Page 98 of Dating and Other Theories
Her alarm hit her like a ball-peen hammer to the brainpan when it went off at six thirty in the morning.
Groaning, she shoved Sally off her chest, silenced her shrieking alarm, and staggered out of bed. In the kitchen, she downed two ibuprofen with a full glass of water, and followed it up with a cup of coffee from her new drip coffeemaker.
She was getting used to making herself coffee in it every day, even though the coffee always tasted a little bitter, because it reminded her of Jonathan and how much she missed him. But having Jinny back mitigated the sadness somewhat. Her coffee only had a level teaspoon of sadness and regret in it this morning, instead of a heaping tablespoon.
Yemi looked up when Esther walked into the office. “You’re six minutes later than usual,” he said, grinning at her weirdly.
“The traffic light at Overland was out again. And why are you smiling like that?” She sat down at her desk and docked her laptop.
He swiveled his chair all the way around, grinning even wider. “Because you and Jinny made up.”
“She told you already?”
“She called me first thing this morning.”
Of course she had. She was his girlfriend. That was what girlfriends and boyfriends did—talked to each other about the people in their lives.
Esther tried not to feel weird about it, but this was all uncharted territory. She’d never been friends with one of Jinny’s boyfriends before. She couldn’t help wondering how much Jinny had told him, exactly. Had she given him an exhaustive recap—including every gory detail and teary confession—or just the condensed version? How much of Esther’s private angst was Yemi now privy to?
“I’m glad you worked things out,” he said. “I hated that you two weren’t talking.”
“Me too.” Esther decided not to care if Jinny talked to Yemi about her. What mattered was that they were all friends again. They’d figure out the rest of it along the way.
“You should really take the freeway though,” Yemi said, spinning his chair back to his computer again.
Esther smiled at the back of his head. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
His phone vibrated on his desk, and he picked it up. “Jinny wants to know what time we’re going to lunch.”
“What’s the special today?”
“Lasagna.”
“Better go at eleven forty-five, then.”
“Fine,” Yemi said as he typed a reply.
Still smiling, Esther started up her computer and went to work.
On Saturday, Jinny came over to hang out at Esther’s pool, just like old times. They were having mimosas to celebrate.
“You cannot move to Seattle to take care of your mother,” Jinny said as she took the orange juice out of the fridge. “I forbid it.”
Esther got down the champagne flutes. “Don’t worry, I’m not.” The glasses were dusty with disuse. She took them to the sink and rinsed them out.
“I can’t believe you were even considering it. She’d drive you insane.” Jinny shook her head as she picked at the foil around the champagne cork.
“Okay, but seriously, what am I supposed to do? Nothing? Just let her lose her apartment?”
“Your brother’s right. She’s an able-bodied, grown-ass adult. She shouldn’t need her kids to take care of her. That part comes later, when she’s old and infirm. She’s cashing in her markers too early.”
“She’s my mother. She doesn’t have markers.”
“Everyone has markers.” Jinny winced as she popped the cork off the champagne. Whenever she opened champagne, she always made a face like that scene in Elf when Buddy was testing the jack-in-the-boxes.
Esther went into the bathroom for sunscreen. She was wearing shorts and a tank top to try to get some color in her paper-white skin, but she’d wind up crispy-fried if she didn’t slather herself in sunscreen. “You say that like you don’t always do exactly what your mother asks you to do,” she called over her shoulder as she dug around under the sink.
“I can say that because I always do exactly what my mother wants,” Jinny called back. “I recognize a master manipulator when I see one.”
