After All - Romancing Manhattan

“I’m glad.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Gabby was giving me some grief this morning.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s almost a teenager?” He shrugs a shoulder. “Who knows.”

“Moods. We all have them.”

“She has more than her own share.” He pulls away and turns toward his office. “Dinner tonight?”

“It’s a date.”

He winks, and I sit back down, just as my cell phone rings.

“Geez, it’s a busy morning,” I mutter and read the caller ID. Great. It’s my mom.

If I don’t answer, she’ll just call back. Might as well get it over with.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“Hello, Nora,” she says stiffly. It’s always been this way with her. She’s held me at arm’s length for as long as I can remember. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing well. How are you, Mom?”

“Well, I’m fine. My back’s been killing me, and I’ve had the vertigo again.”

I cradle the phone, resigned to listening to her list of ailments. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s not as bad as it was when I was going through the chemo. Not that you would know because you didn’t come home when I was suffering.”

I close my eyes and bite my lip. I was newly employed here, trying to establish my career and make my way in the city with Richard. It wasn’t that I wasn’t worried about her. I called every day.

But all she remembers is that I wasn’t there.

“How’s Dad?” I try to sound cheerful.

“He’s just fine. I think I’ve talked him into having that hip replacement. Now that Richard’s moved back to town, and I have some help, it won’t be that big of an imposition.”

And there it is.

I square my shoulders, mentally preparing for the verbal beating I’m about to take.

“Well, then it sounds like it’s good timing” is all I say.

“You know, you really should come home and make amends with your husband.”

“Ex-husband,” I remind her, my voice colder now. “Richard is my ex-husband.”

“A technicality,” she says, brushing me aside. “You made vows to the man, Nora Jean, and your father and I expect you to stand by those vows.”

It’s always the same lecture. Every fucking time.

“Now,” she continues, “I know he made some mistakes.”

“He screwed another woman for a year and a half,” I remind her coldly. “I’d say that’s more than a mistake.”

“And why did he do that, you tell me,” she counters. “Because you all but abandoned him, Nora. What’s a man to do when his wife’s too busy working for someone else? So busy that she’s barely home. I raised you better than that. I taught you how to make a home and care for a husband.”

“You taught me to be small,” I reply softly. “And I won’t ever do that, Mom. You’re happy with your life in Ohio, and I respect that. I really do. But I don’t want that for me. I will never be content as a housewife, and it’s not my fault that Richard’s penis found its way into another woman for eighteen months straight before I found out about it.”

“Watch your mouth. Maybe if you’d been paying attention to Richard rather than giving all your time to that law firm, you would have seen it sooner.”

“Seeing it sooner makes it okay, Mom? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m saying that divorce isn’t the answer. It’s not like he ever laid his hands on you.”

“I can’t do this with you,” I say at last, ending the conversation. “I love you, and I hope you’re doing well. I honestly do. Now, I have to get to work. Good-bye, Mom.”

I hang up and lay my head on my desk, my face cradled in the crook of my arm.

How did I come from a woman like that? How can our views be so drastically different?

And how could any parent think it’s okay for her daughter to stick with a man who unapologetically cheated on her?

I don’t know. Because if it were Gabby, I’d want to kill any asshole who would dare treat her so recklessly.

So if my parents want to choose Richard over me, I say let them. It’s not like I’ve ever had a close relationship with them, and if they take his side over mine, well, it’s their loss.

Not mine.

“I know you want to go out for dinner,” I say as Carter and I walk out of the office to his car. “But I had a hell of a day. Can we just go home?”

“Which home?” he asks as he opens the door for me.

“Either is fine. Yours, if you like.”

He lowers into the car with me and nods. “Absolutely. How about pizza for dinner?”

“That’s perfect. Thank you.”

“Spending the evening in with you is never a hardship, darling.” He kisses my knuckles and pulls out into traffic.

I’ve been fighting a headache all day. It’s so bad that my teeth ache, which is never fun. I didn’t eat well today, instead trying to stay busy so I wouldn’t get upset about my conversation with my mother, but it stuck with me all day.