Page 7 of September (New Orleans #9)

G wen loved her job, but some days were better than others. Today, she was walking five dogs, which was probably one too many when one of them was a giant Great Dane and hadn’t yet learned how to walk on a leash properly and was almost as tall as Gwen.

“Blaze!” she yelled as she tried to get him to stop running off in the direction of anything that moved.

‘I love my job,’ she reminded herself.

Blaze was a new client and was still very much a puppy despite his size.

At just under a year old, he would run after every squirrel he would see, but he would go after a leaf blowing in the wind, too, and since they were coming up on autumn, Gwen wondered at how fun that might be when they went to the park together, and leaves fell from the trees.

She pictured herself trying to hold on to the leash while he ran after brown, red, and yellow leaves that meant him no harm.

An hour later, she had returned all of her furry clients to their homes, with the exception of Blaze, whom she was dropping off on her way home.

Without the other dogs around, he was slightly calmer, but not by much.

Still, it was easier to walk him solo, and she decided that since he would get even bigger, she might have to make a separate trip to walk him to save herself the back and arm strain from trying to hold on to him.

“Hi, Mom,” she said when she put her phone to her ear with her free hand after she saw her mother’s name on the screen.

“Honey,” her mother said matter-of-factly how she always did.

“I’m at work. Can I call you back?” she asked as she tried to wrangle Blaze away from the piece of trash he had found on the ground by the trash can.

“You just walk dogs for a living. You can’t talk to your mother while you do that?”

“Nice to talk to you, too, Mother,” she replied sarcastically.

“You know I hate when you call me that.”

“I do,” she said and smirked.

“Your father and I want to talk to you. Can you come by the house tonight?”

“No, I can’t. I have plans.”

“Plans? With whom?”

“Why must my plans involve someone else?”

“Well, if they don’t, then you can move them and come by the house tonight.”

“Mom, it’s not like you’re right down the road from me. It’s hours of driving.”

“We moved back to Louisiana last month to spend more time with our family, and our family doesn’t want to spend time with us.”

“You told none of us what you were doing and bought some house close to Archie right when the twins went off to college. Annabelle lives in Europe. Grant is busy with work. I live in New Orleans.”

“And you’re not busy with work?”

“No, I am.” Gwen let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m busy right now, but you insisted that I couldn’t call you back.”

“Your brother is a successful doctor with his own practice, and he’s offered to cook us dinner tomorrow night.”

“Archibald hasn’t cooked a meal in his entire life.” She laughed. “He has a new housekeeper who will be doing the cooking.”

“He can at least afford a housekeeper. You’re living in a shack.”

“I live in an apartment.”

“A one-bedroom.”

“So? There is only one of me.”

“Where will my grandchildren sleep?”

“Well, I’d need to find a woman to have them with first, since I don’t want to be a single parent.”

“You’re thirty-two years old, Gwen,” her mother noted. “It’s time to stop this nonsense. I have someone I want you to meet.”

“Mom, I don’t need you to set me up on dates.”

“It’s not a date. I wish it were a date, but you’ve made it abundantly clear that you’re only attracted to women, and he’s not a woman.”

“Will you just tell me what this is about?” Gwen asked. “Blaze, that’s a cigarette butt, not food.”

“Excuse me?” her mother exclaimed. “You’re smoking? Since when do you smoke?”

“Mom, I’m talking to the dog that I’m walking because, as mentioned, I am at work,” she said. “Now, what’s going on?”

“Your father has a friend who needs a new office manager. It’s a wealth management firm near here.

They’ve got more than fifty employees now.

He’s built it all from scratch, and they just lost the office manager they’ve had for more than ten years.

I told him you needed a job and invited him to dinner. ”

She stopped when Blaze lifted his leg against a tree on the sidewalk and looked down at her feet, shaking her head because this wasn’t the first time, and unfortunately, Gwen knew that it wouldn’t be the last.

“Mom, I have a job.”

“You have a thing that you do that gives you money sometimes.”

“No, I have a job. I earn enough money to pay all my bills, and that makes it a job.”

“Well, it’s not a career,” her mother replied.

“It is for me.”

“This is ridiculous. Will you just come to dinner tonight? He’s looking for someone to fill the job soon.”

“I live here, not there,” she reminded.

