“Make yourself at home. Garrettwon’t be back for another hour or so. I hate how late he works, but at leastit’s not the night shift. I hate when he has to work the night shift.” Hadley tossed her bag onto the couch and turned to face Devon. “We have anextra bedroom if you go through the door on the left. You can put your thingsin there.”
“Thanks,” Devon said, walkinginto the guest bedroom. She placed her bag at the foot of the queen-size bedand stared around the room.
Devon could tell that Hadley haddecorated this room. It didn’t look like anything a guy would have puttogether. Long white panel curtains hung from the glass wall, which opened toits own balcony. The bed had a pretty patterned quilt on it with a couple ofmatching pillows. A dark wooden five-drawer dresser sat against another wall,and large paintings of flowered landscapes were displayed around the room.
Walking toward the balcony, sheflipped the lock, slid back the door, and walked out onto the platform. It wasreally a very pretty view. So much to see and so little time, Devonthought.
She pulled out her phone from herpocket to check her email. She immediately deleted a newsletter from Wash Ualong with a series of spam emails. As her finger lingered over the next one,she bit her bottom lip, indecision creasing her forehead. She really wanted toread it, but she couldn’t do it.
Not having the courage to justdelete the email, she moved it to a separate folder. Out of sight, out ofmind.
Just as she was scrolling to thenext email, her phone lit up. She stared down at the screen, letting it ring afew more times, before steeling herself and answering.
“Hey, Mama,” Devon said.
“Hey, Dixie!” her mom cheerfullycalled into the phone.
“Mom,” Devon complained, “it’sjust Devon now.”
“You’ll always be my Dixie girl,”her mother drawled.
Devon was pretty sure she wouldnever convince her mother otherwise. “I know, but can’t you just give it atry? You named me after all.”
“Why do you have to be sodifficult? Dustin and Dani don’t seem to have your propensities.”
“You must have screwed me up realgood,” Devon joked.
“Always have to blame me,” hermother said.
“It’s not like it’s Dad’s fault.”
“Oh, shush! You know I just missyou,” her mom said, tears spilling into her voice.
“Miss you, too, Mom,” Devon saidsoftly.
“When are you coming home? Reidcan’t steal you for the entire summer. Your father and I have a big event inJuly, and we’d really like you to come. I know you’ll want to bring him. It’sso close to your birthday, and we’d like to celebrate with you, honey.”
“I don’t know, Mom,” Devonanswered uncertainly.
She had already told her mom thatshe was going to stay in St. Louis for the summer. This was already the secondor third attempt to get her to come home. Devon hadn’t been able to tell hermom that she had left. Her mom wouldn’t understand her reasoning.
“Oh, come on, Dixie…Devon,” hermother quickly corrected. “I’m only asking for a bit of time. You’ve beenaway for so long, and I haven’t heard from you as much lately.”
“I know. I’ve just been sobusy.”
“I know you are, honey, and I’mso proud of you. I just feel like we haven’t talked as much this year. Areyou sure everything is okay?” her mother pleaded.
“Yeah, Mama. Everything isfine,” Devon lied, taking in a deep breath.
She didn’t want her mother topry. She was hitting too close to home, and Devon couldn’t talk about it.
“Alright,” her mom said. “Well,think about July. We’re going to New York, and I know how much you love thebig city. I’ll take you to see shows on Broadway, and we can go shopping, havecocktails at fancy parties—”
“That all sounds great, Mom,”Devon told her wistfully. “I just don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”
“You can bring Reid with you ifyou want, dear,” her mother said, offering a plea bargain.
“Thanks, but I don’t think he’llbe interested. He’s taking the MCAT and applying to med school. You know howimportant that is to him.”
“I know, but…” she began, clearlybiting her tongue.
“But what?” Devon couldn’t stopherself from asking.
“I think you spend too much timewith that boy, that’s all,” her mom responded quietly.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry somuch.”
Her mom sighed. “Well, thinkabout New York. I miss you, and I know it would mean a lot to your father tohave you there.”
“Alright, I’ll think about it,but I’m not making any promises. I have to go though. Love you,” Devon said.
“Love you, too.”
Devon quickly ended the call. She buried her head in her hands and took a few steadying breaths, trying toremind herself over and over that she was doing the right thing. Lying to hermom was the hardest thing in the world to do, but she couldn’t be in St. Louis.
She wished that she could reallytalk to her mom. She wasn’t wrong when she had said that Devon had stoppedtalking to her. If only things were the way they had been when she wasyounger, when she had told her mother everything. But things had changed somuch since then.
Stuffing her phone into thepocket of her pants, she left the balcony and walked back into the living room.
“Sorry about that. My mom called,”Devon told Hadley.
Hadley was stretched out acrossthe couch, watching Millionaire Matchmaker on the mounted television. She had a proclivity for bad reality shows and Lifetime movies. Devon hadnever understood her obsession, but Hadley had often referred to it as her onlyflaw.
“Shhh! Patti is about to bitchout the girls. It’s the best part.” Hadley’s eyes were glued to thetelevision.
Devon laughed and shook herhead. At least some things hadn’t changed. Taking a seat next to her friend, Devonwatched the woman on TV work her magic. She was pretty sure they had alreadyseen this episode.
Devon easily fell back into thesimplicity of living with Hadley. They had always been easy living mates. Shecouldn’t even remember if they had argued over anything more than whose turn itwas to empty the dishwasher. Devon had taken a chance her freshman year andallowed Housing to choose her roommate. She had won the jackpot. Even
