Fireflies & Family Ties by Rachel Hanna

Author:Rachel Hanna
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rachel Hanna

Chapter 7

Julie stood in the bookstore, staring off into space out onto the sidewalk. Why did everybody have to look so happy today? She wondered if they had the same kind of problems she had going on in her life right now.

A daughter who left college and was pregnant at nineteen years old.

A “sort of” boyfriend who seemed to be “sort of” dating his high school crush behind her back.

A wretched ex-husband with an even worse fiancée.

And serious writer’s block.

For weeks, she had been trying to get back into writing her novel, a semi autobiographical version of her life. But now she felt like her life was becoming so unbelievable that nobody was going to want to read her book.

More than anything, she wanted her daughter to be okay. She wanted her to open up, talk about what she was going through. But so far, Meg seemed to be isolating herself. Thankfully, one bright spot had appeared. Meg had asked her to go to her next doctor’s appointment with her.

As she wiped down the counter for the fifteenth time, she thought about how that appointment might go. Would she get to see the baby on ultrasound? Would she get to hear the heartbeat? And would that make everything even harder if Meg chose to give the baby up for adoption?

She turned her back for a moment to pick up a stack of books that needed to be put back in their proper places. The bell on the door dinged, and she turned around to see Christian standing there.

So far, she had been able to avoid him. There was a part of her that blamed him for everything that was going on with her daughter. He was older than her, more experienced, more mature. How had he allowed this to happen?

"Hello, Madame," he said, his thick French accent seeming less appealing than normal.

"Hello." Julie just stood there, cleaning cloth in her hand, unsure of what to say. "Can I help you with something?"

He smiled slightly and looked at his feet. "I thought maybe we could talk."

She nodded slightly toward one of the bistro chairs in the café. Christian walked over and sat down, and she followed. She found herself suddenly wishing for a rush of customers to come into the store so that she could have a reason to tell him to go. But the other part of her really wanted to hear what he was going to say.

"What would you like to talk about?"

"I know this is highly irregular for me to be here. But your daughter won't speak to me, and I don't know what else to do. I'm not leaving until we work this out one way or the other."

"Well, my daughter is an adult in the eyes of the law. I can't force her to talk to you."

"I understand. And I know you must not like me very much."

"On the surface, no. I definitely don't like you. But I don't know you well enough as a person to make a final determination.

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