Mona At Sea by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

Author:Elizabeth Gonzalez James [Gonzalez James, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Coming of Age FICTION / Hispanic & Latino
Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project
Published: 2021-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

Sunk costs

A few days later, I’m with Ashley at a café in an upscale mall built to look like, I don’t know, a pueblo? A hacienda? Apparently, people now want to hear birds and fountains while they shop for designer dog carriers.

Ashley’s on her second mojito. Her mother, Crystal, is on her way and Ashley looks like she’s about to receive a colonoscopy. I haven’t told her about my parents yet, too afraid to burst the bubble of rekindled friendship we’ve blissfully floated in since the Saloon. We have a few minutes and I decide I might as well tell her about the separation, distract her so she doesn’t sit here obsessing about whether she wore the wrong shoes. But what am I supposed to say? That my parents have just thrown their marriage and my father’s career into the fire? That they dissolved twenty-four years of reasonably good coexistence in a matter of hours? How about that I partly blame myself? And that I’m now being forced to evaluate everything I know about life, career, love, and permanence? Are you even allowed to talk about anything important in a mall café?

“So, my parents are separating,” I say, stuffing a wad of complimentary bread into my mouth after dropping the bomb.

Ashley responds automatically, as though I’d caught her in the middle of a thought. “You’re so lucky.” Then, catching herself, “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.” She covers my hand with hers a moment. “What happened?”

“Well, my dad apparently interviewed for another job in Pennsylvania and didn’t tell my mom about it. She heard what he did from a colleague, freaked out, and they decided to separate. Then my mom fired his entire team under the guise of budget cuts—as you do—” Ashley nods and waves her hand in a ‘but of course’ motion, “though she thinks he actually wanted her to do that so he could be free, or something. I kind of think so, too. Now he’s in New Zealand for a month and Danny thinks I’m partly responsible for the whole thing because, well, just because of how I am.”

Ashley gives me a sympathetic look. “You did not break up your parents. You’re extremely hard to live with, but if your dad was secretly going to out-of-state job interviews, they were headed that way for a long time.”

How does she have the capacity to be so kind? “You think so?”

“Remember the New Year’s party when I said it was weird your parents didn’t kiss at midnight? And the time your dad took us bowling and I told you he was flirting with the hot dog lady? Plus, your mom is—was—his boss. How could that not make things weird? And as for her firing his team, I mean, it sounds like maybe that was what he wanted. Maybe he was just too scared to admit it.”

I’m looking at her over the rim of my wine glass, remembering mornings I’d found my father stretched out on the couch in his study, glasses fogging under his nose.

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