Chapter 2

Tasha Washington was busy working—and she was probably going to be working overtime again—when her phone rang. She was deep in the zone, Taylor Swift in her headphones helping her stay focused, so she didn’t answer it at first. When the phone rang again, she actually looked at the screen and was surprised to see her old roommate calling. Pausing Taylor mid-song, Tasha reached over and swiped right.

“Hey, Megan! It’s been a minute!”

“Tasha! I’m sorry to call, and I know that you’re probably busy, and I know that this is inconvenie?—”

“Slow down! What’s going on?”

“I need help, Tasha. I don’t know who else to turn to, and I’m desperate. I know this is probably a bad time—I’m sure you’re busy.”

“Megan! Okay, slow down again. What’s going on? What do you need?”

There was a pause, and then Megan whispered, “I caught Brad cheating on me. I took Sophia and left.”

“What? Wait, let me turn up my phone. What was that?”

“I caught Brad cheating on me and I took Sophia and left.”

“What an asshole! I told you that you should have left him the first time!”

Her voice must have carried, because she heard Sophia ask, “Mommy, who are you talking to?”

“I’m talking to your Aunt Tasha, sweetie.”

After Megan answered her daughter’s question, she responded to Tasha. “I know, and now I know that you were right. I guess I thought that he could change, and I was wrong.”

“Well, I won’t say that I told you so… oh, wait, I guess I just did.” Tasha looked around to see if any of her co-workers—or worse, her boss—were paying attention. Seeing that no one was eavesdropping, she continued. “Sorry. Ummmm, so you said that you left the lying, cheating little shitweasel. Where are you now?”

“I’m south of Mt. Hood. I’ve been driving for a while, but I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m going to do. I thought about hotels, but I don’t know if my cards will still work, and it’s expensive, and?—”

“Megan! You’re spiraling! That’s okay, you’ve had a tough day. The two of you can crash at my place for a night or two and we’ll figure something out.”

“No, that’s too much! I can’t ask you to do that. Do you know of any shelters or anything?”

“Bitch, please… we spent four years in the same room, and, you ain’t askin’, I’m offering. Actually, I’m not offering. I’m telling you that you and Sophia are staying with me.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure. It’s gonna be cozy, but we’ll make it work. Plus, I haven’t seen that little munchkin in years. I bet that she looks just like you now,” Tasha said. Taking a deep breath to center herself, Tasha asked, “Do you need my address?”

“Yes, thank you. Please text it to me. I owe you, big time!”

Tasha heard Megan start to choke up. “I’m pretty sure that we both owe each other a lot from our college days, so we’ll call it even. I’ll text you my address. Give me a call again when you get close, okay?”

“Thank you again. I’ll call you soon.”

“See you soon!” Tasha ended the call and immediately started a mental priority list for what needed to be done at her apartment. She hopped on to Slack and messaged Kevin that she had an emergency and needed to leave immediately, then grabbed her coat and dashed to the elevator. As the elevator doors slid shut, she heard her boss yelling her name from across the office. Tasha knew that he would be pissed and would find new and inventive ways to make her miserable. As she texted Megan her address, she got the first of many increasingly angry texts from her boss. Fuck that guy and this job, Tasha thought. If I didn’t need the damn insurance, I would be out of here. Kevin was a problem for later.

Tasha pulled up her ride-share app and balked at the surge pricing. It wasn’t that much faster than the bus, so the bus it was. Thankfully, Trimet ran frequently this time of day, and she only had to wait a couple of minutes. As she sat down, that mental priority list came back into focus. She had a lot to do, but hopefully, she’d have enough time to clean up and at least start some laundry. Luckily, there weren’t too many stops, and now she had a plan of action.

Of course, like most plans, it fell apart as soon as Tasha closed her apartment door. She could hear the meows start the moment her key touched the lock—Nocturne was thrilled that her human was home early. Tasha was greeted with a veritable whirlwind of head bonks, meows, and purrs, followed by the classic fall-over-and-roll-around-adorably maneuver. She spent a couple of precious minutes scratching and cooing at her feline roommate before slipping off her coat. It wasn’t news to Tasha that cleaning up or even moving around could be challenging when a cat decided to “help,” but in this particular moment, it was extra distracting. She nearly tripped more than once and got rewarded with an outraged squeak when Nocturne decided to move right where her foot was going. Even so, she had her apartment in mostly presentable shape by the time her phone rang. Tasha’s heart fell as she saw the 14 unread messages from Kevin, plus the Slack notifications, and the icon representing unread emails that she just knew were the harbinger of yet more misery. But that was something she’d worry about later.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she answered her phone. “Hey, Megan! How far away are you?”

“Hi, Aunt Tasha! Mom says that we are about thirty minutes from your address.”

“Aw, Sophia. I’m so looking forward to seeing you and your mom. You tell her to drive safe, and I’ll see you both soon, okay?”

“Okay, Aunt Tasha! Bye!”

Tasha set down her phone and opened up her laptop. Pulling up the website of the Thai place down the street, she ordered what she hoped would be a good selection. It would be ready with hopefully just enough time for her to walk over and pick it up before Megan and Sophia arrived.

She was just getting back to her apartment when a green Subaru pulled in across the street. She didn’t immediately recognize the blonde woman in the driver’s seat, but underneath the curly mop of red hair in the passenger seat was almost certainly her goddaughter, Sophia.