall break, they’ll all be there, and we’ll be here.
We were just thinking that we could stay there with Dad and come here to visit you, kind of like the reverse of what we’re doing now. ”
“And we’d still come see you, obviously,” AJ added.
“Dad said he told you that you could stay in the guest house,” Adele said.
“I know you didn’t really like it before, but you’d be there, and we’d be there, and it’s only for our breaks.
For Christmas, we could still come here for part of the time we have off.
I doubt Dad really wants us there for Christmas morning anyway, but we could all do dinner together. ”
“All? Meaning your father and the three of us?” Elisa asked .
“I don’t know. Maybe Mary could cook so that you don’t have to, and we could all just eat together,” Adele suggested, and Elisa knew she was just trying to soften the blow.
“Maybe,” she replied.
“You know we love you, though, right?” AJ asked.
“Yes, honey. I know you both love me.”
Elisa put her hand on the back of his head and rubbed the short brown hair there, just like she’d always done from the moment he’d been born with a small tuft of hair on the top of his head.
Adele had been born with a little more, but not by much.
Elisa remembered how small they were back then.
Twins were always smaller than non-multiples, and she had known that going in, but seeing them for the first time after they’d been born, she had worried that they’d been too tiny and wouldn’t make it.
The doctors had all assured her that they were fine, but Elisa was a mom and would always worry about her kids no matter what the doctors said.
“So, you’ll think about it?” AJ asked.
When she nodded, AJ hopped up and took the bag of chips with him as he left the room.
“Mom?” Adele asked softly.
“Yeah?”
“I have a problem.”
Elisa’s eyes went wide. Her mind went instantly to the one problem she hoped to avoid with both of her children. She silently prayed that it wasn’t that. She didn’t want this for her daughter.
“Okay. Tell me,” she said as calmly as she could.
“So, you know how I was kind of dating Tucker?”
‘Oh, shit,’ Elisa thought to herself but just nodded.
“We broke up before graduation, but he was at a party, and we talked for a while. He wants us to try dating again.”
“Oh,” Elisa uttered. “And you don’t want that?”
“No, I do,” Adele said, turning to her. “I mean, I think I do. Can I tell you something without you freaking out?”
Elisa nodded again as calmly as she could, even though her heart thundered in her chest .
“So, Tucker and I… you know. We did it.”
“Oh?” she said again.
“Yeah. A couple of times. But you don’t have to worry; we were both responsible. I took the birth control you got me how I was supposed to and made him get tested, even though I was his first, and he wore a condom, too. I got tested after we did it, just in case, and I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
Elisa’s baby had had sex. Her eighteen-year-old daughter had lost her virginity to a boy named Tucker, and Elisa was just finding this out now. No, this wasn’t about her. This was about Adele.
“Okay. Well, was he a gentleman?” she asked, wondering if that was the right way to ask if he had done anything to hurt her kid because if he had, she’d be buying a baseball bat today.
“He was fine,” Adele replied. “He didn’t pressure me or anything. I wanted to.”
“Okay. You said there was a problem?”
“Yes, a couple. He’s going to school in Texas, and I like him, but I’ll be in another state, so I don’t see the point.”
“I see.”
“Also, um, when we… had sex,” Adele whispered. “It wasn’t very good. Like, not good at all. I don’t know; is this too much information for you? You’re my mom.”
“No, honey, it’s fine,” she said.
Inside, she was thinking that it definitely was too much information, but she was a parent, and she wanted her kids to be able to talk to her about anything. She had told them as much. This was part of the job.
“It wasn’t good?”
“No. Like, at all. He… I mean, it was basically done right away, and I know that’s normal for teenage guys, but…
I don’t know. I just didn’t like it that much.
I don’t know if it gets better or if he’ll get better or if I’ll get better.
” Adele shook her head. “It had me thinking about something else, though, and that’s the other problem. ”
“Something else? ”
“So, you know how Wendy said no to AJ when he asked her out?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“It’s not because she’s going to school far away from him.
” Adele looked beyond Elisa to see if her brother was within earshot.
“We made out last night, Mom. She kissed me, and I kissed her back. I’ve never made out with a girl before, but it was a million times better than kissing Tucker.
And Wendy is great, Mom. She’s smart and funny, and she’s going to school far from AJ, but only, like, an hour away from me.
I don’t know what to do now because I’ve known Wendy since we were five, and I’ve never thought of a girl like that, but we were just talking, and it was so nice because she’s got goals and stuff, like I do.
Then, she’s kissing me, and I didn’t stop her. ”
“Oh, honey,” Elisa said, shaking her head. “That’s not a problem. You like someone.”
“It’s not? I mean, I know you’re gay, but I don’t think I’m that .”
“You don’t have to be anything. You can just be whoever you are, Adele. And you can like Tucker. You can like Wendy. You can like whomever you like. You never have to worry about that, okay? I don’t have a lot of experience with the Tucker thing, though.”
“The sex thing? Mom, you had us. I know you’ve had sex before.”
Elisa laughed and said, “Yes. But, honey, that’s different. I knew I was a lesbian, and I wasn’t ready to admit it to people, so I got myself a date with a boy, and not long after that, you two were born.”
“But Dad was young, so did it like get…”
“Better?” Elisa asked. “That’s a little more complicated, but yes, it can get better.
No matter who you have sex with, it’s about the two of you, okay?
If the person you do that with doesn’t know that you don’t like it, you need to tell them to give them a chance to do something you do like.
Sex isn’t just someone doing something to another person.
Both of you are there. So, whether it’s Tucker or Wendy or someone else, when you’re ready to take that step with someone, you have to communicate what you want, what you don’t want, and they should do the same with you. ”
Adele nodded and said, “Yeah, okay.”
“So, what are you going to do about Tucker?”
“I don’t think I want to try again. If we’re meant to be, we’ll be, right? It would just be really hard, with the distance. And I don’t know that I can totally trust him to be with me and not be with anyone else, so that’s a big problem for me.”
“Makes sense. What about Wendy?”
“I have no idea,” Adele replied, resting her head back against the sofa. “She’s such a good kisser, Mom. Is this what kissing girls is like? I’m, like, obsessed with her lips now. I thought about them the whole drive here.”
Elisa laughed and said, “Probably not all girls.”
She thought about Myra and wondered if that was true, but she had been thinking about Myra’s lips since their first kiss, too.
“I think I want to maybe ask her out before we go to school.”
“You should.”
“Yeah,” Adele stated with a confident nod. “I will. I’m going to call her now, actually.”
“Good luck,” Elisa replied with a smile.
“Don’t tell AJ?”
Elisa laughed again and said, “I won’t because you will if this goes anywhere.”
Adele laughed and said, “He’s going to be so pissed.”