Nina had gone back to her room to double check her packing when my phone rang. It was Remy.
“Hey, Remy, she’s almost ready,” I said, as I carried my plate to the sink and started the water so I could do the dishes.
“Yeah, about that,” Remy said uncomfortably. “Something’s come up at work, and I’m going to have head out of town again this week. Do you mind keeping Nina while I iron this out?”
“She was looking forward to seeing you today,” I said in a flat voice.
“Blake, don’t start with me this morning,” Remy warned. “I’ve had a rough week, and I don’t need another person on my case right now.”
“It’s not me that you should be worried about,” I said dryly. “Your daughter misses you, and she was looking forward to spending the day with you.”
“What am I supposed to do, Blake?” Remy snapped. “I can’t just drop everything and leave this job half done so that I can spend the day shopping! I’m trying to earn a living here!”
“Hey, I’m not judging you for whatever it is that you’re doing, Remy,” I said defensively. “I’m just saying that your daughter has been bouncing around the house all morning excited about spending time with you, and this is going to disappoint her.”
“She’ll live,” Remy said coolly.
“You’re such a cold bitch sometimes; you know that?” I shot back angrily. During our entire marriage, Remy had always been interested in one thing above all else: Remy. I had hoped that she might place Nina a little bit above herself, but this just proved that a leopard never changed its spots.
“I may be cold, but I’m the one who will be putting our daughter through college, so you should probably be a little nicer to me about the choices I have to make when it comes to building her college fund,” Remy hissed. “I don’t have the luxury of an enormous pension. I stayed at home with our daughter for the first 10 years of her life, remember?”
“Don’t blame me for the choices you made, Remy,” I warned.
“We made them, Blake. We agreed that I’d stay home and raise our children,” she said angrily.
“Children. Plural. We had one child, and you decided we shouldn’t have any more, remember?” I shot back.
“Do not blame me for the fact that I didn’t want to have any more children, Blake Gaston!” Remy raged. “You swore you wouldn’t ever use that as ammunition!”
“You’re right; I was wrong. I’m sorry,” I sighed. “Remy, she’s just going to be really disappointed. She wanted to see you.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Remy said, in a voice that wavered on the edge of tears. I knew she was trying as hard as she could to do what she needed to do, and I kicked myself for making it more difficult.
“Do you want to talk to her or am I the one who has to break the news?” I asked.
“Can you tell her?” she asked. “I’m on my way to a meeting with a client, and if I talk to her right now, I’m going to end up ruining my makeup.”
“Jesus, Remy…” I said, trailing off before I launched into a lecture on how keeping up appearances wasn’t nearly as important as reassuring her daughter that she loved her and was sorry for disappointing her.
“Don’t start, Blake,” Remy warned.
“Fine, I’ll handle it,” I said. “When are you coming back?”
“Friday at the latest, but I’m really hoping that I can wrap this up and be back by Wednesday,” she said, as I heard her flick the turn signal in the car. “Yikes, I’m here. I have to go! I’ll call Nina tonight and explain! Thanks, Blake!”
She disconnected, and I stood staring at the screen of my phone for a full minute as I tried to get my thoughts together. I tucked the phone in my pocket, shut off the water, and headed toward Nina’s room. I stood outside her door and took a deep breath before I tapped on it.
“Punkin, Mom just called,” I said, as I pushed the door open. Nina was sitting on the edge of her bed furiously tapping on her phone. She looked up at me like a deer caught in the headlights and quickly dimmed the screen.
“What?” she said, tucking the phone under her leg.
“Mom just called and said she’s going to have to head out of town again, so she can’t make it today,” I said, bracing myself for the dramatic reaction I was about to have to deal with.
“Are you kidding me?” Nina asked quietly. “Did she really say that?”
“Yeah, she said she’s really sorry, and that she’ll call you tonight after she’s done with her meetings and explain,” I said, watching the emotions rapidly cross Nina’s face. I wasn’t quite sure where they would stop, but I wanted to be close in case she needed me. I added, “She was really sad that she couldn’t make it home today. She was looking forward to your day together.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nina said, flopping back on her bed and staring up at the ceiling. “Whatever.”