Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Danika
We stay at Arden’s that night and I let Memaw completely dote all over me, like she usually does.
I’ve missed that old broad, feels like I haven’t seen her in forever.
Memaw makes me a special birthday dinner with her signature biscuits and gravy and I eat far too much, but I love every second of it.
We don’t have sex in Arden’s childhood home, even though he really, really wanted to—and so did I, who am I kidding—but we did cuddle and he held me all night as if I was the most important thing in the world to him.
I did not hear from my father but my mother called me and messaged me no short of twenty times since I left the house. I promise Arden that I’ll call her when we get back to campus. I need a little bit of space—more like thousands of miles—between us before I can talk to her with a clear head.
We fly back on Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon, I’m curled up on the couch with my anatomy textbook and Arden is next to me with his Intro to Engineering Design book.
Pulling out my laptop, I go to check my email, expecting something from my advisor.
What I see instead causes a shudder down my spine.
An email from the payroll security telling me that my next semester’s tuition is unaccounted for.
“Son of a bitch,” I mutter.
Arden looks over my screen. “What?”
“He did it. He fucking did it. He took away my school funding.”
“What? Who?”
“Kevin. In the last fight we had, I told him I was no longer his daughter and he kicked me out. He kept threatening me about paying for my schooling. I guess he actually followed through on something for once.”
Arden looks at the email. “We’ll figure it out. I can get you a job at the cafe and we’ll cut back on takeout, it’ll be—”
A knock at the door breaks us from our panic spiral. Arden gets up to see who it is and when he looks in the peephole he looks back at me before opening the door.
“It’s your mom.”
“What?” I jump up from the couch. “Is she okay?”
Arden looks back at me, unease clear on his face. “Should I open the door?”
The knock sounds again and I jolt at the sound. Arden looks at me and I nod. He opens the door.
“Hi, Mrs. Freeman.”
I can see my mother’s eyes widen at the sight of him opening the door, as if she didn’t really believe that what I said about us living together was true.
“Arden, hello. Is Danika here?”
“I’m here, Mom.”
She looks over his shoulder at me and visibly relaxes. She walks into the apartment, stepping tentatively around Arden and starts looking around.
“Let’s talk in my room.”
“Your—” I usher her into my bedroom before she can ask any more questions. I give Arden a grimace before closing the door behind us.
My mom is looking around my room, likely noticing all the very girly things and lack of boy things. “You live in this room?”
“I do.”
“And he lives…”
I grin. “Across the hall.” I know I had made it seem like we were shacked up living in sin and I was one step from being pregnant, which let’s face it, after this weekend, might be true—minus the pregnant part—but our living setup proves otherwise.
“I thought you said you were dating.”
“We are. But we started as just two people who needed to share an apartment. The dating came after, hence the separate bedrooms.”
Although, now that we are officially together, I’m sure we’ll be sharing at this point. I wonder what we’ll make the second bedroom? A movie theater! I shake my head, focusing on the present moment.
My mom nods and keeps looking around. She picks up the frame that Arden got me for my birthday, the frame I’ve already placed on my bedside table so that it’s always close to me.
“I miss her,” she says wistfully.
“So do I,” I reply. She looks at the picture for a long time, running her finger gently up and down the pebbled frame. “Mom?” She finally glances at me. “What are you doing here?”
“I—” She starts but then she stops. Then the tears start. I take the frame from her hands and guide her to the bed, holding her as she cries.
“I’m so sorry, Danika. I should’ve protected you better. I should’ve been a better mother.”
I rub her back. “Shh, stop, Mom. This isn’t your fault.”
“It is. I should’ve been strong enough to leave him.”
She cries, and I hug her because I don’t know what else to say. She’s right. She should’ve left him years ago. But she didn’t and now here we are, just two girls unsure of how to move forward.
After a few sniffles, she pulls herself together a bit and I grab a tissue from my dresser for her to blow her nose with.
She looks back at that picture of grandma and me. “I’ve always loved that picture of you two.”
“Mom,” I start and she looks over at me, still whipping her sniffly nose. “Do you know why I’m in medical school?”
She pauses for a moment. “No, I guess I haven’t really thought about it.”
“It’s because when your mother died of breast cancer, the doctors did everything they could to save her. And that inspired me.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Well, now you do.”
Mom looks at me and I look at her and for a second, I swear I’m just looking at an older version of myself and she’s looking at me as a younger version of her. We are one and the same. Girls navigating through life without an ounce of understanding if it’s the right thing or not.
“I’m going to pay for your school,” she blurts out. “And I’m going to live with your Aunt Kat for a little while.”
“Mom…”
“It’s okay, Danika. I should’ve done this years ago.”
I blink a few times, not sure what to say. I don’t know if she has the money to pay for my school but I’m assuming that if she’s saying she will, then she can. Maybe she has more control over the family finances than I realize.
“Thank you, Mom.”
“It’s the least I can do for your schooling—”
“No, Mom. Thank you for getting us out.”
She grabs me then and hugs me harder than I’ve ever been hugged before. And I hug her back. It’s not going to be a quick fix for everything but it’s an amazing start.
Mom stays for dinner, and Arden cooks her his signature pasta primavera dish, the same dish he made for me when he was trying to impress me.
Turns out the Freeman women are easily impressed because it works like a charm on my mother too. By the end of the evening, Arden has her eating out of the palm of his hand with promises of recipe sharing and visits to Vermont vineyards when we come out to see her and my Aunt Kat.
Arden clears off the table too—even though it’s technically my job.
Kiss ass—before joining us on the couch.
Since it’s late, Mom has to stay for the night and we plan a slumber party in my room, even though I’d much rather leave her by herself in there and I’d happily share with Arden. Baby steps, Danika.
“You two have made a lovely home here,” Mom comments as we get into the bed that night.
“Thank you,” I reply, pulling the covers up to my chin. “Did you ever think that I would end up with my best friend’s older brother?”
Mom scoffs. “Oh, of course I did. You’ve been in love with that boy since you were twelve years old.”
“Mom!” I squeal, swatting at her. “That is so not true!”
She breaks out in a fit of giggles that I can’t help but join into. When I look over at her, she’s wiping happy tears out of her eyes and I can’t help but smile.
I knew I was missing my girlfriends but what I didn’t realize was what I was really missing was my mom.