CHAPTER 19

“Okay. If you need anything, I’m just on the couch, so yell or something. Oh, and remember the thing about the bathroom. If I walk in, I’m not trying to rob the place. I just need to pee.”

“That’s the second time you’re bringing that up. Did someone think you were a robber before or something?”

“Not here, no, but… Well, when Andy and I lived together, it was a similar bathroom situation, and we were fighting, so I was on the couch one night and had to pee. She forgot, I guess, or was just too asleep to remember, so she kind of threw her phone at my head. I’m trying to avoid another bruise.”

Selma laughed and said, “She didn’t…”

“No, she did. And it wasn’t funny; trust me. I had a cut above my eye, which didn’t need stitches or anything, but head wounds gush blood. Then, the bruise formed, and I had this massive lump. She’s a pro athlete, so she’s strong. It was a hard throw.”

“Jesus, Drew!”

“She didn’t mean to,” Drew explained. “She felt awful after and helped me bandage it up and stuff, but, yeah… Just try not to throw anything at me if I come in.”

“I wouldn’t throw my phone at you anyway. I’d need that to call 911 if someone really was breaking in.”

“Yes!” Drew exclaimed. “That was exactly what I told her when we’d gotten the bleeding under control.”

Selma shook her head and said, “You still have it.”

“What?”

“There’s a little scar at your eyebrow,” Selma noted and reached a finger out to touch it.

“Yeah, it’s gotten smaller, but it’ll probably always be there. That scar has outlasted my relationship,” she said, trying to laugh it off. “Anyway, do you need anything else?”

“No, you’ve given me, like, six pillows and three blankets, so I think I’m okay,” Selma replied with a kind smile.

“Right. Okay. Well, good night.”

“Night, Drew,” Selma replied.

Drew turned to go back to her living room, where she decided against pulling the sofa out since that was a hassle, and she could easily fall asleep without it turning into a bed with a bar in the middle of it hurting her back.

She lay down and stared up at her ceiling, wondering how she’d gotten here. Selma was beautiful, funny, kind, smart, and talented on a board. They’d had fun at dinner ordering one of those big margaritas and sharing it since neither of them had to drive. Drew hadn’t ever seen Selma drink, and it was clear that the woman didn’t do it very often because she was a lightweight. As a result, it had been a very enjoyable experience for Drew to watch Selma metaphorically let her hair down. They’d talked about boarding, yes, but also Gia, their upbringings and families, and then, Drew had taken care of the check. Since she’d been the soberer of the two of them, she’d also kept an eye on Selma as they walked back, making sure she didn’t fall into the snow or slip on ice that hadn’t yet melted.

It had been an amazing night, and one of her best in recent memory, but she knew that inviting Selma to stay with her for a few days had been a mistake because it was only making her like Selma more, and she couldn’t like Selma more. Even if Selma were into women, Drew had dated another snowboarder twice in her career. Once had been someone not on the national team, and she’d been a half-pipe competitor. That had been a very brief relationship and had been mostly about sex more than actual feelings. The other time had been with Andy. That hadn’t ended well, and she’d been on Drew’s national team. Sure, they were competitors, too, but they were both adults and had handled that part okay. They didn’t also have to deal with being long-distance and from different countries. Drew knew that was pretty common for athletes because they spent more time with other athletes from different countries than they spent at home with people from their own, so dating another boarder from Canada wouldn’t be a big deal, but it would be to Drew who couldn’t even make it work with the woman she lived with. She’d once believed it was smart to date another snowboarder because they’d understand her schedule and dedication to the sport, but she didn’t know that for sure anymore.

When she woke up the following morning, it was to the sound of someone talking. She wasn’t sure where it was coming from until she remembered that Selma was in her bedroom. Drew sat up and checked her phone, which was on the coffee table in front of her, noticing that it was after eight in the morning, which was late for her. She had to pee, but she didn’t want to interrupt Selma’s call, so she got up and started coffee for both of them, setting the two cups on the table and trying not to eavesdrop, but the door was open a crack, so it was hard not to hear everything.

“Grandma said you got an A,” Selma said and paused. “That’s great, baby. Good job.”

