“No, my phone died.” Lily walked to the couch and searched for her charger, checking between the cushions. She checked by her book stack and crouched down, looking under the coffee table. “Have you seen my charger?”
“Oh shit,” Violet said with a weighty pause. “Is that it right there?”
Lily sat up, alert. “Where?”
She followed Violet’s line of sight and watched as Tomcat sauntered toward her, holding her mangled charger in his mouth. He dropped the charger at Lily’s feet like an offering and blinked at her sweetly. A look that said, Hello, Mother, look what I destroyed just for you.
“Nooo,” Lily groaned, holding the chewed-up charger in her hand. “I thought you grew out of this.”
“Use my charger,” Violet said. “It’s somewhere in my room.”
Lily dashed down the hall and groaned again, because every inch of Violet’s room was covered in clothes, strewn across her bed and floor. Racks were lined up in front of her closet. It was like being stuck in a department store maze. Lily maneuvered to the outlet by Violet’s bed, but saw only the charger for Violet’s laptop.
“I can’t find it!” she shouted. But the apartment phone rang with a call from the front desk, drowning out her voice.
Lily hurried back into the living room, growing more anxious by the second to find a charger, any charger, so that she could finally call Nick. Then there was a knock at the door, and Violet opened it, letting in Dahlia, Benjamin, Iris and Calla.
“Violet, what is this anti-wedding party email you’ve sent to the whole family?” Dahlia asked. “Do you know that your great-aunt Portia received that email? It’s filled with profanity!”
“I only used the F-word once,” Violet clarified. “And I’m sure it’s not the first time Great-Aunt Portia has heard it. Didn’t she sing at a speakeasy back in the day?”
Dahlia frowned at her. Iris and Calla went to sit on the couch and were immediately joined by Tomcat, who could always count on Calla to show him extra attention. Benjamin hugged Violet and Lily hello and sat on the couch as well, but Dahlia stayed where she was by the kitchen island.
“Violet, are you sure your charger is in your room?” Lily asked, growing desperate.
Violet looked puzzled. “Yeah. Isn’t it plugged up by my bed?”
“No,” Lily said.
“I don’t understand how you girls can stand living in such a small space,” Dahlia said, casting a skeptical glance around the apartment. Her gaze snagged on Lily’s shoes, lined up by the heater and her basket of fresh laundry by the coffee table. “Lily, honey, don’t you want your own room again? Why don’t you move back home for a little while? You can reassess your career and find a job where you can afford your own apartment. We haven’t discussed business school yet. That’s an option.”
“Mom, no.” Lily couldn’t take another second of this. Not from her mom, not from anyone. If she’d learned anything over the past couple months, it was that she was done with being pushed, pulled and managed by those around her. She had a voice and a life vision, and she believed in herself. It was time that everyone else learned that too. Starting with her family.
“I’m not moving back home,” she said, “and I’m not going to business school or law school or any other school. I know that you do this because you care, and I know that it’s confusing to you because I haven’t really accomplished anything great yet like Iris or Violet. I have a second interview next week with a dream publisher, and I hope I get the job, but even if I don’t, I’m going to keep trying. I might progress at a slower pace and I might not get everything right on the first try, but you have to give me the space to figure things out on my own.”
Dahlia blinked, momentarily speechless. “I’m sorry, honey. I thought I was helping. I wasn’t trying to make things worse.”
“I know that’s right,” Violet said. “Stand up for yourself, Lily.”
“It’s not just Mom,” Lily said, whipping around to face Violet, then looking at Iris. “It’s both of you too. I lied to you about having a boyfriend earlier this year because it was the only way I could get you to stop trying to fix my love life. I never had a boyfriend. I was emailing with someone I’d never even met in person! And . . . well, it turns out he was actually Nick—”
“What?” Iris and Violet said.
“—but that’s neither here nor there. He and I already moved past that. He believes in me and accepts me for who I am, and that’s why I love him, but—”