Page 29 of January (New Orleans #1)

“B ridgette, hi,” Kyle said.

“Oh, hey,” the woman replied before she stood up from her crouched position and turned to Kyle. “Doing some grocery shopping?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Nope. I’m working.” Bridgette pointed to the card rack.

“Oh, right. You stock the cards you make?”

“Today, I do. I don’t normally, but we’re a bit short-staffed. We had to drop the contractors we were using to replenish, so now, we’re doing some of it ourselves. I’m taking care of the local shops that carry our stuff today.”

“Did the contractor mess up or something?” Kyle asked as she leaned over her grocery cart.

“No,” Bridgette replied but didn’t add anything else.

Kyle sensed there was something there that Bridgette wasn’t saying, but she didn’t know the woman well enough to push. Instead, she glanced at the rack.

“Is Mel an anniversary person?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Like, does she celebrate anniversaries? I think most people celebrate the years, but does she do the months, too?”

“I don’t know that anyone has ever asked me that about her before.” Bridgette paused. “I don’t think she makes a big deal out of it, no. Why?”

“We’re together now, and it’s silly, but I was thinking about making a reservation for our one month, which, depending on when we consider we got together, would be coming up. I thought I’d get her a card or something since her best friend makes them for a living.”

“Oh,” Bridgette replied. “Don’t buy her any of these.” She shook her head .

“What? Why?”

“They’re lame. I can make you one just for her if you want.”

“You can just make a one-month anniversary card?”

“It is what I do,” Bridgette replied, smiling at her. “And Mel deserves the best.”

“How many of these cards would you be willing to make for me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if I take you up on it now, would you still make me one for our one-year or our five-year? Would that be too many favors to call in?”

“Whoa!” Bridgette laughed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Five-year anniversary? Getting a little ahead of yourself there, huh?”

“I just meant that I can’t ask you to make a card for me every month. I assume you’d either run out of ideas or get tired of doing it for me.”

Bridgette lifted an inquisitive eyebrow at her and said, “Sure.” Then, she paused for a moment before asking, “Do we need to have the best friend talk?”

“Best friend talk?”

“Mel’s brother and sisters aren’t here, so I’m the next best thing; the best friend talk. You know, where I tell you not to hurt her.”

“Oh,” Kyle said. “I guess no one’s ever had that talk with me before.”

“None of your exes had best friends who gave you the talk?”

“I think that would assume they thought we’d last, and things with my exes never really got that far. I guess they also would’ve needed to assume that I’d do the heartbreaking, and that didn’t happen, either.”

Bridgette nodded once and said, “Mel’s amazing, Kyle.”

“I know.” Kyle smiled at just the thought of waking up next to Melinda that morning.

“And she gets ahead of herself sometimes. ”

“I know that, too. She told me.”

“She told me she wanted to take things slow with you, but here you are, talking about five-year anniversaries, and you’re spending every night together.”

“I was joking about the five-year thing, remember? Besides, a fortune teller told us last night that Mel and I are going to have kids together, and that was kids – as in plural , as in multiple children together – so, if anyone is ahead of herself, it’s her.”

“Some tarot reader said you two would have kids?” Bridgette laughed. “Damn. They’re not just sticking to the same old, same old, are they? What ever happened to, ‘You will find eternal happiness if only you follow your dreams?’” She said that last part in a fake, distant, and ominous tone, which had Kyle laughing.

“I know. It’s crazy. But she knew other stuff, too.”

“They always do. It’s a trick, Kyle.”

“Unless she’s had someone following me for days or tapped my phone on the off chance that I choose to sit at her table randomly one night, I don’t know how she could have known any of what she said. Even Mel thought it was strange.”

“Mel, the non-believer in the magic of the tarot cards?”

“Yes,” Kyle said.

Bridgette shrugged and replied, “Well, before you two start popping out babies, maybe just get to that one-month anniversary.”

“I’m working on it,” Kyle said with a smile. “It’s real, Bridgette, between Melinda and me. It’s probably the only real thing I have in my life right now.”

“But you’re leaving soon, Kyle, and she’s staying. She’ll never leave New Orleans. You know that, right? Her entire family moved away, and she stayed. She loves them but only sees them a few times a year, at most, because she doesn’t want to live anywhere else. I tried to get her to consider Baton Rouge at one point, which is only a little over an hour away, and she said no. This place could fall into the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow, and she’d still probably cling to anything she could find just to stay here.”