Drew smiled because Selma was talking to Gia, who had already been asleep by the time they’d gotten home the previous night, resulting in Selma being slightly upset that she’d missed a chance at a goodnight call with her daughter.

“Okay. I have to go now, but I’m going to call you tonight. Be good for Grandma. I love you.”

Seconds later, the bedroom door opened, and Selma stood there in a pair of dark-gray sweats and a black T-shirt with the brand name of a snowboard company on it.

“Morning,” Selma said.

“Morning,” Drew replied. “I made coffee. I didn’t know what you’d want in it, but there’s milk in the fridge and sugar if you want.”

“Thank you.” Selma walked over to the table.

“Gia?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s good?”

“She’s fine, yeah. I just wanted to check in since I didn’t get to talk to her last night. I realized, though, that you might need to get to the bathroom and probably weren’t going because I was on the phone, so… Sorry about that.”

“I’m okay,” she lied. “You can call her whenever you want, you know? You don’t have to apologize for talking to your daughter, Selma.”

Selma rubbed her hands together and said, “So, I make a mean breakfast. Can I fix us something?”

“Sure. I have things. I didn’t know what you’d like, so I bought eggs, bacon, and stuff. It’s all in the fridge. Mind if I brush my teeth and all that, though?”

“No, go for it. How do you like your eggs?”

Drew cleared her throat. She was used to hearing that question from a woman the following morning after they’d had sex.

“Uh… However. I’m not picky.”

“Okay. I’ll get started, then.”

Drew headed into her room and found her bed unmade, wishing it was because they’d slept in it together, but she also wondered if her sheets and pillow now smelled like Selma.

“Stop that,” she whispered to herself as she washed her face and ran wet hands through her hair to slick it back a bit.

After she finished in the bathroom, she headed out to the main part of the space and found Selma pulling a bowl down from a cabinet, like she’d done that a hundred times. Drew smiled.

“Cheese in your eggs? I was thinking about doing scrambled or an omelet.”

“Whatever you’re having is fine.”

“What do you want? I’ll just make that and have that,” Selma stated.

“No, you’ll make whatever you want,” Drew insisted, picking her coffee cup up off the table and walking into the tunnel-style kitchen. “How does Gia like her eggs?”

“Scrambled.”

“And how do you like yours?”

“Over-easy.”

“How often do you make scrambled eggs at home and just eat those?”

Selma laughed and said, “All the time.”

“So, make over-easy eggs, Selma.”

“Do you like them over-easy?”

“Yes, I do. If I were making them for myself right now, that’s what I’d eat.”

“Are you just saying that to get me to make them that way?”

Drew shook her head before she took a sip of her coffee.

“What do you want to do today?” she asked.

“Whatever. I assume you want to get on a board at some point,” Selma replied and went about making them breakfast.

“I was actually thinking about not doing that.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t know… We board all the time. This is supposed to be us hanging out and you taking some time off. If you want to, we can, but I’m good with skipping it today.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to miss anything because I’m here.”

“I’m sure. I was actually going to see if someone could come to lunch with us, if you’re interested.”

“Someone?” Selma asked as she cracked an egg into a hot pan.

“It’s a friend of a friend,” Drew said and sat down at the table with her coffee. “She’s technically Andy’s older sister, if I’m being honest.”

“Andy?” Selma turned her head, and her hand with the second egg in it moved just as she’d been about to drop it into the pan, making half the egg miss the target. “Shit. Sorry.”

“You said, ‘Shit,’” Drew teased, thinking about Gia.

“Shut up.” Selma laughed before she cracked a new egg into the pan and started cleaning up the egg that had missed. “I didn’t know you still talked to Andy. I mean, I guess you have to because she’s–”

“We text occasionally, but nothing major. I did ask her if it was okay for me to reach out to her sister, though, and she said it was fine.”

“Were you two friends or something?”

“To me, she was just my girlfriend’s sister more than anything, but she is several years older than Andy, and she has a son.”

“Okay?”

“A son that’s kind of like Gia.”

Selma looked at her again.

