“Mornin’, love,” she answered on the third ring.
“Mornin’,” I replied. “How are you? Are you okay? Do you feel sick? I’m goin’ to come by and—”
“Bear,” Ma cut me off, chuckling. “I’m fine, baby.”
I grunted. “No, you aren’t.”
“Okay,” she conceded. “I’m not okay overall, but right now, at this very moment, I feel good.”
I gnawed on my lower lip. “Do you promise?”
“I promise, bear.”
My lips twitched at the nickname. “I’m still goin’ to come by and see you later.”
“After you interview that person for your assistant job?”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me.
“Yeah,” I answered. “Damien helped me prep for what I want to ask the lad last night so I’m as ready as I’ll ever—”
“Hold the phone.” Ma cut me off again. “Damien helped you last night?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, mentally kicking myself for letting that slip.
“It’s not a big deal, Ma.”
“It bloody well is,” she stated. “Weren’t you ’ere just yesterday tellin’ me you were sleepin’ with Aideen’s big brother, and Damien fought ’im over it ... and now he was with you ... at nighttime?”
I had to force myself not to laugh; my ma sounded so excited over my drama.
“Ma—”
“Did you sleep with ’im?”
“No,” I said, incredulously. “What kind of woman do you think I am?”
“One with a healthy sex drive?”
At that, I did laugh.
“Nothin’ happened.” I chuckled. “I told everyone that you were ill, and I got a little upset, and he stayed the night with me. In the spare room, I mean. He just wanted to be there for me. He didn’t give me a choice either; he just said he was stayin’, and that was that.”
Ma squealed. “That’s cute!”
“Most mothers would encourage their daughter to call the guards if a man she was at odds with just stayed the night at ’er apartment without ’er askin’ ’im first.”
“When have I ever been like most mothers?”
I thought about that for a moment, then I snorted. “Never.”
“Exactly,” Ma said, and I just knew she had a grin on her pretty face. “Besides, if you really didn’t want ’im to stay, you would have told ’im so, and from what I know of ’im, he would have listened.”
I sighed. “I hate when you make sense.”
“You get that from your da.”
I gritted my teeth at the comparison.
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Call me after your interview.”
“I’ll do you one better,” I said. “I’m stoppin’ by.”
“Alannah, I promise you, I’m feelin’ fine.”
“I know,” I said, picking invisible lint from my pyjama trousers. “I just need to be around you. It’ll make me feel better.”
“Okay, bear,” Ma said. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
After we hung up, I ate my breakfast, then rinsed my plate and placed it in the dishwasher. I showered, dressed, and in an effort to be presentable for a business interview, I straightened my hair and applied makeup. I sucked at makeup. I had a bunch of products my friends made me buy, but I used maybe three of them when I decided to wear something on my face. I wanted to use all my goodies, but I didn’t have the skill needed to apply them. I’ve watched thousands of YouTube tutorials, and eventually, I realised I watched those videos because I liked watching people transform their faces, rather than wanting to learn from them.
I carefully applied primer and foundation to my moisturised skin and used a little sponge to gently buff it in until it looked somewhat natural. As natural as makeup could look anyway. My hair kept falling into my face, so I pushed it back, but not before I laughed at the contrast of my hair to my skin. I had jet black hair and fair skin.
The only patch of skin that wasn’t fair was the light brown freckles that sprinkled over my nose and under my eyes. Freckles that were now hidden by my foundation. I applied the setting powder and filled in my eyebrows as best as I could. After adding some mascara, a tiny bit of contour to my cheeks, and a dust of bronzer to warm my face up, I was good to go. My lips were naturally pigmented, so I never put anything other than lip balm on them.
After changing my outfit four times, I settled on wearing the only business suit I owned. It was a tight fitting grey skirt suit that my parents had bought for me a few years ago when I started looking for a job and wanted to be presentable at interviews. I was so pleased it still relatively fit.
The zipper on my torso didn’t close all the way anymore, but I knew that was because I had gained a little weight over the years. If twenty-five pounds was considered ‘little’. After I was ready, I stared at myself in the mirror. Tugging on the waist-length blazer, I wished it was longer to cover the shape of my hips.