“I wouldn’t ask her to move, anyway,” Kyle replied. “I know that about her already, and it’s one of the things I like about her: she finds the beauty in things. When I first got here, it wasn’t a trip for me. It was a family thing that I had to take care of, and all I could see of this place was the overcrowding and crazy amounts of drinking, beads strewn about the streets and hanging in the trees, and the smell of all that drinking leftover in the air. Mel got me to see the other parts. She sees the beauty in just about everything.”

“She does. It’s her gift.” Bridgette shrugged again.

“You’re worried about me leaving.”

“Yes, I am. She is, too. She just probably isn’t telling you yet because she’s delaying the inevitable.”

“I thought I’d stay through the work on the house, and that would give us weeks or maybe months. Then, I happen to find the only contractor in the world who not only sticks to a schedule but makes the process easy and, somehow, is going to be done much sooner than I’d planned. Part of me is very happy about that, but the other part was kind of hoping for delays because that meant I’d stay longer.”

“What happens then? When she’s done with the work?” Bridgette asked her.

“I think Mel and I need to talk about that first, if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Bridgette replied.

“But I’ve never had with anyone what I have with her already. She’s special, and I have no intention of hurting her. I hope that’s good enough for now,” Kyle offered.

“I guess it has to be,” Bridgette said. “She deserves the best, Kyle. I may be unlucky in love, but I don’t want her to be.”

Kyle thought about those two words; in love . Was she in love? She’d said those words to two other women in her life, but after things had ended between them, she’d often wondered if she’d actually felt them. She hadn’t said them to Melinda yet, for obvious reasons, but everything was so different with her. Kyle was happy. She felt like she was finally out from under her mother’s thumb. Well, almost, anyway. When her mom had been back home, Kyle knew that if she’d called or texted and asked Kyle to stop by to do something for her, she couldn’t. She wasn’t there. She was off living her life in New Orleans, meeting a beautiful, amazing woman, and falling in love.

“You just realized it, didn’t you?” Bridgette chuckled. “Yeah, it’s all over your face.” She pointed at Kyle.

◆◆◆

“So, if I wanted to add a fountain or something back here one day, how would that work?” Kyle asked Myra.

“You pick out what you want and just need the plumbing hooked up, but it’s not that difficult. The only thing I’d say is to be careful with water.”

“Mold?”

“No. If you’re renting the house, it’s just another liability. If you had a pool back here, I’d tell you the same thing. Some family with toddlers rents the house for the week, and they don’t watch little Timmy closely enough; that kind of stuff. Even fountains can be dangerous. Besides, it wouldn’t add anything to the value of the house. Purely decorative. So, it’s up to you, but I’d recommend a small fence around it with a sign just to protect you.”

Kyle nodded as she stared out at the yard. When Myra left the kitchen and likely went back to her crew, Kyle continued to stare. She’d pictured a small fountain in the back corner, but she didn’t want anyone to get hurt or risk getting sued if that happened. In her mind, though, when thinking of the fountain, she hadn’t pictured the house being rented out. She’d pictured herself living in it. Now, she pictured two little toddlers running around the garden while Melinda and she sat on a blanket, watching them have fun. Kyle swallowed hard then, not because it scared her but because it felt right. It felt like that was what she was supposed to do, move into this house, and eventually, Melinda would join her. One day, there would be a wedding in the garden, but it wouldn’t be because she’d rented the house out for that purpose.

Kyle left the kitchen and walked into the parlor. Recalling dancing with Melinda there, she thought about how much she wanted to do that again, and soon. It was true that Kyle missed Jolie, but now that they had money, they could visit, and Jolie could stay here, in this house, whenever she wanted. Kyle could see that, too: Jolie’s kids running down the stairs and out into the backyard to join their cousins while Jolie and her husband tried to quickly chase after them. She smiled softly as a burly man, carrying flooring for one of the rooms, walked through the front door, nodding at her as he did.

That was when she saw her. Kyle walked outside and across the street to stand in front of her mother.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“This was where I should have grown up,” her mother replied, pointing at the house. “You’re doing work on it.”

“Yes, I am.”

“It’s going to be mine, Kyle. If anyone should approve the work, it should be me.”

“Mom, the house is mine and Jolie’s, and she told me I can do whatever I feel like I need to. It doesn’t belong to you.”

“It should,” her mother repeated.