“He’s nineteen now and already done with college,” Drew continued. “He’s actually close to being finished with his graduate degree and is going to be an aerospace engineer. Anyway, I know you’ve been thinking about what’s best for Gia, and that she’s alone even in that school made for geniuses, so I thought you might like to talk to someone who’s been there. If not, it’s okay. I told her that it might happen; it might not. Either way, she mentioned she’d be more than willing to talk to you, answer questions, and even introduce you to her online parent group for people with kids like Owen. That’s her son. He’s a good kid. I only met him a few times, but he’s crazy smart, like Gia.”

“Drew, you didn’t have to do that.”

“Do you not want to go? I don’t want to overstep. I forgot about Owen, honestly, until we were talking about Gia on the phone last, and then I remembered her talking to me about some things with him a while ago. I thought maybe she could help. If not, it’s totally okay.”

“I’d love to talk to someone else in this situation, but I’m sure that’s not how you want to spend part of your day. She’s your ex-girlfriend’s sister.”

“Andy and I are okay now. I don’t know if we’re ever going to be close again or anything, but we’re all right. And Heather is cool. She and her husband really struggled with Owen acting out when he was younger. I guess it took him a while to settle down and find the right program or something. I don’t know.” Drew took another sip of her coffee before adding, “She can tell you all about it if you want to go.”

“Yes, I’d love that. Thank you,” Selma said.

“No problem,” she replied, feeling pretty good about her idea to see if Heather would mind talking to Selma while she was here in person.

Breakfast eaten and dishes in the dishwasher, Drew didn’t know what to do until it would be time to leave for lunch, which would take them an hour to get to since they were going someplace closer to Heather to make it easier on her. So, they just sat on the sofa, and she was going through things to watch on TV, wishing she’d thought more about what they’d do for the three days and two nights that Selma would be here.

“So… Does Gia know you’re here?” Drew asked finally.

“No, she thinks I’m traveling for work. Training; so that I don’t have to lie to her about winning or not winning anything. I didn’t want her to know because she’d be upset that I got to see you, and she didn’t.”

Drew smiled and said, “I miss her, too.”

“You don’t have to say that stuff just because you–”

“Selma, I love your kid. She’s funny as hell, obviously smart, and she’s actually really patient and takes direction well, which definitely not all nine-year-olds do. She’s kind of adorable. I meant it when I invited both of you. While I’m still glad you’re here on your own because I know you needed a little break, but if she were here, I’d have her find some science documentary for us to watch or something.”

“She loves those. How did you know?”

“She told me. That’s why we were drawing flowers that day in the lobby – something about the Fibonacci sequence. She’d watched a documentary about it and how it was present in flowers, so she was showing me how to draw them.”

“That’s why she said it was wrong,” Selma said with a smile and nod.

“Yeah, I told you she was right.”

“Do you want them?”

“What? Flowers? I’m not much of a flower girl.”

“No.” Selma laughed a little. “Kids. I was so young when I had her, that I hadn’t fully formed my opinion on that for myself. I guess I thought I might, but I also might not. Then, she was there, and it was a done deal.”

“Do you want more?” Drew asked.

“No,” Selma stated and shook her head. “She will be an only child. One is enough for me. I did not like being pregnant, and that had nothing to do with me still being in school at the time. Gia is a lot of work, too. Don’t get me wrong – I love my daughter more than life, but raising a gifted kid and doing it without her father on top of that, even with the help of my family, was really hard. I don’t want to do that again. I feel like I gave her all my energy, you know?”

“I get that,” Drew said.

“What about you?”

“Kids?” Drew let out a deep breath. “I never thought about it because boarding came first. I figured that I’d meet a woman, settle down, and we’d talk about that. But I’m still boarding, and I’m not getting any younger, so… I don’t know. I don’t think I’d want to be forty-five with an infant at home. That’s just not for me. But an older kid? Maybe. If I adopted or something.”

“You’re good with my kid. I’d bet you’d make a great mom, Drew.”

“We’ll see, I guess,” she said. “Want to find something to watch for us? I’m doing a bad job here.”

She passed Selma the remote.