Relativity (12 page)

Actually, I’ve given it a lot of thought. If we sneak around all summer, Natalie is leaving for SIU in August. Once she gets some distance and adjusts to college, we could tell her. She won’t be happy but she is going to change too, so I think she’ll take it better. Then Knox and I have the rest of our lives to figure out what we’re going to do. I don’t care what my future holds anymore as long as he’s in it.

“Where’s your car?” Natalie asks, beating me to the punch.

“Wouldn’t start. I had to bum a ride off my neighbor,” I confess.

I see Knox stiffen just a bit as he restocks the pizza boxes. I know he won’t just volunteer the ride because he’s pissed and probably because he doesn’t think I want him to.

Natalie starts firing off a text and I swear that girl is going to have nothing but mangled stubs for hands someday. It chirps back at her and she looks up grinning.

“Your chariot will be here at 10:30,” she giggles.

My stomach drops realizing that she texted Tate. I have to play along or she will know something is up.

“Sweet, thanks,” I say, watching Knox out of the corner of my eye.

Natalie darts off to give a table their check as Knox makes eye contact for the first time all night since the promposal. He’s furious.

Sorry
, I mouth. I’m already making a plan in my head to sneak over to Knox’s as soon as Tate drops me off, I just hope he isn’t too mad because I need him more than ever now.

I gather my things and say good-bye to everyone, noting that Knox doesn’t even glance my way.

I meet Tate at the door and hop into his pick-up. “You didn’t have to do this,” I say.

“Are you kidding? I wanted to. Besides, I was just home playing Xbox, bored out my mind.”

He heads toward my house and for a few minutes we try to make small talk. We run out of mutual topics quickly and settle in to a comfortable silence. I watch him drive out of the corner of my eye.

His spiky blond hair is hidden by his backwards Cardinals ball cap and he’s still wearing his ridiculous tuxedo shirt. I smile, realizing how incredibly sweet the promposal really was and knowing that I would be buzzing with excitement if I hadn’t already fallen in love with Knox.

“Can I come in?” he asks, pulling into our driveway. He sounds so timid when he asks that I almost cave and ask him to watch a movie but I’ve got to make things right with Knox. I know it is super shitty of me to ditch him after he drove me home but that’s Natalie’s fault.

“I’m just so tired tonight,” I lie, nearly buzzing with the thought of being with Knox.

He pulls off his hat and runs his hand through his hair, nervously. “All that stuff earlier was my mom’s idea,” he admits, gesturing to the flowers in my hand.

“To ask me to prom?” I ask, wondering if the universe could really be so on my side today that Tate is going to tell me he really wants to go with someone else. He would make my life easier in one fell swoop.

“God, no. I wanted to ask you to prom a month ago, but I was too chicken. I’m just talking about the whole song and flowers thing in front of everybody. I knew you were too nice to say no in front of all those people and that’s why I ended up doing it like that.”

That was kind of a shitty admission, but I guess I have to give him credit for telling the truth. I stare out his windshield at our lit up front porch where Mom’s porch swing is moving ever so gently in the light breeze.

“You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to,” he forces out, turning his face away from me.

This is the moment where I can fix everything. I can rush right over to Knox and tell him that I told Tate I didn’t want to be his date and he won’t be mad anymore.

But when Tate turns his disappointed face back to mine I can’t think of anything except the comment that Mom made the first time I told her that I had a crush on Tate.

If I had to handpick someone for you, I couldn’t have picked better
.

We had just gotten done seeing a romantic comedy and we were talking about love. I just blurted out that I was crushing on Tate and that was her response. She had known Tate since he was a Cub Scout that used to come around peddling popcorn but now I wish I would have asked her exactly why she thought he was such a good choice. I guess I’ll never know but I can’t help feeling that she’s guiding me somehow, that there’s a reason Tate didn’t ask me to prom until after I’d been with Knox. Maybe Mom is trying to keep me from making a mistake. Maybe this promposal happened for a reason so that I would quit living dangerously with Knox.

“I’m going dress shopping tomorrow so we better be going to prom together,” I tease.