“But it doesn’t,” Kyle said, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“I’ll sue, Kyle.”

“You know what? Sue your own kids. Go for it,” Kyle told her. “I have a great lawyer, Mom. I figured you would try something like this, so I already met with him about it. He tells me you have no chance of winning a lawsuit. Grandma knew what she was doing. You need to let this go.”

“I need a house, Kyle. I live in that shitty trailer.”

“You’ve chosen that life for yourself, Mom. Over and over again, you’ve made selfish decisions. You choose booze and cigarettes, and God knows what else over saving money to afford a nice apartment or keeping a job long enough to move up somewhere.”

“I was sixteen and a mom, Kyle. What did you think would happen? I had no support.”

“You had Dad for years until he couldn’t take it anymore, and he never left, Mom. He was sixteen, too, and he worked, and he was able to support himself, find someone who loved him, and help Jolie and me, too.”

“You’ve always been a daddy’s girl. Jolie is my baby.”

Kyle grew angry and said, “You leave Jolie alone.”

“She’s my daughter, and at least she loves me.”

“You don’t know what love is,” Kyle stated. “How you treat us isn’t love. And Jolie has a good life. Stop playing your mind games, and let us both be.”

“I want something, Kyle. Call it pain and suffering, but I need something for my troubles. Just give me something here.”

“If you want to sue me, go for it, Mom. You won’t win, and I’m not giving you money that you’ll just throw away. Grandma could’ve left you something, but she didn’t. I’m respecting her wishes.”

“Fine. Fuck you,” her mother snapped. “I’ll get my own attorney.”

“You do that,” Kyle replied.

Then, she heard a voice she recognized, so she looked over her mom’s shoulder. Melinda was leading a tour of the district, and Kyle didn’t know what to do. She hoped Melinda would stay in tour-guide mode and would walk right by them, pretending that she didn’t know Kyle at all because she didn’t want Melinda to ever meet her mother, but especially not right now.

“Hey,” Melinda said as she smiled wide at Kyle.

“Hi,” she replied and gave her a short wave as she’d do to a stranger who was being polite and saying hello as they passed by .

Melinda looked at her, confused, and then glanced at Kyle’s mother before she asked her group, “Can you all just give me one minute?”

‘Fuck,’ Kyle thought to herself.

“Is this Myra?” Melinda asked.

“What?” Kyle said.

“The contractor. Hi. I’m Melinda,” Melinda introduced herself and held out her hand for Kyle’s mother to shake.

“I don’t care,” the woman replied. “I’m getting a lawyer, Kyle.”

“Oh, shit,” Melinda realized then and leaned in a bit as if scrutinizing Kyle’s mother. “You do look alike a little, but it took me a minute. You’re Kyle’s mom.”

“Who the hell are you ?”

“I’m her girlfriend,” Melinda replied.

“Mel, just…”

“Girlfriend? Since when do you have a girlfriend?” her mother asked.

“Mom, just go.”

“I’m on a public sidewalk. I can stay here as long as I want.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And you can do better,” she added to Melinda. “Kyle is selfish.”

“Kyle is the least selfish person I’ve ever met, and no, I can’t do better. You could start trying to act like an actual mother and stop being such a bitch.”

“Excuse me?” Kyle’s mother returned.

“Okay. Mel, your tour.” Kyle pointed to the group of ten people standing only a few feet behind them. “And, Mom, here.” Kyle pulled Mr. Beaufort’s business card out of her pocket. “Have your attorney call mine, if you want, but just go.”

“Fuck both of you, then!” Her mother stated, snatched the card from her hand, and walked in the other direction.

“I’m sorry,” Melinda whispered. “I shouldn’t have.”

“It’s okay. But you’re working.”

“Ky, I’m sorry.”

“I know. I’m not mad. I just need to get back inside. ”

“I thought you were talking to the contractor, or I–”

Kyle turned to her and said, “Babe, you just stood up to my mother for me.” She smiled. “No one’s ever done that. You don’t have to be sorry.”

“But I overstepped.”

“No, you didn’t. We’re together. If your mother ever would’ve said–” Kyle looked behind Melinda to the group and added, “Let’s talk about this later.”

“Yeah, okay.” Melinda took Kyle’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Maybe we should start thinking about that furniture shopping you wanted to do for this place.” She winked at her.

Kyle watched Melinda as she apologized to the group for the interruption and began walking them the rest of the way down the street.