Sunday
After a fitful night of sleep with fevered dreams, Abby quickly found upon awakening that the weekend was only going to get worse. She’d already woken up later than usual—after eleven a.m.—and felt she’d lost valuable time. She had to face Dan the next day at work, and she needed to mentally prepare for it.
Instead of having a day with no obligations, time and space to think and sort herself out, as Abby made breakfast for herself, her mom popped by the kitchen. “Raven’s coming by later for dinner,” she said. “She’s bringing sweet potato pie to go with it!”
“Great,” Abby muttered under her breath. “No infected kids this time though, right?”
Her mom smiled knowingly, though she hadn’t smiled when she came home from work the day Abby found herself too ill to move and found her still in bed. “Actually, no—they’ll be with their father.”
“Good.”
Still, Abby found herself wound up in dreaded anticipation of her cousin’s arrival instead of being able to focus on her and Dan, imagining whole conversations between her and Raven in her mind—all of which were full of angst.
She tried to shake the weight of the impending visit as she showered, but then thoughts of Dan filled her as the warm water ran over her, and those thoughts weren’t exactly peaceful and relaxing either.
When she checked her phone, she saw that she had another text from him. She refused to read it; she needed time to herself, to clear her mind.
Finally, she decided to hole herself up in her room for a few hours and catch up on a book she’d been meaning to read for months. Soon, thankfully, she was lost in a fictional world so unlike any she’d experienced, and time zoomed by.
A light knock on her door finally shook the grip of the novel. “Almost dinnertime,” her mom’s muffled voice said.
“Is she here?”
“Not yet.”
Reluctantly, especially since she only had a few chapters left, Abby put the book down and headed out.
“She said fifteen minutes, so…”
Abby knew her mom had been trying to help by giving her a heads up. Still, she would’ve preferred to be left alone until Raven actually arrived—her cousin had taken up too much of her mental space already.
“I’ll set the table,” she offered.
She and her mom still had time to chat a little before Raven arrived, with Abby quickly steering her mom away from the topic of last night’s date with Dan.
She wanted to ask her mom why she was letting Raven visit again, considering the way she and her cousin kept butting heads, but she also knew her mom had the right to invite over whomever she pleased.
That fact just made it clearer she needed to move out sooner than later—Abby needed her own space, and she needed it to remain free of unwelcome guests she was forced to tolerate.
When Raven arrived, however, Abby had a friendly smile ready.
Abby’s mom and Raven did most of the talking while Abby’s mind wandered.
As she ate silently, it slowly registered to her that Raven and her mom seemed to truly enjoy each other’s company. When did they get so close? In a way, Abby was glad because it meant that whenever she finally did leave, her mom wouldn’t necessarily be all alone again.
Abby silently volunteered to put away dishes, noticing everyone was done with dinner and had been for minutes. She was eyeing the untouched sweet potato pie sitting in the middle of the dining room table when the doorbell rang.
Abby looked at her mother. “I wasn’t expecting anyone else,” her mom said as she headed for the door. Abby watched her, ignoring her cousin’s steady gaze.
Her mom peeked through the peephole then broke into a delighted smile, quickly swinging open the door. “What…?”
“I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by!” a female voice said.
The visitor stepped inside and hugged her mom. She was a white woman, older than her mom by at least a decade, with silver hair, wrinkles, and age spots.
“This is Polly,” Abby’s mom said, walking her over. “From… work.”
Introductions were made, and Abby’s mom offered the guest some of the pie. Before Abby knew it, the two older women were in their own world, with Polly clearly having lots to say, despite having supposedly dropped by casually.
Abby started to feel weird—like an intruder in her own home. “Uh… I’m heading out,” she said to no one in particular, taking a piece of the pie with her.
“I’ll come with you,” Raven said, also apparently feeling squeezed out of the dining room. They headed toward the living room area. “So, charmed one,” Raven began once they were out of earshot, “looks like that full-body condom has been working out for you. Heard you’ve been dating a billionaire?”
Abby braced herself. “Well, yes…”
“Figures. I’ll be totally honest with you—I used to hope something bad would happen to you so you could understand other people a little more. And then I felt really bad when Aaron died—like I might’ve even been a bit responsible with all that negative thinking or whatever. It reminded me of something I heard Aunt Doris say once: ‘Dig a hole for another, and you might fall in yourself.’”
Her eyes suddenly looked glassy. “No offense, but Aaron and I were probably closer than you two were by the time he died; we’re the ones you left behind.”
Abby remained quiet, caught a bit off-guard. She got the sense Raven had been wanting to say whatever she was saying and about to say for a while.
“Anyway, after that, I stopped wishing for you to fail or suffer, and instead, I just kept hoping one day you’d learn to put yourself in other people’s shoes. That you’d be able to see and feel something for those who weren’t born as lucky as you.”
“Have you forgotten my occupation? I deal with people who aren’t as lucky as me all the time!”
“Well, congrats—through your academic study, you’ve chosen to constantly put yourself in contact with those you can feel superior to. You get to feed your ego while pretending to care.”
“Raven, stop.”
“What—can’t handle the truth?”
“I can’t handle you hating me like this. Seriously. I love you, Raven. And yes, I was probably too hard on you for your choices back in the day, and I’m sorry about that, I really am. And yeah, it took a while, but I do kind of get it now—shit happens.”
She took a deep breath, considering, then reconsidering what she’d been tempted to share. Then she decided to go for it. She lowered her voice. “Hell, I haven’t told anyone this yet, but I might even be pregnant right now. Unplanned.”