“I said it was near here, but it’s between here and there. It would be a commute for you, but not too long, and you could always move closer if you don’t like the drive. I’m sure the money would be worth it. He might even offer to help cover the moving expenses if you need it.”

“Now, you want me to move?”

“Gwendolyn, what are you going to do? Walk dogs for the rest of your life? Live in a one-bedroom apartment and bring home woman after woman?”

“I don’t bring home woman after–”

“Well, you’re not bringing home one woman to meet us and marry.”

“I haven’t met her yet,” she said. “I don’t need you to worry about me. Archie just got divorced. His kids are angry at him because he was a dick to their mother, and he is bringing home woman after woman pretty much in front of them. Go pick on him. He deserves it.”

“Your brother is going through a rough time. His wife left him, and his children are adults now, so they’re not around much anyway.”

“Yes, he’s going through a rough time. I’m not. I’m happy, Mom. Spend your time helping your son, who caused that rough time he’s going through.”

“I can’t believe you’re happy doing what you’re doing.”

“Because I don’t want to have a job where I stare at a computer all day or have to go to meetings all the time? This is what I like, Mom.”

“Fine. Will you come to dinner anyway?”

“No, Mom. I have plans. I’m going to Elisa’s.”

“She divorced your brother, Gwen.”

“She’s one of my closest friends, and she’s the mother of your grandchildren.”

“I know that. But she gave up on her family.”

“No, she divorced Archie . She’s very much involved with her family. She just texted that Adele came home this morning unexpectedly, so I’m going over there to see what’s up.”

“Is something wrong with Adele? She just got to school.”

“I don’t know, Mom. That’s why I’m going over there to check and spend time with her and Elisa.”

Blaze was still sniffing everything in sight, but they had just arrived at the apartment building where his family lived, so she used this as her opportunity.

“Mom, I have to go. I’m dropping off one of the dogs, and I have to get him settled inside.”

“Fine. I’ll give up on dinner tonight. But soon, Gwen.”

“Sure. Okay,” she said to get her mom off the phone.

She dropped Blaze off at home and made sure to give him a bone to chew on, hoping that would occupy him while his parents were out. Then, she headed to Elisa’s and found her niece sitting in the living room, typing on her computer.

“Hey. I heard you were home,” she said.

“Yes, she arrived unexpectedly,” Elisa added when she walked out of the kitchen.

“Mom’s just mad because she was making out with Myra in the living room when I got here.”

“Mom is wondering why you’re not on campus at that new college you just got to,” Elisa replied.

“I told you, I needed a quiet place to study.”

Gwen sat down next to Adele and asked, “They don’t have libraries at your fancy school?”

“They do, but they’re too quiet. You can’t even chew gum in there without the librarian looking at you weirdly.

I tried to reserve a study room, but they were all taken.

My roommate blares music in her headphones, and it’s so loud that I can hear it through my own.

I don’t know how she doesn’t have damage to her ears yet. ”

“So, you came home to study? Isn’t that a long drive?”

“Yes, it is,” Elisa replied instead, glaring at Gwen as if she expected Aunt Gwen to convince her favorite niece to go back to school. “And it’s a long drive back , too.”

“Mom, am I really in the way of you and Myra getting it on? She has a house right over there.” Adele pointed in the direction of Myra’s house. “I don’t have a key to it. You can go crazy, and I’ll be here trying to write my very first college paper in peace.”

“It’s not about–”

“Hey, Elisa? Why don’t you go wherever Myra is probably hiding, and Adele and I will hang out for a minute?” Gwen suggested.

“ Adele is trying to work,” Adele noted.

“I’m going outside to bring Myra something to drink and play with Buster. You two have fun,” Elisa replied.

Gwen watched her walk back toward the kitchen and waited until she thought that she was out of earshot.

“So, what’s really going on?” she asked her niece.

“Nothing.” Adele shrugged. “I just need–”

“Bullshit. I’m not the mom. I’m the cool aunt. Spill.”

Adele closed her computer and said, “Wendy and I did it.”

Gwen sat there frozen and with wide eyes because, of all the things she had expected her eighteen-year-old niece to say, it hadn’t been that one. Now, she was really wishing that she hadn’t told Elisa to go.

“Yeah…” Adele added. “And I told Mom that we were going to do it before it happened, but now that it has, I don’t know how to bring it up to her.

