“At least it wasn’t anal beads or a ball gag.” Her mother scoffed.
Her mouth was open as she stared at her mother who walked by her and tipped Juniper’s bottom jaw upwards, “Mr. Perez, could you help me put these things into a tote to take with us?”
“Mama is that?” she tried to figure out the word for the collection her mother held in her hand.
“I took all the straw things from inside all your spray cleaner bottles. He will squeeze that trigger all he wants but it’s not going to suck up a damn ounce of cleaning solution. Sucks to suck motherfucker.”
“Mama!” her mother’s foul language was shocking, and she couldn’t stop the giggle erupting from her chest at it.
“Your mom is cool,” Phineas whispered to her.
“She really is.” Juniper agreed as she took a deep breath as she watched as Adil used a blade he pulled from off his keychain and sliced down the middle of her wedding portrait and then held out her half.
Phineas took it when her hand didn’t move. He examined the photo, and a glint was in his eye, “the photo looks better like this. No evidence of a parasite attached to you on it.”
“Burn it.” she muttered angrily.
“It’s beautiful,” Phineas shot her a sideways glance.
“You can’t have it to go with your granny’s quilt,” she ripped it from his hands and crumpled it up in a ball.
“Ouch!” he mocked her. “What did I do?”
“You showed up when all the hard stuff is over.”
“Nah, there is one more hard thing actually, I came right in time to be here for. I’m your ride back to the condo. You can cry in my car in your mama’s arms the whole way and I won’t even judge.” His eyes darted to the rings on her finger. “Are you keeping them?”
She realized what he was talking about as the hard thing, and she sighed. The only time she’d ever taken her rings off in the last eight years was to get them cleaned. Other than this, she’d worn them continuously.
“You don’t have to.” Phineas said seriously. “Keep them if you want. Melt them down and make a new independence ring or something.”
“As neat as the idea is,” she whispered as she tugged them off and set them on the counter, “I think it’s best if it’s one more thing he gets to take care of.”
“We should go.” Adil said while Benicio finished rehanging the frame with only Kyst in the picture.
They quickly made their way out of the apartment, and she paused to lock it up. She looked at Benicio, “you’re serving him in person.”
“I am.”
“Give him these when you do or put them in the envelope or something?”
“Sure.” He took the keys from her.
She looked at Adil, “you got your cameras out?”
“I did.”
“Thank you. I don’t know where all of this is going but I do know I’m grateful for the three of you. This has been the shittiest couple of days of my life but the support,” she looked at Phineas, “and the money and place to live, has made it bearable.”
“And your mama,” her mother tugged her ponytail.
“And definitely my mama.”
“Well, let’s keep that supportive feeling going.” Phineas smiled at her. “I booked you both a spa package tomorrow. Massages. Seaweed wraps. Facials. Manicures and pedicures.”
“You did that for me?”
“Yes. It’s the least I can do.” He gave a sad smile, “while this is the happiest day of my fucking life, to be finally rid of her, I know it’s the opposite for you. If there is anything I can do to make any of this easier for you, I’m doing it. You want a massage. I’ll book it. You want therapy? I’ll cover it. You want to something crazy like go skydiving? I’ll set it up with Adil. I mean I’ll drive you there, but I won’t jump out of the plane with you. Whatever you need, I’ll do. I feel this is my responsibility.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s his.”
“Perhaps but let me do this, if for no other reason than to ease my guilty conscience.”
“Don’t say no.” Benicio added as the elevators doors opened. “I agree with him. It’s the least we can do.”
“Okay. Spa day it is tomorrow.”
Her mother pushed her hip into hers, “don’t say it like it’s a punishment. You deserve this. Take it.”
“Yes Mama.”
She took a breath and told herself she shouldn’t be the one who was miserable with the pain of the failure of this marriage. If it took a spa package to make it better, then so be it. She was going to embrace all the ways to make it better, including making new friends who wanted to spoil her.
One Served – part I
“Stop calling me Mr. Perez, Maeve. I feel we’re family now.” Phineas was directing the movers with Maeve while Juniper sat on a sofa with her feet up.
“I still work for your family.”
“Do you like working for them?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.