✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

7. My Patience

Author's note: This chapter mostly takes place on Thursday of the first week. I'm writing this book and The Last New Start at the same time, and posting alternate chapters each day, but that might not be the best order to read them in if you're reading both stories. Chapters of My Cousin's Keeper may contain spoilers for the same day's chapters of The Last New Start, and it's pretty unpredictable which story will have the most chapters for the same day of the story.

Either story is designed to work on its own, but my preferred reading order would be to read all  of the The Last New Start chapters for each day of the story, before starting on the My Cousin's Keeper chapters for that day.

Over the next few days, I did my best to help Tess feel at home. I had flexible hours at work, and she had quite a long trip home from her school, so I could make sure I was always back within a few minutes of her. Some days I aimed to get home first, making sure that I could clean the house without taking time away from the little one. Other times, I checked on the schedule of the school busses and reached Palmerston a couple of minutes after she disembarked, so I could offer a brief ride to cut the last ten minutes off her daily commute. I didn't want to seem like I was babying her, not until I knew she was ready for that, but small favours that anyone would do for a friend could only help to build trust.

She didn't ask for a ride to school again. After the first day she set her alarm a little earlier, and was usually dressed before I came down to make breakfast. If she was rushing she would grab a bagel on the way out of the house, and eat it while power-walking to the bus stop. I didn't particularly like that, thinking that it would be better for her health if she could have a proper breakfast, but I had to admit that it was her choice. I'd promised that I would treat her as an adult for as long as she could act like one, so long as she understood that once her mask slipped, I would be justified in treating her like a baby. So I gave her the freedom, and did my best to make sure breakfast was ready early enough that she wouldn't need to eat on the go.

I still rushed off to Pine Ridge a few times in the mornings, meeting up with Ffrances before she got into work. Sometimes I managed to catch her, sometimes I was a little too late, but that worked fine for me. When it came to the weekend, I still hadn't asked if she would be staying over. Normally I would have had to employ all my powers of persuasion by that point, but this week I wasn't quite sure what shape the weekend would be. There was a new person in my house, and I didn't know if Tess would be expecting to get to know me better when we weren't both rushed off our feet by work and school. And, I realised quite late in the week, I hadn't actually mentioned Ffrances to the little one. Would she be upset at having to share my attention, or would she be more irritated that I hadn't mentioned a girlfriend? Now that I thought about it, I realised it was really something I should have mentioned before inviting her to live here, as they would need to get to know each other as well. But the chaos of preparing for my new little had just pushed all thoughts of introducing them out of my mind.

On Thursday, after managing to drag Ffrances away from her work for lunch in a nearby coffee shop, I decided that tonight I would ask Tess how she felt about a third person in the house. I hoped it wouldn't be a problem; Ffrances might only be there two or three days each week right now, but she was still effectively living with me, and I really wanted everything to go smoothly between them. So I spent most of the afternoon sitting at my desk, imagining ways that conversation could go. It was the only thing on my mind, until I arrived home and my phone started ringing. I pulled it out and the screen said 'John'. No surname, no notes. A cousin who I'd barely spoken to in ten years, but still the first John in my contact list, and the one who didn't need any clarification.