Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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"I asked you to be certain you could make a family with this guy before Rinley was born. Then, I asked you to be doubly sure you could stick it out when Stevie was born."
Tears began silent tracks down Tenn's eyes. "I know. I know."
"Things were never great between you and Evan," I explained, like an ass. "I've told you that countless times."
"I know," she sobbed quietly. "I know."
Finally, I loosed the sigh trapped inside my rib cage. It was my turn to put my face into my hands as my mind worked out what the hell was going to happen next.
"I always thought he would become...what I want," Tenna confessed. "But ever since the babies were born, I've felt so lost. I'm so terrible with them! I'm terrible! And he knows it! He judges how terrible I am, but I try! I'm trying, I swear!"
"Are you?" I peek out at her between my fingers, pinning her in place with my eyes. "Are you really trying?"
Tenna wailed. "I swear it! I swear it!"
Down my face went, back into the safe sanctuary of my hands. My voice came out muffled as I asked. "Well, what do you want, then? If it's not someone like Evan, then..."
"I don't know," Tenna cried. "I don't know, and that's what makes all of this so hard! I'm only 23, but I can't travel. I can't go out with friends. I can't do whatever I want! And, and—it's not like he acts like he wants to be around me. Sometimes, I swear, he sighs when I come into the room! Like I'm some monster!"
"Or like you're high-maintenance and he's preparing himself for dealing with you?" I countered, a hard ball of anger forming in my chest.
She was never ready for a family. No free-spirit ever is.
Why hadn't she listened to me, years ago?
"It's not like that," Tenna protested, sniffling grossly through her snot. "I thought, if we had our own little world...I thought, if we only had to depend on each other, then, then...we would really be in love. Then, not being able to go out and do anything wouldn't hurt so much. We could give everything to our babies, and everything would work out."
"But...that didn't happen," I deadpanned.
Tenna shook her head. "We've never been in love. I know it now. And that's why it's so hard...so hard to be there every day. To think that—to think that I'd move with him across the country, where I don't know anyone, and no one's on my side..."
The anger dissipated.
"I know it's wrong," Tenna choked, her voice nothing but pitiful. "I know it's wrong now that I have two babies...But, I want to be in love. I want to spend my life with someone I'm in love with, not someone who marks me off on a chore list that he has to deal with."
