clutched the phone.
“You don’t let anyone get close.”
“I let you get close, and believe me, I rethink that every day,” Samantha joked through tight lips.
“Ha, ha. You know that’s not what I mean. If I didn’t know you better, I might start to think you don’t like men, but I think you just don’t trust them. You’re a serial dater, and you don’t let guys stick around long enough to get close.”
“That’s not true!” Not really…
“What about my cousin Paul?”
“Paul? The cop?” Samantha shook her head as she remembered the brash rookie cop. He had been handsome without a doubt, but not handsome enough to make her forget her vow.
“Not my type. You shouldn’t have even set me up with him. I could have told you that wasn’t going to work. I’m not into guys with dangerous occupations.”
“Mmm, hmm, and all other guys fit under the two-or-three date rule. You cut them loose after a few dates.”
“That’s because I’m particular about things like, oh, I don’t know, conversation. I’m looking for someone who will make me think, make me laugh and who has a nice, safe, uneventful job. I’m not picky at all.”
“So, you’ll just keep dating and leaving all the most eligible guys in the area until there are no more left to date, without really giving them a chance?” Jenny’s tone was exasperated.
“If they don’t fit the criteria, I have to keep it moving. Time waits for no man, and neither do I. No need dragging out the inevitable. I prefer to think of it as power dating until I find the right one.”
She blinked when Joel Hightower’s bold and daring face popped into her head. Those brooding brown eyes would challenge her without end. That insufferable personality wouldn’t allow him to agree with a thing she said and would probably make conversations riveting and interesting, to say the least. And those irritatingly witty little snipes of his would keep her on her toes. She tried to shake his smirking face from her head.
When that didn’t work, she imagined him in his fireman uniform. The image didn’t disappear, but at least it reminded her that no matter how much she found herself oddly attracted to him, he was not the one.
“And I think you might have met the right one today if you don’t wimp out and give the sexy Hightower a fair look.”
Samantha rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. What was it with Jenny and this Joel Hightower guy?
“Whatever, girlfriend.” She yawned. “Listen, I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”
“Bye, Hightower Fan-Club President…”
Samantha sucked her teeth, hung up the phone and tried to get Joel Hightower out of her head.
The next morning, the phone woke Samantha up. She glanced at the clock. Seven o’clock. It was time to get up and start getting ready for work, anyway, but dang.
She cleared her throat and tried to do a halfway decent job of getting the frog out. “Hello.”
“Hello, Sammie, did I wake you?”
“No, Mom.” She tried to clear the cobwebs from her brain so she could get a read on her mother’s voice. It was too early in the morning for Veronica Dash to be drunk, but that had never stopped her before. More than likely, she was getting an early start to her drinking day.
“I figured I would catch you before you went to that little job of yours. When I call you in the evenings, you never really have anything to say.”
That’s because the only thing I want to say to you is “Mom, stop drinking,” but I can’t say that because then you’d get all huffy and drink even more.
“Anyway, I know you were just home a few months back, but that was only for a week and a half. I just think it would be nice if you got a job in Chicago, or at least a little closer. So, I was looking through the want ads—”
“Mom, I’m happy with my job now. I like it here. You had to know I couldn’t stay in Chicago forever.”
This Samantha-come-home conversation was getting old.
“You act like it’s so horrible for a mother to want her child closer to home.”
Why? You haven’t really paid me any attention since I was twelve and your drinking spiraled out of control.
But she couldn’t say anything without starting World War III and sending her mother on a drinking binge.
Today, she opted out instead.
“When are you going to stop these little games of yours, Samantha? When are you going to stop or trying to punish me?”
Samantha sucked her teeth. Her mother would be the one to paint herself as the victim.
“Mom, I am not trying to punish you. I have a life and a career. I’m just trying to live my life, that’s all.”
“You’re trying to punish me by staying away. Just like when you were a snotty little kid, who thought she could hurt someone by walking around not talking…Hmmph…Like I needed to hear you complain and tell me that I’d had enough to drink…What kind of child walks around the house for months, not speaking to her mother? I’ll tell you what kind! A vindictive little snot who’s trying to punish the parent instead of staying in a child’s place.”
Enough of this!
“How about a child who is trying the best way she can to get her mother to stop trying to kill herself with a liquor bottle? Or one who was afraid she would say something that would send her mother on yet another drinking binge. Take your pick, Mom, because I’ve been both!”
As soon as the words fell out of her mouth, she regretted them. The last thing she wanted to do was argue with her mother. In fact, she avoided the battleground at all costs most times. She ran her hand across her face and finished wiping the sleep out of her eyes.
“Listen, I’ve got to go get ready for work, Mom. I’ll call you this weekend—”
“Don’t bother!”
Click.
Oh, yes…Getting hung up on by one’s mother…What a glorious way to start your day!
Samantha softly laid the phone down and headed for the shower.
“All I want to know is if I work hard enough and do what I’m supposed to do in physical therapy, is there a real chance that I can go back to firefighting?” Joel tried to get a straight answer out of his doctor.
“And as I said, making your back stronger and getting the most out of physical therapy is what you need to be focusing on.” Dr. Lardner kept his eyes on his pad.
“Also, the fire department’s physician would be the one to give the final go-ahead about you going back to work. I will say that a back injury as extreme as yours will take a lot of
