Page 20 of Try Hard

I wasn’t sure that was true. Sure, I was a senior writer, and I had gotten lucky with attention on my pieces, but everyone was replaceable at the end of the day. That was the corporate world.

When I didn’t offer any more commentary or information than a quick nod, Mum sat me down, and started making tea. She gave me a moment as she filled the kettle and pulled out two tea bags before she turned back to me and smiled. “So, how was the party?”

I almost laughed at the flashback to being a child attending my classmates’ birthday parties, returning home with a party bag and a piece of cake wrapped in a colourful napkin. “Busy. Seems like Kim’s wedding is going to be a big one.”

“Oh, yes?”

If I ever got married, she was going to be disappointed by the wedding. She looked positively overjoyed.

I hummed and leaned my chin on the back of my hand. “Tanika was saying there’s like nineteen bridesmaids, two maids of honour. Over two hundred guests.”

“Tanika was there? Oh, what a sweet girl. How’s she doing? We haven’t seen her for a couple of years. Remember the last time she came over here? Oh, it was so long ago.”

I didn’t really remember it, no. Studying for exams, or celebrating them being over, or something similar, I imagined, but I couldn’t actually place it. Odd, really, since she hadn’t spent that much time over here, but it was two decades ago, and a lot had happened since then.

“How’s her husband?” Mum asked as she poured the water into the waiting mugs. “He’s a sweet man. We’ve only met him the one time—ran into them at the market—but I could tell he was a good one. Much better than the guy she was with before him.”

I nodded sharply. “That’s what I hear.”

Mum hummed, stirring the mugs and adding milk to her own. “So nice that everyone from your cohort is getting married and being happy.”

Ah. I knew this line of thought. “Indeed,” I said, watching her pull the biscuit tin out and bring it over to me before returning for the teas. I’d have offered to help, but she never let me.

“Any chance Eve was there?” she asked, her voice purposefully and transparently light when her back was towards me.

I waited until she turned around and was walking towards me—a touch longer than she’d normally wait, obviously hoping she’d be able to conceal her reaction. “She was, actually.”

“Ah,” she said, working hard not to stumble or smile too widely.

“Yeah. Whole group of us from school.”

“It sounds like it,” she said, sitting down with me and waving off my thanks for the tea. “Have a biscuit.”

Not one to argue with her in this mood, I pulled the lid off the tin. However, I could feel her getting more and more antsy as I took my time choosing one. Finally, I plucked a biscuit from the container and looked up at her.

She smiled. “Was it nice to see her again?”

“After yesterday, you mean?”

“Yes.”

I bit down on my amusement. “It was nice to know someone there. You know, someone I’ve seen more recently than two decades ago.”

She sat up taller in her seat, leaning towards me across the table, and she snatched up a biscuit with alarming speed.

While Fuad survived on gossip, it seemed my mother had been starved of the stuff.

“So, you spent a lot of time with her?” she asked eagerly.

“A decent amount,” I offered, wondering how much detail I wanted to get into, but, if not with my mum, then who? “Kim’s new cousin-in-law was… excited to claim Eve’s attention.”

“A challenger? For her affections?” She clasped her face in her hands. “Oh, my!”

I laughed in disbelief. “Mum, it’s not the Middle Ages.”

“Maybe not, but this is serious, Fia. If there’s someone vying for her attention, you’ve got to put yourself out there, let her know how you feel.”

“And how is that?”

She huffed. “I know you said last night it was in the past, but, I don’t know. Something in my bones tells me there might be more there. And, you know, someone else is just a complication along the way. You and Eve have history.”

“We went to school together two decades ago. I don’t know if that counts.”

“It definitely counts,” she said sternly. “Besides, that’s not all it was. She was important to you.”

I sighed, thinking back. “She was important to everyone.”

“But it’s you she’s choosing to spend time with now.”

“Because we happened to be at the same two events.”

Mum studied me, sipping her tea as she watched me sip mine, and I could see a million different thoughts simmering barely below the surface.

I’d shut her down last night, and, today, I’d immediately gone back out, seen Eve, and… enjoyed the way she touched me, the way she looked at me. I’d enjoyed the time alone in my car. I’d handed over my phone without a second thought. There was just something easy about being around her.

“Fia,” Mum said, keeping her tone measured as she put her poppy-covered mug back on the table, “do you like being around her?”

I blew out a heavy breath. “I suppose so, yes.”

She fought hard to hide her excitement. She was unsuccessful. “Then maybe that’s all you need to know for right now. You like being around her, she seems to like being around you—”

“She did spend a lot of time with Sammy.”

Mum shot daggers at me. “So, for now, just spend some time together. Enjoy yourself. Allow yourself to rest and have some fun.”

“I have fun.”

She reached across the table to cup one of my cheeks. “I know you do, but this is a different kind of fun.”

“Mum, I…?” Before I could worry too much that she wanted to talk about me just sleeping around with Eve, she shook her head.

“Not like that.” She shuddered and rallied, dropping her hand. “You love your job, and I know you have fun there, but this is a human connection. And there’s something there, I can feel it. You deserve to explore it.”

“And we’re hoping she agrees?” I knew I was, but I shouldn’t have been. It was so much more complicated than even my mum understood, but what could I do? I wanted to talk to Eve, to spend more time with her. And I hadn’t felt like that in a very long time.

“Oh, I’m sure she does. You’re a lovely young woman.”

I laughed, grateful for the snap in tension that had been building in my chest. “Thanks, Mum. I think you’re duty-bound to say that, though.”

“Nonsense. I just happen to know you and I’m sure Eve is happy to know you too.”

“It’s… complicated.”

She looked at me, seeming to understand that there was something I didn’t want to talk about—didn’t know how to talk about—but which I truly believed to be complicated.

Nodding, she said, “Be that as it may, it’s still worth spending time with someone you feel drawn to and connected to.

Maybe the rest of it is stuff you’ll be able to figure out together.

But I know you regret not talking to her more at school, and I don’t want you to feel like that again now that you’ve gotten a second chance. ”

Mums really did know too much sometimes. I’d never named regretting not talking to Eve more. Of course she’d figured it out.

I sighed, but something eased inside of me—the part that needed permission to talk to Eve, even if I felt like I couldn’t give her everything I wanted to. “I suppose we don’t really get a choice, anyway, what with all these wedding events.”

Mum smiled victoriously. “Has she given you her number?”

“Yes.” I tried not to flush at the fact that it was her private one and she’d earlier avoided giving Sammy either of them.

“So, it doesn’t have to just be wedding events…” She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I couldn’t help but smile.

“She’s invited me to watch her play rugby on Tuesday night.”

Mum gasped, accidentally inhaling some of her tea, and I suddenly had to wonder how much gossip Dad told her because she recovered remarkably smoothly. “Fia, that’s wonderful! Oh, I’m sure you’re going to have the best time. I hear she’s a wonderful player.”

“She is.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make you soup and tea and things to keep you warm.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that cold,” I protested, not wanting her to put herself out, but still grateful for her care and excitement. Maybe it was nice to be looked after sometimes.

Mum waved me off. “And we’ll make sure you look absolutely stunning and there won’t be space in her mind for any other woman. Don’t you worry.”

I laughed, trying hard to ignore the pang of discomfort that the only way I could impress Eve was with my looks.

Instead, I concentrated on worrying that my mum was too into this whole thing and wondering if I should have let on that I still liked Eve.

But, even with all the complications, I couldn’t exactly deny that I wanted to be the woman on Eve’s mind.