Vowed by Sara Celi & S Celi

Author:Sara Celi & S Celi [Celi, Sara & Celi, S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lowe Interactive Media, LLC
Published: 2021-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

ELIZABETH

PRESENT DAY

NOW

Twice a month, my mother and I had a standing afternoon appointment. We’d get together for drinks after I finished work, meet for lunch if I could get away, or grab coffee when my schedule was too hectic. We’d done it for the last year, but lately I’d found ways to get out of meeting with her. The truth was, I didn’t want to answer any of her probing questions.

But that day, she enticed me with the promise of a free pedicure at her favorite nail salon, and before I knew it, I’d agreed. Maybe I just needed her. She was my mother, after all.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said over a glass of wine as the technician began rubbing her feet. We sat in two treatment chairs at the end of a long row. We both had drinks and had ordered deluxe pedicures. “Admit it.”

I nodded. “No fooling you.”

Her expression softened, deepening the crow’s feet around her eyes. “I know that what you’re going through is a . . . a process. I thought you needed some space to clear your head, so I didn’t want to crowd you.”

“Thanks, Mom. I appreciate that.”

I wouldn’t have called our relationship close, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t strong. She’d always been there for me, never wavering, even though my teenage years when she went back to work as a real estate agent after my father left us for a woman living in Las Vegas, who he met at an insurance conference in Miami. In five years of hard work, she’d built a firm that had six agents and sold some of the city’s most prestigious properties. But despite the long hours, she always made time for me.

I took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. “I need to tell you something.”

She didn’t flinch at the loaded sentence. “I’m listening.”

“I asked Mark for a divorce.”

There. I’ve said it to someone besides my husband and my attorney. It’s real now.

Her eyes widened and she grasped her chest. “What?”

“I don’t see how we can stay married.” I glanced at the technician working on my feet, and the one working on my mom. Neither of them looked up, and I sent up at silent thank you for their discretion. “I don’t.”

“But Mark . . . Mark is a wonderful man. He’s a great husband. A great . . . despite everything, I think you two are made for each other.”

I shrugged. “I don’t think that matters anymore. Not with the way things are.” And then my voice broke. “I’m not good enough for him, Mom. I can’t give him what he needs. I can’t . . . we’re strangers, anyway. We don’t really talk anymore. He doesn’t see me, not since Frances . . .”

She placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay.”

I wiped my eyes on the cocktail napkin that came with my glass of wine. “I just don’t see how we can make it anymore.”

“Are you sure you about that? Absolutely sure?”

I raised my head.

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