Page 38 of Sublimate
“Vivi,” Nolan said, and stood. So did Beau and I said hello to him, too.
“Beau, this is my friend, Cadence,” I introduced her. “She has a business about babies.” I nudged her and she fumbled in her bag for her card case.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about,” he told us. “My business, not hers.” But he was happy to take her card and he admired the artwork on it, which Cadence had drawn. “I never thought about having Finley’s portrait done but I should. He’s the most beautiful baby ever born.”
“Can I see pictures?” she requested, and they sat at a table under a big square umbrella so that he could go through his camera roll.
“You’re back sooner than I thought,” Nolan said to me. We sat next to each other on one of the lounge chairs in the sun. “Did her mom get sick?”
I had shared some of the health problems that Cadence had told me about. “No, but she hated me and she wanted me to leave.”
“She hated you?” he echoed. “Why the hell would she have felt like that?”
I glanced over at the table, but Cadence hadn’t heard him get a little loud. “I had the impression that I’m not good enough for them, and you shouldn’t be mad.” He had clenched his fists but that wasn’t ever directed at me. “I don’t think anyone would be good enough because her mom reminds me a lot of someone I used to work for. That woman followed me around her house with a tissue and anything I cleaned, she would wipe it again and then say, ‘Looks like you may have missed something here.’ Mostly she was spreading around tissue lint and it took me twice as long as normal to do her house. Mrs. Norris is the same way, like she’d be watching everyone and finding the problems with them rather than thinking, ‘That’s a message that I haven’t seen before on a shirt, how interesting!’ or ‘I don’t personally care for that much garlic, but she must really love that stuff to smell so strongly of it. I’m glad she ate a lot of what she liked.’”
“Are you saying that you had a lot of garlic before you went over there?” He leaned forward and sniffed. “I don’t smell it. I do like your shirt.”
“Thank you!” I liked it, too. I had taken some of the money I’d earned and invested in a few new items for my wardrobe.I was saving a lot by living here and not having to pay rent or anything else, and that reminded me of his mother and her lawyer business. “I heard your mom charges a lot. Like, a lot.”
“Have you been visiting attorney gossip pages?”
“No, I heard it from Cadence who looked it up because she was curious. It’s lucky that your mom is doing the stuff for me for free.” I waited for him to nod or confirm it.
“She isn’t.”
I felt my stomach drop so far that it might have fallen out of my body and onto the blueish stones of his patio. “What?” I asked. It came out like a yell.
The two guests looked over. “What’s wrong?” Cadence asked.
“Nothing,” Nolan answered. “Vivi, don’t worry. I’ve got it.”
“I thought she was doing this as a favor! Not a favor to me but to you, as her son!” I told him.
“Are you talking about Nolan’s mother?” Beau asked me. “She’s not the type to do anyone any favors. Our fraternity was having some trademark issues with our new logo and she took on the case, but she sent a huge invoice. He had to dispute it. She had really overbilled, too.”
I nodded because that sounded familiar. My mom had collected money from both me and my sister and had said it was for utilities, but then we’d gotten a glimpse at some of the actual costs and found that she had been putting the squeeze on us. But Cadence was horrified.
“Yourmotherwascheatingyou?” she asked. “Your ownmotherdid that?” Then she seemed to realize what she had said and how those words must have sounded to Nolan, and she looked even more horrified. “Well, maybe she had a good reason…”
He made the smile that I didn’t like, where he didn’t seem actually happy or pleased. “She did, of course,” he answered. “The reason was that she wanted more money.”
Cadence stared at him, but Beau didn’t seem bothered. “I remember when your parents came to our graduation. They landed their helicopter next to the Gowan Fieldhouse where we had the ceremony,” he reminisced.
“And the joke was on them because I wasn’t even there to graduate. I had broken into the baseball stadium the night before and had passed out at home plate. Good times,” Nolan said. He stood. “Can I get you anything, Cadence? We’ve been having a lot of lemonade.”
She stayed for a little while longer and so did Beau, then she needed to get back to her mother and he needed to go see his son. He missed Finley a lot, although they had only been apart for a few hours. It took less time for Beau to leave than it had before because without the baby in the car, he was a lot less careful about backing up. But Nolan still shook his head at the lack of speed as we watched them from the porch. “They’re both going to get pulled over for going under the limit,” he remarked as they drove away.
“Did he talk about Finley the whole time he was here?”
“I heard a lot, but he also wanted my advice about his new business. He wants to start working as a stylist.”
“For hair?” I questioned. Beau’s did look very nice.
“No, more like a life stylist. He would help people pick their clothes, shoes, and jewelry. He would give advice on vacations and home décor.”
“Oh, like he would find rich people who had sad lives and fix them? Like a fairy godmother?”
“Very close,” he agreed. He was smiling again but it looked genuine. “Except it wouldn’t involve transforming pumpkins and he would make them pay for everything. He wants to build a clientele of football players and other high rollers who mainly need sartorial assistance.”