It’s weird. She’s my mom. Can I really talk to her about…

stuff ? I told her about Tucker after he and I did it, but I didn’t, like, give her details or anything. ”

“Well, what do you mean by stuff and details, exactly?”

“Like, what we did.”

“I see,” Gwen said and swallowed, wholly unprepared to have this conversation.

She thought about how Elisa probably had beer or wine in the kitchen that she could really use right about now, but she soldiered on because this was about her niece, not her.

“Did you not like it?” she asked.

“No, I did,” Adele said quickly. “I really did.”

“Okay. Well, what did you need to talk about?”

“I don’t know if I was any good. Wendy’s done that before, and we talked about it before we did it.

I told her to tell me if I wasn’t doing something right, and we promised each other that we wouldn’t fake it , but I think she did.

I asked her about it, and she said she didn’t.

She promised me it was real, and she got upset with me that I didn’t believe her after the second time she said it. ”

“Why don’t you believe her?”

Adele placed her computer on the table and replied, “It was really fast.”

“She came fast?”

“Aunt Gwen!” Adele turned around as if expecting her mom to be standing right there, and she didn’t want her to hear that.

“What?” Gwen asked. “We’re talking about sex here. If you’re old enough to have it, Adele, you’re old enough to use the words. She had an orgasm quickly. Orgasm is a lot of syllables. So, she came fast.”

“Fine. Yes, she did that ,” Adele replied with red cheeks.

“Why is that a bad thing?”

“Because I did that with Tucker when he and I had sex. I pretended because it was done quickly.”

“Honey, girls can come fast, too. It’s a good thing. It means that Wendy was really enjoying herself.”

“I was… down there.” Adele pointed between her own legs. “Does it really happen that fast? When she did that to me, it took a while.”

“Yes, it can happen that fast. And every woman is different. Some don’t come from that at all, and some might not like it, which is fine, too.”

“She said she did.”

“Then, you need to believe her. If she tells you that she didn’t fake anything with you, you need to believe her, Adele. It sounds like you two enjoyed what you were doing, and that’s a good thing. Making a woman come is an amazing experience. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

“Aunt Gwen, come on,” Adele said, shaking her head.

“What? It’s the truth. It’s an honor to be able to share that experience with a woman you really care about. Do you really care about Wendy?”

“I think I might be in love with her,” Adele said, sounding all breathy. “I mean, I am in love with her. We were friends before we got together, you know?”

“And do you think she feels the same way about you?”

“She said as much.”

“She told you she’s in love with you?”

“She said it during. She told me she loved me when she was touching me.”

Gwen nodded and asked, “And that scared you, didn’t it?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re eighteen. She’s amazing, but we only just started dating, and I have plans, Aunt Gwen. I wasn’t supposed to meet someone and fall in love yet. I need to focus on school and a career, not girls or boys.”

“So, that’s what this is really about,” Gwen said as she nodded again. “You’re scared, Adele.”

“Who wouldn’t be? She’s beautiful, funny, and smart. And she has plans, too, but then we’re in her dorm room, and we’re taking that step, and she’s taking another one that I’m not ready for because it’s not supposed to happen yet.”

“Oh, sweetie. You’re in love.” She cupped the back of Adele’s neck. “I’ve been there. It’s not easy, but let me tell you a little secret.”

“Please. I need all the help I can get.”

“It’s easier just to embrace it; give in to it.

Tell her how you feel. If you’re not ready to say the words yet, that’s okay.

Just tell her that, if you can, and apologize about the whole thinking-that-she-might-be-faking-it thing.

Maybe share that you’ve done that with Tucker, if you want her to know that, and so that’s why you went there.

Then, just be a good girlfriend to her, okay?

Don’t run away from her and come back home.

Go to her and tell her that you’re sorry. ”

“I just got here,” Adele said.

“I know. You can stay all weekend, as far as I’m concerned. Just call your girlfriend while you’re here, then.”

“I’ve never been in love before. I wasn’t with Tucker or any other guy.” Adele shrugged a shoulder.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Adele smiled and said, “Yes. And terrifying.”

“That too,” Gwen said on a laugh and rubbed Adele’s neck, remembering when she was just a baby and Gwen held her for the first time.

She’d been thirteen years old, holding her goddaughter, and she knew even then that she would always do anything she could to protect her. That included being honest with her: love was both amazing and totally terrifying.