“But I can go on the internet, right? Or watch TV?”
“After you get your homework done.”
He grinned. “I only went to first period. So I only have one assignment.”
“Then you email your teachers and get your work for the next two days. This isn’t a vacation.” She glanced at her watch. “I need to go. But I’m checking up on you. I’m calling the house phone. Randomly. Throughout the day. And if you’re not there to answer it…”
“What if I’m in the bathroom?”
“You heard me.”
Nick laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”
Anita did the I’m-watching-you hand gesture, using two fingers to point at her eyes then one to point at Nick, before getting back into the car and making a U-turn in the street. He was a good kid and she trusted him, but as this incident showed, he was a bit of a smartass and a little too full of himself for his own good.
She was hoping that this would be one of those rare days when Dr. Wilson was late to the office, but no such luck. Immediately after pulling in, she saw the optometrist’s Mercedes parked in the small lot on the side of the building. Pulling next to it, she quickly got out, grabbed her purse and hurried through the side door, where Dr. Wilson, striding down the short hallway, turned to see her walking in.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “Family emergency.”
The optometrist was frowning, but as that was his natural expression, she wasn’t sure if he had any reaction at all to her excuse. She chose to believe he did not, and made her way to the front counter, stashing her purse beneath the desk. The office had only been open for a half-hour, and as yet there were no patients, but the optometrist was strict about employees showing up on time, and she mentally kicked herself for not calling in to explain that she was going to be late. It would have made her seem less…flaky.
Dr. Wilson hated flakes.
The optometrist had already gone back into his personal office and closed the door, and Anita waved hello to Jen, the other assistant, who was rearranging a display of designer frames.
“You’re late?” Jen said, walking over. “That’s a first.”
“Happens to the best of us.”
“What was it?”
“Nick got suspended.”
“Really?” The other assistant dropped her voice. “Was it drugs? My nephew Tommy got caught with marijuana a couple years ago. Never recovered. He’s still a screwup.”
Anita shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. The principal called us in because Nick wrote a play with the word ‘shit’ in it.”
“That’s all? Well…shit.”
They both laughed.
The buzzer rang as the front door opened and a patient walked in. After that, there was a mini-rush, and all three of them were suddenly busy as two new patients came in for eye exams and three older patients either ordered or picked up glasses.
Everyone was gone by eleven, and with the office empty and no appointments until one-fifteen, Dr. Wilson told Anita and Jen they could take an early lunch. The two of them paused outside the office. “Are you…going over to the nursery?” Jen asked carefully.
“Why?” Anita responded, suddenly defensive.
“No…I…Sorry. No reason.”
Was it that obvious?
The situation with Steven was clearly spiraling out of control. She needed to nip this in the bud, to use a gardening term, to stop things before they went any further and did some real damage. The best idea would be to stand Steven up, not show and not tell him and let him figure things out from there.
Standing him up would only make him more interested.
She knew that.
Was that why she was doing it?
She thought of his hands touching hers, the way it felt when he stood next to her.
“No. I have no plans,” Anita told Jen. “Want to grab some lunch?”
“I’ll get my purse.”
Anita walked outside and waited next to the door, staring numbly out at the three cars in the small parking lot. What was wrong with her? She had a good life, a nice family. Was she so self-destructive that she just had to sabotage things when they were going well? It’s what her parents had said when she’d dropped out of ASU her sophomore year, and she was beginning to think that maybe they were right.
Wasn’t Nick doing exactly the same thing with his Taking a Shit play?
Maybe it ran in the family.
Kyle was the stable one, the rock, and he didn’t deserve any of this. He was a good father, a good husband, and deep down she loved him. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.
So why was she allowing this to happen?
Jen opened the back door and emerged outside. “Ready to go?”
Taking Jen’s car, they drove over to Juan Wang’s, the new Asian fusion fast food joint that had opened up in what had previously been the Lottaburger. The tables were all outside, but it was a nice day and they had the place to themselves. After ordering, they waited until their names were called, and then carried their trays from the pickup window to their table.
Anita unwrapped a straw and stuck it through the hole in the top of her cup of iced green tea. “So what’s going on with your loan?” she asked. “Find out if you qualify yet?”
Jen sighed. “We actually don’t. But with my parents co-signing…maybe.” She took a bite of eggroll burrito. “Do you realize how humiliating it is to be thirty-five years old and still have to have your parents vouch for you? My twenty-year high school reunion’s coming up in three years. You’d think I’d be enough of an adult by now to be able to buy a house with my husband. But no…”
“What’s your credit score?”
“Pretty good. Both of us are responsible, always pay on time. It’s the income. We don’t make enough, even together, for the bank to think we can handle the payments on a house. Trailer, yes. House, no.”
“What are you going to do if they turn you down?”
Jen shook her head. “Lane thinks we should try one of those online lenders. But I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of sketchy things about those places. I read the other day about one company that went under and sold all its debts to another lender who demanded immediate full payment from everyone who’d taken out loans.”
Anita nodded. “It’s the wild west out there on the internet. And I’m not sure how well-regulated some of those companies are. I think you’re much safer with a real bank.”