On a Friday evening that sounds great, and I normally would but not tonight. “I can’t.” My eyebrows draw down.
“Alicia?” Terra, coming up alongside me asks, her voice sympathetic.
“She’s grounded again,” I confirm, my expression showing I’ve once more failed at being a mom.
“One day that kid of yours is going to appreciate everything you do for her.”
I sigh and give a weak grin toward Kris, thinking that day will probably never come, or that it’s so far off, I can’t see it.
“Come talk to Momma Terra. What’s she done this time?”
It’s Friday afternoon, and my work is about done. I’ve finished preparing a disposition that will get to where it’s supposed to be on time. I’d translated the residents’ objection to the heavy-handed approach by a land developer into legal speak that will hopefully sufficiently impress a judge. I can spare a few moments to speak to my friend.
Terra is in her fifties and never had children of her own. Whether she wanted to and couldn’t, or whether she’d made the wise decision not to burden herself like it seems I have done, I’ve never enquired. But she does like hearing about my daughter, maybe to confirm she’d made the right choice in her life. Kristen, in her early twenties, is still looking for Mr Right, for now settling on Mr Right Nows, which none of us mind, as she usually spills all the salacious details as she continues her search.
I’m not surprised when I pull up a seat next to Terra, Kristen leans over the partition to listen as well.
“Remember those photographs she had taken a month or so back?”
“Seven weeks,” Kristen corrects. She’s a bit anal retentive and remembers details like that.
Nodding, I continue, “That’s when it started, the photoshoot with the motorcycle.” My voice trails off as I remember that was the day I’d met a real-life biker. He’d scared me at first, but when I’d spoken to him, I’d found him not what I expected. Polite, if a bit gruff, and overprotective about his bike and his cut. But then I’d been the same way about my daughter. Still, it turned out, being close to someone wearing a one-percenter patch hadn’t made me feel in danger of my life. I’d been more suspicious about the photographer… there was a word for someone like him. Sleazy, that’s it. I hadn’t trusted him. It wasn’t his profession, but the man himself.
Kristen waves her hand, obviously trying to hurry me up.
“Well, a couple of weeks back she was offered another photoshoot, studio work this time. I again went with her. There was another man in his late twenties, early thirties, perhaps.” My eyes glaze as I remember thinking the pairing of the two models was only this side of tasteful. The age difference too apparent. “Once again, Alicia kicked off, said that she didn’t need me there.”
“Why are you only telling us now?” Terra hits my shoulder lightly.
I grimace. “I don’t want her modelling for him anymore. Didn’t want you two to say I was being too cautious.”
“We’d never say that.” Terra looks at me, while Kristen shrugs, letting me think she might be in camp Alicia. “Did anything happen?”
I huff a little. “Let’s just say I’m glad I went. If I hadn’t, well, I can’t say for certain, but the looks Devon kept giving her made me think he was visualising her with her top off.” I look at Terra, then at Kirstin. “She’s only seventeen for goodness’ sake.”
“Far too young for her to be showing her body off.” Kristen’s head is now bobbing up and down in support.
“But he didn’t actually come out and ask?”
I direct my reply to Terra, “No, but that could have been because I was present. Nothing gave me any confidence or let me want to loosen the strings. It wasn’t even his studio, just somewhere he rented by the hour.”
“Did she ever receive payment?”
I shake my head. “Presumably, none of the pictures have been sold. It has been a lesson that perhaps modelling isn’t as lucrative as she first thought.” I may have pointed out to her getting a part-time job in a local store might bring her in more money than standing looking pretty for a couple of hours. Lead and balloon come to mind when I think of how that went down.
“I was a pain in the ass as a teenager,” Kristen informs us with a grin. “I objected to anything just because. Teenage hormones are the pits. You feel off balance and hit out at the closest thing, which normally happens to be mom or dad.”
“I remember being a perfect angel,” Terra disagrees.
She gets two pairs of rolling eyes directed toward her.
“I know it’s a teenage thing, that her body’s telling her she’s an adult, yet in her head she’s still not. I keep making allowances for her, but my patience is running thin.” Thank goodness I’m a working mother and I can get out of the house and think about something different for a while. I’d go mad if I was stuck at home dealing with her moods all the time. The weekend ahead is going to be hard if I’m going to stick to my guns. Me and Alicia having one-on-one time for forty-eight plus hours is not my idea of fun. “I’m not letting her out of my sight this weekend.”
Terra translates accurately. “So, what’s she done to get grounded this time?” She’s right. It’s far from the first.
My lips purse, I breathe air in, half of me wanting to keep quiet. “I didn’t know, Owen, the first model she was photographed with, the day they posed with the motorcycle? Well, he’s been texting her. They’ve gotten quite friendly.” Too friendly in my opinion,
“Go on.” Terra reaches for a bottle of flavoured water, opens it and takes a sip. “What does friendly mean?”
“Friendly enough that I caught her texting him a topless photo of herself.” The words leave my