“Yes,” he shouts excitedly, pounding his palm on the steering wheel. I jump out of the truck and wave good-bye, knowing I made the right decision. I dig through my purse for my keys as I approach the front porch. As I slide my front door key into the lock, the familiar need to be close to Knox comes over me. I know what I’m risking but I just can’t stop.

I have to see him. I have to explain. I’m not dumb enough to think that we won’t end up in bed together, that’s what I want. I know it’s wrong even though I can’t really remember why. I clasp my keys and run back to my car, not caring how wrong it is, I want to be with him.

I stick the key in and turn the ignition. Nothing. I had completely forgotten that my car was dead, the word making me shiver. I collapse over the steering wheel, knowing that the universe has spoken.

“Tate is going to eat you up when he sees you in that dress,” Nat purrs, as I model my prom dress for her.

I twirl in front of the full-length mirror a few times, wishing I could get back the excitement I had when I tried this dress on a few weeks ago. Mom really would have loved helping me get ready for my last prom. I shake off the sadness and concentrate on figuring out what color heels to look for, anything to distract me from the reality that I will never have another mother-daughter shopping day for the rest of my life.

“You’d look good in that red one over there,” I tell Nat, gesturing toward a sexy strapless mermaid style gown across the store.

Her phone chirps for the eighty-seventh time today and she throws me an apologetic look. “Sorry, drama at the restaurant,” she says, referring to Mozzarella.

“What’s going on?” I ask, nonchalantly. I haven’t thought about Knox for almost thirty whole minutes and I want to know if it is something to do with him.

“It’s just my parents. They can’t agree about anything. Mom keeps ordering cheaper ingredients and Dad is about to have a fit because he doesn’t want to sacrifice quality or he thinks all our customers will jump ship. In a nutshell, they haven’t fucked in about six months so they are driving each other and everyone around them cra-cra,” she blurts out.

“Do you think they’ll get a divorce?” I ask. I knew things weren’t good between Nat’s parents, but I never realized it was this serious. I have noticed that Mrs. Parsons is around even less than I originally thought. She is never at the restaurant, but I’m starting to think that is the way Mr. Parsons likes it.

“I don’t know but I’m pretty sure my dad is fucking around,” she says, not looking up.

My jaw drops in surprise and I rush over to where she is sitting. “Are you serious?” Natalie has joked about her dad having a girlfriend in the past, but I knew she was just joking. This is different.

Tears drip down her face faster than she can wipe them angrily away. “I was just about to when you found out about your mom. It’s not that big of a deal anyway, not compared to what you’re dealing with.”

“Nat, don’t blow this off. It’s your parents, of course it’s a big deal. What makes you think he’s cheating?” I ask, rubbing her arm tenderly.

“It sounds stupid but he was so happy all the sudden. Like smiling really big and not just faking it. Whistling at work and acting like he used to and stuff. I felt like I had my dad back but now he’s worse than ever. And my mom acts like she doesn’t even notice. I don’t know how she lives with her head in the fucking sand like that. I don’t even blame him for cheating. She was a miserable asshole the entire time that Knox was gone, but now that he’s back, she’s finally normal again. But it’s too late, Daddy’s already gone. What the fuck is wrong with these women that don’t know how to keep their men? I think I was more upset that if they got divorced I’d have to live with her than the fact that they might actually split up.”

She is just rambling now and I just try and comfort her. I still don’t really believe that Chad is cheating on Bea, it’s just too weird. That would be like my dad cheating on my mom when she was still alive. There’s no way. But I feel so shitty that all this stuff was going on with my best friend and I never had a clue. As much as I hate that Natalie’s family might be imploding, it feels good to focus on someone else’s problems instead of just my own.

“Should we figure out who the home wrecking bitch is?” I tease, knowing it will cheer Natalie up.

She perks up immediately, just like I anticipated. “If I could just get my hands on his phone, but he guards that thing like the Hope Diamond.”

“Maybe I could distract him one night. And I bet she comes in there for pizza all the time so we could start a list of suspects.” I wonder if it is twisted that I feel a little excited about our endeavor. There is no way that the teddy-bear cute, Kevin James look-a-like Mr. Parsons would even be capable of sneaking around having some illicit affair but this little game will make Natalie feel better and maybe distract me at work.

