Chapter 2
After telling me it was "just a key," Ethan left for work as usual. I was left juggling three other people's schedules.
On Monday, I drove Vivian to pick up her car, then came home to finish the designs I still had to do.
On Tuesday, I picked up her dry cleaning while I was out.
On Wednesday, a grocery list appeared on my keyboard. No one had asked whether I had time. There wasn't even a thank-you.
I glanced at the reminder for my afternoon deadline and handed the list to Ethan.
"You'll need to get these after work. I have a project due today."
He took it, but came home empty-handed that evening. He said he'd forgotten.
Vivian looked into the fridge and sighed.
"I thought it would be easier for someone who's home all day."
"I've been working all day too. Ethan said he'd get the groceries after work."
On Thursday morning, Vivian sent me another text.
[The dryer repairman is coming at ten. Let him in and deal with it, please. I'm getting my hair done.]
I replied immediately:
[I have a client meeting from ten to eleven thirty and can't step away. Please reschedule or ask Ethan to handle it.]
She replied, [Okay.]
I taped my meeting hours to the office door and put on my headset.
At 10:03, someone knocked.
"Claire, he's here." Vivian turned the doorknob.
On my screen, the client stopped mid-explanation.
I muted my microphone.
"I'm in a meeting. Please show him to the basement."
"He says he needs someone to approve the cost. I don't understand any of this."
"Call Ethan."
There was a brief silence outside the door. Then Paige spoke.
"Never mind, Vivian. We'll figure it out ourselves."
She said it loudly, as if she wanted to make sure I heard.
I unmuted my microphone and apologized to the client.
That evening, Ethan put the repair invoice in front of me.
"Mom spent forty minutes waiting downstairs by herself today."
"Wasn't Paige there?"
"She had to prepare for her interview. She said you agreed to help, then refused to come out when he got here."
I opened the text conversation and slid my phone toward him.
"Read it. Including your mother's reply."
He read it, his thumb hovering beside her "Okay."
Whenever I hadn't had proof before, he'd always said maybe I'd misheard.
This time, the texts were right there in his hand.
I didn't need him to blame anyone. I just wanted him to acknowledge that I hadn't deliberately left his mother waiting.
"I never agreed to it," I said.
Paige stood in the kitchen doorway with a glass of water.
"Maybe I misheard. Vivian was really stressed."
"Then tell him you misheard."
She looked at Ethan.
He pushed my phone back.
"Claire, do you have to treat your family like clients?"
"My clients don't claim I agreed to things I never agreed to."
"You know what I mean. Mom's already upset. Now you want her to apologize?"
"I'm waiting for you to admit that what they told you wasn't true."
He pulled out a chair, its legs scraping harshly across the floor.
"I just got home from work. Can I eat first?"
I washed my plate and went back to my office to finish the work they'd interrupted.
I left his dinner in the kitchen. The microwave was right there.
At eleven, he came into my office and set the grocery bags beside my desk.
"I got the groceries," he said. "Mom really has been asking too much."
I took off my headset and waited for him to go on.
"From now on, I'll handle whatever she needs. You focus on your work."
"Including driving her places?" I asked.
"Including that."
The next afternoon, at 2:17, a text from him lit up my phone.
[I told Paige I'd drive her to her interview at three, but I can't leave the construction site. Take her for me. She has the address.]
I looked at the work schedule on my office door.
[No. You agreed to take her. You need to sort it out.]
He called immediately.
"It's only a twenty-minute drive."
"Then book her a ride."
"She's nervous. She needs someone with her."
"What did you promise me last night?"
I heard him close a door on the other end of the line.
"Paige has already lost so much because of me. Do you really have to make an issue out of something this small?"