Cursive - By Phoebe Lane Page 0,86

She honestly had very little hope that any of them would have a happy ending. She knew better than to expect anything different after spending over twenty years getting burned and disappointed by Pam time and time again. The only glimmer of hope she still held on to was that her outburst at dinner had been the first time she had confronted her mom about their relationship in any sort of concrete way, and she wondered if it had made an impact.

Maybe it has opened her eyes?

Aislynn stood outside her room for a minute too long before finally finding the strength to knock on the door. Pam opened it, phone at her ear, and casually waved her in. She was dressed, her bags were packed, and there were empty room service plates on her desk.

"My flight leaves in a few hours. How about I call you when I get into town and we'll make plans?" she said on the phone. "Okay, talk to you then. Bye." She turned to Aislynn, a neutral expression on her face.

"Hi, Mom," Aislynn said reluctantly, not knowing what to expect.

"Hi, sweetheart. I wasn't sure if you were coming, but I went ahead and packed my things. I should be ready to go in a few minutes," she said politely, no inkling that anything was wrong.

No acknowledgement of what had happened at dinner.

No anger, no frustration, no sadness, no happiness, no trepidation.

No confrontation. No questions. No demands for apologies.

No emotion at all.

Pam made an attempt to walk away from her, but Aislynn stopped her. "Mom! We need to talk about last night."

"What about it?" she said, sneakily moving around her and directing her attention to her carry-on bag instead.

"We said a lot of things—"

"No, you said a lot of things," Pam snapped, looking up at her with a spark in her eyes that Aislynn couldn't believe was there.

Is that anger? Is she actually going to be capable of letting her guard down to have this conversation with me?

"There's nothing else to say, Aislynn. You said what you needed to say," she added, her tone of voice back to being cool and controlled. The emotion in her eyes was now gone, and she went back to rearranging things inside her bag. "You got it out of your system and pulled off your little tantrum in front of your boyfriend so you could impress him. It was nothing, so now let's move on like we always do," she said and waved her hand up in the air like she was talking about the weather.

This is unbelievable.

Aislynn had to admit that this wasn't exactly one of the scenarios she had run through in her head. She had thought that Pam would've either confronted her about everything she had said the previous night, or she would've pretended nothing had happened. But doing both at the same time while implying that Aislynn only said those things to get some attention from Jace was way beyond anything she could've ever imagined.

She suddenly felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness, hopelessness and relief embrace her. She felt sad for Pam—there she stood, an adult woman about to turn fifty, who still functioned at the emotional level of a five year old. Pam was incapable of understanding her own feelings, much less the feelings of others. She was not psychologically minded enough to have a healthy and meaningful relationship with anyone.

The anger Aislynn had felt toward her mother for all these years was suddenly replaced by hopelessness and grief, as she accepted the reality that she would never have a mother who could give her the love and support she needed and deserved. She felt an immense sense of loss for someone who, ironically, she never even had to begin with, and it weighed heavily on her heart.

Another loss.

The sense of relief came from the realization that it was the right time for Aislynn to walk away and be done with their relationship. She was ready to sever ties with the one person who still connected her in some way to Texas and to her old life.

It's time for me to let her go, once and for all. I'm done.

Very slowly, Aislynn walked over to where Pam stood and waited. She looked down at her mom's hands, skin darkened and wrinkled, up to her eyes, which looked tired and cold, then over to her hair, beautifully pulled behind her ears with hints of gray showing on her temples. Finally, Aislynn glanced back down to her