Violet sat up and fiercely wiped her eyes, smearing her makeup. “The wedding is off. Fuck him. Fuck Meela Baybee. I should have never introduced them. I hope she does something stupid and gets canceled so that she can drag Eddy’s career down with her.”
“What do you need us to do?” Iris asked, crouching in front of Violet. “I’ll start canceling things in the morning. I’ll call the caterer and the DJ. Lily can call Mom and Dad.” Iris looked at Lily for assistance. “Right?”
“Yes, anything,” Lily said, jumping in. “Anything you need.”
“No,” Violet said, standing. She had a bright-eyed, feral look in her eyes. “Don’t cancel a thing. Because we’re still going to have a party. An anti-wedding party.”
“Um,” Lily said. She and Iris exchanged worried glances.
“Shit, that sounds good to me,” Karina said.
Violet abruptly left the living room. The squishy movements of her spandex catsuit echoed throughout the house.
“Let’s just give her a minute,” Iris said. “Do you have lavender tea, Karina? That always makes her feel better.”
“We might. Let me check.”
Iris followed Karina into the kitchen, and Lily glanced at Karina’s stoic, beefy bodyguard, who was seemingly unmoved by the hysteria.
When she could no longer hear the sound of Violet’s footsteps, Lily went upstairs to Violet’s guest bedroom. The lights were out, and Violet was curled in a ball in the center of the bed. Her shoulders were shaking. Quietly, Lily walked to the bed and crawled beside Violet, drawing the comforter up to cover both of them.
“I feel sick to my stomach,” Violet mumbled quietly.
Lily snuggled closer. “I’m so sorry, Vi.”
They lay there not speaking, breathing in tandem. After a while Iris appeared, holding a mug of tea. She encouraged Violet to sit up and drink a little. Then wordlessly, Iris climbed into bed too, and Lily thought about how they used to sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve when they were kids. Times were so much simpler then. Their years of heartbreak were miles away.
Their flight back to New York tomorrow morning couldn’t come soon enough.
25
Nick slowly pushed a shopping cart down the juice aisle at Piggly Wiggly, waiting patiently as Teresa picked the items she needed.
In some ways, being back in Warren made Nick feel like he’d stepped through a time machine. Piggly Wiggly was still the place where everyone shopped. He’d already bumped into three high school classmates. The Jack in the Box where he’d worked was still across the street. It was strange to return to a place where much hadn’t changed, when he felt like a different person.
Teresa stood beside Nick, glancing back and forth between two different bottles of apple juice. Welch’s and store brand. She looked almost exactly the same as the last time he’d seen her. Slight and petite with light brown skin and large round eyes. The only difference was that her hair was shorter and styled into a pixie cut.
When Nick first arrived at the hospital days ago, Teresa had hugged him more tightly than he’d expected. He remembered how fragile she’d always seemed to him as a kid.
His parents had spent the better part of the last five years bouncing around the Bible Belt. And to Nick’s surprise, the reason they’d come back to Warren was because Teresa was divorcing Albert. After almost three decades, she’d finally had enough of running after him. She’d left Albert behind in Memphis and returned to Warren. Soon after, Albert had arrived too, but Teresa remained adamant on the divorce, even though she let him stay with her at the extended-stay motel. Theirs was a relationship that Nick still didn’t understand and probably never would.
While Teresa had been rehired at the nursing home, Albert dragged his feet about finding work. He spent too much time down at the pool hall, drinking and betting like before, and a few nights ago he’d gotten into the car with an associate who’d been too drunk to drive, and now Albert was in the hospital, concussed and injured.
That morning Nick had given Teresa the money to apply for an apartment. In another move that surprised him, Teresa chose to list only her name on the lease. He didn’t know where his father would live. He didn’t know if he believed Teresa would actually go through with the divorce. But he couldn’t have imagined Teresa making that kind of act of independence when he was younger.
So now, while they waited for Teresa to be approved for the apartment, Nick took her grocery shopping. Their relationship was awkward and stilted. But she was his mother and Nick had the money. The very least he could do was buy her food.