Press Release

29: Release Factor

Rolling over the next morning, Minnie spies Meg lying in the second queen bed of the hotel room. She's got her arms tucked behind her head, staring at the ceiling as though the answers to the mysteries of life are written there. Minnie must unknowingly make a noise because Meg speaks without turning her head even a millimeter.

"Can you help me find another job, Olivia?" Meg's voice is barely audible, and Minnie feels the weight of the young woman's whole world crashing in.

"Do you need one right away?" Rising from the bed, Minnie crosses to the windows, throwing the curtains open to reveal snow falling gently. She shivers at the sight even though the room is quite warm.

The younger woman still hasn't changed her position, "Not immediately. But I cannot imagine that he will want me to keep working for him, and I need an income if I'm going to stay independent."

Minnie doesn't speak, simply turning to face Meg while leaning on the windowsill.

It doesn't take long before the words start spilling out, "He was so angry, O. Like I've seen him angry before. Lots of times. I've worked for him for a year, and he has been irate over all manner of things: too much sugar in his coffee, someone calling him a name on social media, and on and on. But I have never, ever seen him as furious as he was last night."

She pulls her arms from under her head in order to hide her eyes. "I don't have any tears left. Maybe I should have told him about Titus sooner. Then he wouldn't be so mad now. Cause, like, he thinks I kept this huge secret from him because I didn't trust him, and.....well, shit, Olivia, I DIDN'T trust him. It's only on this trip that I've started to think maybe he was ready to hear about my son. But he had this fucked up idea that I'm all innocent – some kind of a saint."

There's a pause that extends longer than Minnie usually allows them to stretch, but just as she draws in breath to ask a question, Meg continues, "I am NOT innocent, but I also haven't been with a man since shortly after Titus was conceived. There is nothing that will turn a 15-year-old off sex faster than the words, 'You're preggers, hon,' spoken by a very sweet Southern lady at Planned Parenthood. Plus those experiences before Titus weren't exactly the kind of romantic sex that movies and books portray. It was just fucking, and not even fun. Or good."

This time, Minnie lets the lack of noise in the room drag on as she finds the coffee pot and complimentary packet of coffee left by the hotel. Replenishing the carafe with water, she prepares the brew, filling the room with the life-giving aroma. When the final bits of water and steam spurt forth from the machine, Meg still hasn't continued speaking. Carrying two cups of weak coffee with powdered creamer to the bedside table, Minnie sits on the bed where she'd slept, observing the 19-year-old who somehow seems much older than her age in the morning sun.

Sitting up, Meg holds the cup of watered-down concoction close to her chest, her eyes dry from weeping. "Olivia, should I have told him? I feel like an idiot and a fool for not telling him sooner, and yet he was an asshole for the first several months I worked for him. How was I to know he wasn't really that guy?"

Debating whether it's time to talk or not, Minnie buys herself a delay by sipping the coffee. When her phone vibrates, she extends the respite while she reads the text from Harry. He's going to take Xavier and his car back to his apartment to gather their things and meet them on the plane.

With a deep sigh, Meg keeps talking, and Minnie is relieved that she doesn't need to respond to that question because there is no right answer. "And once Titus was born, my parents watched him while I finished high school. So every night I would juggle diapers and formula and homework which was decidedly not conducive to dating. This last year working for Xavier is the first time I've felt empowered as a single mom, and there was no way I was going to give that up for just any man."