swear, I clutched Priscilla’s bouquet a little tighter, and made my way inside.
The happy, easy lilt of female voices floated toward me. It was a familiar sound, one that had lived in my home and family for the years Marnie and I were together. And on entering the room, an accompanying familiar sight greeted me.
Near Abuela sat my mother and Marnie, cups of coffee and the remnants of some cafeteria desserts they’d demolished. On my appearance, they quieted in surprise.
Mom caught herself first and smiled, standing to greet me. “Hi, honey. What are you doing home? I thought you were going to be a few more hours.”
“Me too, but they had some stuff going on,” I said, not wanting to be specific for Marnie’s sake.
Mom approached, taking the flowers with a smile. “These are beautiful. Are they from the Blums?”
“Cilla picked them for you, Abuela.”
Mom practically dissolved into a puddle with a smile. “That little girl,” was all she said, and quietly. And then she was on her way to show them to Abuela.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” I said, taking a step toward the exit. “Y’all have your coffee. I’ll come back later.”
But Marnie had moved to stand. “No, it’s okay. I was just about to leave anyway.”
Abuela held up her hands. “Vienes aquí, mija—abrázame.”
With a smile heavy with love and longing, Marnie did as Abuela had asked, giving her a hug.
“Don’t wait so long before coming to see me again.” Abuela said, holding Marnie hostage for a minute with her sinewy, freakishly strong arms.
“I promise,” Marnie said.
I averted my eyes, turning to leave as she said her goodbyes to Mom, not wanting to intrude any more than I already had. Because when Marnie left me, she left my family too. And whether they agreed with her or not, and no matter how complicated things were, they never stopped loving her. Nor did I suspect she quit loving them.
“Could I … talk to you?” Marnie asked from behind me, though she didn’t stop walking, nodding toward the hall.
I took the cue. When we were out of earshot, she turned to me, met my eyes, drew a long breath to fuel whatever she was about to say.
She was so familiar to me, a woman I’d known all my life. A woman I’d loved. A woman I’d hurt. A woman who had hurt me. Her face was one I knew better than my own. The blue of her eyes, smattered with shards of green. The shape of her jaw, the slightest cleft in her chin, the flush of her cheeks that I’d seen under circumstances of love, of lust, of fury.
“My lawyer brought them by after you left. I needed to come see Abuela, make sure she was okay, and I was going to leave these with your mom, but since you’re here …” She reached into her huge bag and offered me a folio. “The settlement papers.”
I took it with a mute nod. Flipped it open. Walked to the hall table and retrieved a pen from one of the drawers. Without reading, I initialed where indicated, signed where I was supposed to.
“You’re not going to read it?”
“We already discussed the contents, and I read it before the revisions. You didn’t bankrupt me in here, did you?”
“No. But if I’d known you weren’t going to look at it, I would have written the house in Houston into it.” It was a joke, sharp and wry though it was.
“Mom wouldn’t be sad to see it go. I don’t think she ever wants to step foot in there again after what she went through there.” I flipped the folio closed and offered it to her.
She took it with a heavy sort of sadness, the kind only found after long-endured suffering. “I’ll send this over, and then all we’ll have are the final papers to sign.”
“What about the court appearance?”
“Only one of us needs to be there. I was just going to do it.”
But I shook my head. “Let me.”
“It doesn’t matter who goes. I don’t know if you’ll be here.”
The thought sent a flash of anxiety through me. But Marnie didn’t need to know my future plans. Hell, I wasn’t even completely sure. So I said, “If I’m here, please let me. You’ve been through enough.”
“Understatement.”
A long stretch of silence passed.
“I didn’t expect to see you here today,” I said stupidly.
“I didn’t come for you. Everything about you hurts me,” she said quietly, painfully. “But they’re my family too.”
“I know. I’m glad you came.