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"So, are you going to leave me all your twinsets?" Krista asked, sliding into the chair across from me in the Magnolia Tea Room. She was currently wearing the uniform of the southern woman—a twinset consisting of a sleeveless shell and matching cardigan, in a lovely periwinkle color.
"Do you honestly need more of them?" I asked.
"A southern woman can never have enough twinsets, pearls, or men," Krista said. "How'd she take it?"
"Don't know. I haven't really told her yet. Well, I did tell her, but she thought I was joking." My mom was in denial about my upcoming move.
"Well, she didn't lock you in your room. That's something," Krista said. "Are you sure about this, Em? It's a drastic change?"
"I'm in need of a drastic change." I took a sip of my sweet tea. "I'll miss you and everything here." I waved my hand to encompass the tea room. "This has been my home for thirty-years, but I need a clean start where there aren't so many expectations. I think Uncle Harry leaving me the cafe was a sign that this is what I'm supposed to do."
"Are you seriously looking forward to going from managing the Magnolia Tea Room to running Hairy's Cryptid Cafe? I'm surprised you even want to go visit the place. It sounds just dreadful."
"I only met Uncle Harry a few times, but he was a fun old guy." My mom's brother didn't seem anything like her. We went back to Idaho to visit a few times when I was a kid, and he came to visit us a couple of times. I thought he was a big game hunter. He always talked about hunting creatures. I didn't realize until I was a teenager that he hunted cryptids like Sasquatch. My mother never approved of his belief in things she thought were crazy legends. I wasn't sure where I stood on the whole cryptid thing, but when I got a letter from a lawyer in Idaho that said Uncle Harry left me Hairy's Cryptid Cafe, it seemed like the adventure I'd been needing since my divorce drove a white fence picket through the heart of my dreams of a happily ever after.
"When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow. It's a long drive, but I'm looking forward to it. Wilkins’ Gap, here I come!" I reached over to give Krista a high-five. "Fudge. If I wasn't sure about leaving before, I am now," I said, sitting down and sliding my chair around so I could avoid looking at the woman who was engaged to my ex-husband.
"What's she doing here?" Krista asked, shooting daggers at the young woman. "She probably thought you'd already left town."
"I doubt that. I don't think Jamison knows I'm leaving."
"Don't you think you should tell him?"
"He gave up the right to care about my plans when he decided to take that... that... girl into our bed."
"I know. I get it," Krista said.
"I'm pretty sure my mother thinks I stayed here because I thought he'd change his mind and come back."
"He might."
"It wouldn't matter. I wouldn't take him back."
We finished our tea, and Krista went back to work. I paid the bill and headed home to make sure my mom knew I was really moving to Idaho. She had an amazing ability to believe what she wanted, no matter what I told her.
XXX
I stopped in the garage and carried a load of boxes into the house with me. Mom was in the kitchen baking.
"Where are you going with all of those?" she asked as I navigated around the kitchen counter.
"It's time to pack up," I said. She just gave me a blank stare. "Mom, I'm leaving tomorrow. I need to pack my stuff."
"Just take a suitcase. All you'll need are casual clothes and some warmer stuff."
"Mother, I've explained this. I'm moving to Wilkins’ Gap. Moving, not visiting."
She huffed at me as I continued into the living room. I had never planned to move back in with my mom, but it had been the easiest step when I fled the home Jamison and I shared for years. I always assumed I'd get a place of my own. At first, I enjoyed my mother fussing over me and taking care of me, but once I got my emotions under control and accepted that my life plan needed some serious revisions, I started looking for a small apartment. I just never seemed to find the right place. Now that place was a one-bedroom apartment above Hairy's Cryptid Cafe in Wilkins’ Gap, Idaho.