The Way Life Should Be by Dameron William

Author:Dameron, William
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little A
Published: 2023-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE COTTAGE RULES

The bathroom is by appointment only. Unless you are the only person in the cottage, you must get a unanimous vote to use the bathroom. Please ask everyone present if they need to use the bathroom before you can reserve it.

CHAPTER 14

Basket Cases

Thomas knocks and, leaning his ear against the door, says, “Abbie, did you make a reservation?” Abbie, sitting on the toilet, looks up at the ceiling and clenches her hands into fists.

“Jesus Christ, can’t I have a little privacy?” she shouts.

Thomas contemplates making a joke and telling her to call him Father, but he thinks if he does, the bathroom door might explode. Matt, sitting with Brian and Bex at the kitchen table ten feet away, closes his eyes and shakes his head in a gesture that says, Let it go. Zelda paws at their legs and whines for breakfast scraps. Bex raises her eyebrows, looks at Matt, and says, “Someone’s a little testy this morning.”

“I can hear that!” comes a voice from behind the bathroom door.

They lower their voices, and Thomas wonders aloud why it takes Abbie so long to take a shower.

“She’s still getting over Rick,” Bex whispers.

Matt looks confused.

“Hello? Am I the only one who can hear Adele in there with her every time she takes a shower and sobs? I swear, if I hear ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ one more time . . .”

“I don’t get it,” Matt says. “Why does she want to set fire to Lorraine? What did Lorraine ever do to Adele?”

“Hashtag dad joke,” Bex says, slapping her knee.

“What I don’t understand is that she is so beautiful and smart. Why does she keep choosing guys who treat her like shit? Does she feel that is the only kind of love she deserves?” Thomas asks.

“Abbie, or Adele?” Bex asks.

Thomas looks up at the ceiling, as if the answer might be written there.

“Both, I guess.”

The answer to why Abbie makes poor choices is standing directly in front of Bex. Abbie, in a vulnerable moment, has confided in Bex and asked her to promise she would never share anything with Thomas. It is a thin line to walk. She loves Thomas, but she won’t betray Abbie’s trust, unless she thinks her choices might harm her. And Lord has that girl made some poor choices in life. It is for this very reason, her love for Thomas, that she keeps Abbie’s confidence. In a strange way, the Betty incident pulled them together, tethered by a common feeling of fear and the capricious nature of calamity. How can she tell Thomas that Abbie chooses boys who will treat her badly because of him? She’s watched her stepsister pick fights with Thomas, and no one knows how to push his buttons like Abbie. Has Thomas never watched a Lifetime movie? Abbie chooses boys in a pattern meant to repeat what she feels her father did to her, hoping that this time she won’t be abandoned. She knows there is more to the story,

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