heart broken? “This is way too much for me right now.”
“Jurnee Joplin Messer” My body stiffened at the sound of my mother’s voice and the backdoor opening.
“Did you know they were coming?” I growled under my breath.
“Yes, because we all check-in whenever we are moving around the city now.”
“Jurnee, please tell me why I never hear about your visits home from my own daughter.” She took me in for a hug from behind, and I grabbed onto her harder than she was expecting. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
Her words should have comforted me, but they did the opposite. I swallowed hard, and thankfully the tears stayed away. One look in Derrick’s direction and I knew he was the one that called my mom.
“Nothing.”
“Well, your dad is on the golf course but says we should all go out to dinner. He said to invite your new beau.”
“He’s in New York.” The words fell out of my mouth. I should have said: ‘he’s not my beau,’ but I wasn’t ready to deal with the follow-up questions. “Mom, I drove all night. I’m really tired. Raincheck on dinner. Okay?”
“Of course. Are you here through the weekend?”
“Maple, you know Jurnee wasn’t going to miss the big Michigan game.”
I mouthed a ‘thank you’ at Derrick as I took a long, slow sip of my coffee.
“Good Lord, you and your Spartans. No! We shall not have any conversation worth having until after the biggest game of the year is over.” She kissed my cheek.
Derrick stood to kiss my mother as she retreated toward the kitchen and then waited until the back door closed before speaking again, “You’re here for a while? What’s a while? I thought Graham and Anderson wanted to get this up and running sooner than later.”
“I’me going to tell Graham I need some time to think about it, but if I decided to not continue, he could have the concept.”
“Have the concept? You think Graham wants to run a coffee shop chain?”
“Look.” My shouting startled Derrick. “I’m exhausted. I’m not sure why you can’t understand that Anderson saying that I’m nothing serious and that this, he and I, are just for fun is hurtful. I used New York to sharpen my skills at dating so I wouldn’t get hurt again. Guess what? I got hurt again. You know what that means?”
Tears ran down my face as Derrick sat stoically watching me. “What does it mean, Jurnee?”
“It means I’m the problem. I’m the common dominator. Me.”
“There is nothing wrong with–”
“Of course, there is something wrong with me. What did Deegan tell me? I wasn’t the type that a guy took to the country club dance, but I was like Jo from Facts of Life. The type that you walked through the dance and right out the back door to do dirty things to when no one’s looking.”
“Are you finished?” Derrick was on his feet with his hands on his hips, shaking with anger. “If you could please take a five-minute break from your pity party, I will tell you what I see. You have fallen for some assholes. That is for sure. Straight, self-centered, no future goals or plans type of assholes. But I saw the way Anderson watched you.”
“You–”
“I hear you. You overheard a conversation. Do you have any context or idea of what they were talking about? Did you hear both sides of the conversation? You jumped to some random conclusion and ran away because it’s what you do. Where’s your phone? Shall we see if he’s tried to contact you?”
“I forgot it at his place.”
“You drove across the country alone without a phone. Are you fucking kidding me right now? If I didn’t know you’d stab me with multiple forks, I would call your mother and tell her how unsafe you were.”
“Can I just go back to sleep? I’m tired.”
“You’re tired?”
“I’m tired. I don’t want to argue. I just want to get some sleep.”
Abandoning the cup of coffee, I returned to my bed. I breathed in the Michigan air and looked around my room at all the pictures of places I had dreamt of visiting. Home is safer.
41
Anderson
Jurnee’s fully charged phone vibrated in my hand. The phone was locked, but the screen came alive to display six missed calls and twelve unread texts. Every fiber of my body screamed that something was off as I stood in the center of her tiny sublet. She had gone home not feeling well the day before. But Jurnee, and most of her belongings, were gone.