The Parting Glass by Telanu

Author:Telanu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Miranda Priestly, Miranda Priestly/Andrea Sachs, Andrea Sachs, Completed, Caroline and Cassidy Priestly, F/F, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), FanFiction, Original Character
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Published: 2013-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Oh, it didn't last, of course. Mother didn't actually hate me, and Mom was quick to forgive. I was their child, after all, and I think they both knew I was sixteen and stupid. Mother required a fair bit more groveling than Mom, but after a few days (when I stayed with Dad), it blew over.

Strangely enough, however, my relationship with Mother improved a great deal after that, as if some invisible barrier between us had finally been knocked down. She softened, just a little, and after a while, I did too. I was even allowed to re-establish relations with Dad, who was never really a father to me, but who became a good friend. He passed away eight years ago, and I still miss him. To the best of my knowledge, he and Mother never exchanged a single word after their divorce, but they both attended my high school, college, and graduate school commencements without coming to blows. So that's something.

Lest you think I have digressed too much, my main point is that I only ever saw Mother lose her temper once, and that was when I offered an insult to Mom. To disrespect Mom was to invite punishment, and Mother rarely punished. Her sole exception was for Mom, because she always remained utterly smitten, a realization I came to fairly late in life.

It wasn't obvious. Mother and Mom were never demonstrative. They did not cuddle. I rarely even saw them embrace, although there were plenty of 'hello' and 'goodbye' pecks on the cheek. Sometimes they sat together on the couch while we all watched a movie, and only once did I catch them holding hands. The ring episode was most unusual. Yet they seemed perfectly comfortable with all this, although my sisters and I were often surprised by the lack of visible affection and even found it cause for concern. When I went to a friend's house and saw his parents cooing over each other, and 'accidentally' bumping into each other in the kitchen, and giggling over their glasses of wine, I went home and felt genuinely worried about Mother and Mom, who had their laptops set up together in the upstairs den and were diligently working as if this was 'quality time.'

But within a few years, my friend's parents were no longer cooing, and a couple of years after that they divorced under bitter circumstances (I understand she'd started cooing at somebody else). In the meantime, my own parents kept sitting together on the couch, going out to dinner twice a month, and being perfectly happy about it.

This was what I had to learn, though it took me years: that to love extravagantly doesn't require cooing or giggling or, for that matter, ceremonious gifts of jewelry. A few years ago, I asked Mom what made their relationship so strong. She replied, almost absentmindedly, "Well, love, you know. And trust and patience and things like that. I mean, you just have to keep working at it, I guess.

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