Raven’s mouth dropped open. “Shut. Up. You had unprotected sex?” Her shocked look stayed for about two seconds. “But wait… it’s for the billionaire, right? Well, I guess if ever there was a time to play it unsafe…”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I have a ring; in fact, he and I might’ve just broken up last night, and I don’t know what the hell I’ll do if I’m actually… you know. Probably keep it, and he might just end up sending money for the kid instead of being in our lives.”
“Well, at least there’s still that,” Raven said with a slight drop of her head. Abby knew she had serious trouble getting child support from her kids’ father.
Abby turned fully to Raven, looking her straight in the eye. “Look, I might not totally get it, might never really understand what it’s like to be in your shoes, but between my academics, internships, and my latest assignment—the billionaire—I’m aware you can have everything and still be kind of… fucked up.”
Raven chuckled. “Did you just say ‘fucked up?’”
“Yeah, I did. It’s fucked up the way I judged you from my high horse. It’s fucked up the way you and I remain so distant when in the end, we don’t have a whole lot more than each other these days.”
“Yeah, right. If the billionaire decides he wants to keep you around, you can buy every goddamn thing you want. You won’t even have to work if you don’t want to, should he end up springing the question someday.” Raven looked away while Abby tried to mask her delight at the thought of Dan proposing. “I probably won’t get to return the favor of babysitting…”
“Say the billionaire and I do stay together—you think I’d just let high-end agency nannies watch my kids?”
“Why wouldn’t you? I would if I had the money.”
“Yeah, but my kids… they’ll need family. Well-paid strangers won’t be enough. And I want you to be a part of their lives. I really do.”
Raven shot her a skeptical look. “You don’t think I’ll be a bad influence?”
“I think it’s important for people to be exposed to all kinds of different lives. Don’t get me wrong, my kids will probably be at least as bougie as me… but not too bougie.”
Raven grinned at her. Abby realized a lot of the tension and negative feelings she’d been harboring since finding out about Raven’s visit had melted away; in fact, for the first time ever, she felt a bit hopeful about their relationship.
“Let me treat you to dinner,” she offered her cousin. “We really should catch up. I realize I don’t actually know a lot about you, and I’d like to. As you said, you and my brother probably knew each other better than I knew either of you. It’s too late to get to know who my brother was becoming, but…”
“I accept, and I’m ordering goddamned lobster and duck.”
Abby smiled genuinely at her, and she seemed to genuinely smile back. Maybe the two of them could make a habit of it and meet up for dinner once a month or so to catch up on what was going on with each other. Maybe she could even learn more about her brother from Raven.
Maybe meeting up could work for a while, or maybe it wouldn’t at all and they’d find themselves clashing again due to irreconcilable differences.
If they were lucky, maybe they could still part amicably enough to love each other from afar.
But at least they could give it a try.
Monday
Abby felt nervous all morning, expecting Dan to call her to his office any minute. He’d stopped trying to contact her by Sunday evening, and they hadn’t run into each other yet for the morning, but she fully expected him to ask her to accompany him to lunch by midday.
When her desk phone rang, she jumped a little before picking it up, noticing it wasn’t Dan’s extension.
“Can you stop by my office?” Peter asked Abby lightly.
She held the handset against her ear, her heart lurching a bit at his words. She convinced herself she was being paranoid; after all, there had been no witnesses this time around for their date. And if the Friday night dinner they’d had almost a week and a half ago had been a problem, it wouldn’t have taken Peter this long to say anything.
“Sure!” she said brightly.
She strolled to Peter’s office, mentally running over the possibilities. Perhaps Peter just wanted another progress report—one where he asked her about one thing while assessing her body language for another.
“Have a seat,” he said, flashing her a tight semi-smile. “I heard you and Dan had quite the adventure recently.”
How the heck had he found out? “Yes, and it did give me quite a scare. Thankfully, everything turned out okay.”
“Well, it gave the board quite the scare as well! Listen, I really appreciate the work you’ve done over the past two months or so. Your dedication and focus have been absolutely stellar. I don’t know what you did specifically, but Dan has certainly calmed down in a lot of ways. We’ll see how long it lasts, but your services are no longer needed here.”
Abigail might’ve choked had she been eating. “What was that?”
“You have until the end of the day to pack up and vacate the premises.”
When she didn’t respond, he said, “Oh, don’t look so disturbed—you’ve done your job well, Abigail! We’ll send you off with a nice bonus. And, of course, feel free to use me as a reference!”
Abby forced herself to start moving and release words. “I-it’s been a pleasure working here. Thank you for the opportunity.” Good job, girl!
She exited Peter’s office, still waiting for him to say, “Just kidding! Take these to Tom, will you?” or something like that, but it never came.
She headed back to her office to pack up. Her desk was decorated with only a photo of her and her mom and a small succulent—a gift from one of the IT guys—so it was just a matter of sorting out her inbox, logging off for the last time. And, of course, saying goodbye to everyone.
She began writing a mass email.
Shock had given way to sadness when her phone rang, momentarily jolting her out of her state. “Can I see you in my office?” Dan’s welcome voice said.
Leaving her belongings behind, and the composed email unsent, she hurried over to Dan. Her mind was occupied the entire way there, thoughts of what to say and how to say it consuming her.
Had he known this was coming? Was he going to be as surprised as she was by her dismissal? Did he have anything to do with it? Any say in stopping it? Did she even want it to be taken back?
It wasn’t the job she was sad about losing, nor was she even worried about the income— she was mourning the loss of getting to see Dan almost every day.
Before she knew it, she was in front of his door, lightly knocking.