“Knox thinks I’m crazy, but I know my dad.”

“You told Knox?”

She nods her head while firing off a text at lightning speed. “Connor just asked me to prom,” she says, doing a 180 in our conversation.

“So, you’ve been texting Connor?” I ask, hating to turn the subject from Knox but hoping that I’ve been wrong about Natalie texting Cale.

“Yep. It took him decades to finally ask,” she whines.

I squeal with glee not because Connor is Tate’s best friend and now we will double date making the whole night more bearable but because now I know Natalie hasn’t become a home wrecking bitch herself.

“Should we get some lunch where someone has to wait on us for a change?” Nat asks, both of us struggling to carry our dress bags heavy with our prom dresses and our shopping bags full of shoes, makeup, jewelry, and the fancy underwear she insisted we buy.

“That sounds like a great idea,” I agree, even though I’m dying to get away from her so I can track down Knox. I have to know that he isn’t mad at me and that he understands that Tate is just a friend.

“How about Redbirds?” she asks, darting through the double doors before I can disagree. I hurry after her, catching up in the lobby as I overhear her ask for a high-topped table in the bar. It seems like a strange choice, especially since we can’t drink, but sometimes I forget that Nat enjoys watching sports on the big screens.

A girl from school guides us to a table where we carefully drape our dress bags over the empty chairs. Once we get settled, she hands us each a menu. “I heard you’re going to prom with Tate Boyd,” she gushes at me.

I nod my head up and down, wishing I could return her enthusiasm.

“Oh my God, you’re so lucky,” she squeals. A split second later a cloud descends over her features. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. I just…I forgot about your mom.”

The girl looks near tears and I feel so bad for her because I know she didn’t mean anything by what she said.

“Awkward,” Natalie says in a very condescending tone.

“It’s fine,” I reassure her, reaching out to touch her arm. She rushes back to her podium, upset.

“Am I destined to be a half-orphan that people feel sorry for the rest of my life?” I ask, my mood dampened considerably.

“Hi. I’m Misty and I’ll be taking care of you today. I see dress bags. You girls must be out shopping for prom dresses. That’s brings back some memories,” a bubbly voice says, interrupting us.

I look up to see a pretty brunette smiling at me.

“What did your prom dress look like?” Natalie asks her. I’m so stunned that I nearly drop my menu. Natalie doesn’t chit chat with people she doesn’t know. She finds it a complete waste of time.

The brunette doesn’t skip a beat at the question and goes into intricate detail of the teal silk tea-length dress she wore to her senior prom. “Everything is so much more glamorous these days than they were twenty years ago. Boy, I’d love to go back and do it all over just once.”

“But your wedding must have been like prom on steroids, right?” Natalie says, encouraging her. I’m still trying to figure out how Natalie knew she was married when I spot the huge sparkler on Misty’s left ring finger.

“Weddings aren’t nearly as much fun. Everybody’s stressed out and you spend most of the night wondering if you just tied yourself down for life to a jerk,” she says, the smile never leaving her face. “If I can give you girls any advice, it’s never get married right out of high school.”

“I’m never getting married,” Natalie reveals, which is news to me.

“I really just want a Coke,” I say, knowing I’m probably being rude but this whole waitress-customer dynamic has turned a little weird.

Misty starts laughing. “I’m sorry, girls. Don’t listen to me, I’m just an old married lady who is sad that she can’t relive her glory days. One Coke coming up and what can I get for the spinster cat lady to drink?”

Natalie and I both start laughing but Natalie manages to mumble her drink order.

“She’s funny,” Natalie says in a weird tone.

“We’ll have to tip her good. We both know how hard this job is,” I remind her.

Misty comes back with our drinks and a basket of their specially seasoned French fries. “These are for humoring me. I’m sorry I babbled on like that,” she apologizes. I watch her walk away and hope I look as good as she does when I’m in my mid-thirties.

“Isn’t it weird when you picture somebody in your head and then they don’t look or act anything like that?” Nat asks, sipping her Mountain Dew.