“No,” Mary said. “Probably not. It’s exhausting. I’d rather just do it myself. He came home with fat-free American cheese and pepper-smoked turkey. I mean, what is wrong with him?”
“Maybe he just needs practice?” Isabel a said.
Mary shook her head. “No. He’s had practice. He just doesn’t know how to do it. I can already tel in ten years he’l stil be cal ing me from the store to ask if we get pulp-free orange juice or not. He drinks it every morning and he stil doesn’t know!”
“Was he always like that?” Isabel a asked.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “He was. I just never real y thought about the fact that he was going to be like this for the rest of my life.”
“So what are you going to do?” Isabel a asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Wel , are you happy?” Isabel a asked. She didn’t know if this was the right thing to ask, or if she was even al owed to.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “When I think about it, he might real y bug me but I like having him around more than I don’t like having him around.”
“So if he took a job in Boston?”
“Yeah, I know. I was just talking. I wouldn’t real y like it, I know. Sometimes it’s nice to dream. But I know it’s not what I real y want. I like the bastard.”
“That’s good.” Isabel a let out a breath. She had been worried that Mary was going to tel her she was leaving Ken.
“I guess that’s how you decide about Harrison and Boston,” Mary said. “If you like him enough not to be away from him.”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I guess so.”
“But you know what?” Mary asked.
“What?”
“I’m going to start writing out the most detailed grocery lists ever for Ken. And if he comes home with the wrong stuff, I’m going to send him back out.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Isabel a said.
“It real y does.”
“Sometimes things in life aren’t easy,” her mom said. “Sometimes you have to make real y hard choices.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “But some people don’t. Some people don’t have to make decisions like this at al .”
“And some people in this world are starving, Isabel a. Life isn’t fair.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “But that seems unfair.”
“You can’t move,” Lauren said. “You’re my last babyless friend. If you go, I’m going to have to start going to Mommy and Me just to see people.”
“I don’t think you would like that class,” Isabel a said.
“Yeah,” Lauren said. “Not to mention it might raise red flags if I go without a baby.”
“Probably.”
“So, you’re real y going?”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I guess I am.”
“I feel like that’s a real y adult decision to make,” Lauren said.
“Real y?” Isabel a said. “Because I feel like I’m fourteen.”
“Join the club.”
“What about the second apartment we saw?” Harrison asked. “The one that was in the Cleveland Circle area. It had the real y big closets.”
“I’m not sure I real y liked that one,” Isabel a said.
“Why?”
“It’s in Boston.”
“Right,” Harrison said. “I forgot about that.”
“I think you need to network more,” Harrison told her. She stil didn’t have a job in Boston. It didn’t bother her that much. If she didn’t have a job, she could pretend that she wasn’t real y moving there.
