Best For Me

Chapter 3

Lia fumbled in her bag for her cell phone, trying to answer it without dropping everything out of her handbag all over the supermarket floor. She kept an eye on Elly as she unlocked it, leaning on her trolley and scanning the shelves for the right kind of cereal.

"Yello!" she said absent-mindedly into the phone, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Hey." Yeji's soft voice resonated across the line and made Lia stop in the middle of the aisle, suddenly acutely aware of every nerve fibre in her body.

"Hey, Yeji," the blonde replied. She spied Elly rounding a corner and quickly shot out to grab her. She caught her daughter just as she was about to grab a coffee jar from a carefully-constructed pyramid display.

Of course, with four-year-old logic, she'd reached for the one at her own height, threatening an avalanche of mediocre instant coffee grounds and one hell of a clean-up in aisle five. Lia pulled her away firmly, wedging the phone in between her ear and shoulder and signing frantically to Elly to stay put and leave all coffee and other displays ALONE. At least the little girl had the decency to look a tad guilty.

Holding tightly to her daughter's hand, Lia brought her attention back to the phone where a voice was now saying in some confusion, "Lia? Lia, are you still there?"

"Sorry, Yeji. Preventing minor disasters involving my four-year-old and a mountain of coffee," Lia laughed ruefully.

"Sounds like you have your hands full," the grinning reply came.

"Yeah, you could say that. I now have them full of Elly so that it won't happen again."

"Well, I won't keep you long then. I have a favour to ask you," Yeji sounded out cautiously.

"Shoot." Lia hoped her voice didn't betray the quickening of her pulse. Come to think of it, she hoped her hands weren't shaking. Elly didn't seem to notice if they were.

"A friend of mine is having a gallery opening on Friday night. I promised her I'd go and my....other friend has bailed on me. I'm really not keen on going alone given the pretentious wankers that my friend promises will be there. I was wondering if you'd accompany me and help me escape when we can?" The offer sounded casual and friendly. Lia let her heart dance a crazy beat anyway and then formulated her reply. Carefully.

"That sounds like fun, actually. I haven't been out in a while. Let me check if someone can be with Elly. Soobin's been working a fair bit lately and I can't be sure he's home but, if he is, or if I can find a babysitter, I'd love to come." She tried to keep her answer as casual as the offer had been.

"Great. I'll wait to hear from you, then."

"I'll get back to you as soon as I know," Lia promised.

Ending the phone call, she got the rest of the shopping trip over with as quickly as possible, figuring Elly needed to be out of potential disaster zones today. Normally a well-behaved angel, she was showing some devil signs today and Lia was smart enough to heed the warnings.

She'd managed to get Elly inside and settled into a relatively safe entertainment and was unpacking the shopping when her phone went again. This time she checked the screen before answering: Mom.

"Hey, Mom."

"Lia." Her mother's voice was warm and fluid. When she was feeling down, it always made Lia feel better. And yet she knew what could lurk beneath the waves when her mother was angry or upset. Lia knew better than to pull that out.

"What's up?" she asked, while putting the groceries away.

"Can't I just call my daughter?" Mrs. Choi asked with a laugh. "Well, I can. But not this time. Just checking what time you're coming on Sunday."