"Brady's a nice boy," Mom said and I just nodded. I decided to keep my mouth shut for the rest of dinner since every time I did it lead back to Kade. Not funny cosmos, not funny.
Afterward, I helped Chris with dishes. While we were drying, Jake and Ciara packed up Ryder to take him home for his nap. They were almost out the door, when Ryder remembered the toy he was taking home and ran back into the living room to grab it. My brother grimaced and shot me a nasty look. I waved with a grin from the safety of the kitchen.
"You know he's going to save that thing and return it to you when you have kids right?" Chris asked, hanging me a plate for the dishwasher.
"Bold of him to assume I'm going to have kids." The thought of my own little Ryder put me in this weird space between panic and yearning. My maternal instincts were pretty non-existent, but I really loved holding babies. Breathing in that new baby smell had exploded my heart on more than one occasion.
Just as we finished cleaning up the kitchen, I got a text from Courtney. They would be by in fifteen minutes to pick me up. I ran upstairs to grab my purse and then went to wait on the front porch. My parents were partaking in their spring and summer Sunday afternoon ritual. Dad was asleep in his rocking chair and my mom in hers reading the paper. This scene hadn't changed in years. If it was warm enough when I was in junior high and high school and I was bored, I'd curl up and take a nap on the porch swing next to them.
When the girls pulled up, I kissed my mom on the cheek before I got in the car with them. Courtney was driving, while Lola was on radio duty in the passenger's seat.
"We brought you coffee," Lola singsonged, handing me an iced caramel concoction that was more caramel than coffee. They knew me so well. I preferred my caffeine addiction with a side of diabetes.
"So, you reallllllly don't remember where this place is?" Courtney asked glancing at me in the rear view mirror. I shook my head as I slurped my drink.
"You guys haven't sent me to live in some slum have you?" I was beginning to be suspicious. Courtney and Lola wore the same looks as Dean and Hannah earlier.
"No, it's actually really nice. They did a lot of improvements to the area when the apartments went in," Courtney assured me.
"So, what? Are the neighbors terrible?" Another look between them.
"I think the neighbors are gonna love you, but you'll just have to see for yourself," Lola said before she turned up the volume on the radio. What a weird thing to say.
As we pulled onto Capital, I had to admit, it was a cute area. A median ran down the center of the street lined with maple trees. It was mostly independent shops and one or two small restaurants. It was definitely walkable which I thought was nice. My place was pet friendly and if my schedule didn't prove too brutal I was thinking about adopting a dog.
The apartment complex I was renting in was fairly small, only two buildings with three units each. The building was very modern and the all units had balconies and large windows facing the road. Parking was in the rear and there was a cute little play area and grass area with a picnic table. Courtney pulled into a visitor's spot in the parking lot and we got out to look around. Each building had three floors and my apartment was going to be one of the middle ones. We walked around to the front and I saw that I could easily walk to a small grocery store and there was a gas station on the corner and…
"Oh for fuck's sake. You've got to kidding me," I groaned.
"We thought you knew!" Lola cried emphatically.
"How could you not?! I mean it's his business," Courtney threw in.
Across the street in all it's vindictive glory sat Taylor Auto. I had completely blocked out that right before Kade's uncle retired, he moved the business from Fleet Avenue to here. They had expanded from a two bay garage to a six bay full service shop. It was a big cream color cinder block building with 'Taylor Auto' written across the top in red letters outlined in black.
"I was already planning my move to Cali and how I was going to end things that I guess I just blocked out all of this," I explained gesturing to the building.
"Yeah but didn't you Google map the apartment? Especially since you couldn't remember where it was," Lola asked exasperated.
"It hasn't been updated in like five years!" I should sue for emotional distress. Had I known I would be this close to Kade on a daily basis, I would've chosen to take my parents up on their offer to stay with them indefinitely. I'm such a coward.
"Look, you probably won't even see him," Courtney said trying to be the voice of reason. "It's not like he'll know you live here and when he's over there, he will be working. The likelihood of you seeing each other is relatively slim."
"That is not as comforting as you think."
"Work with me. You didn't want to go back to living with your mom and dad and this was the only available option on such short notice." I nodded knowing Courtney was right; it just felt Kade was being crammed down my throat since I drove back into Cadence city limits.
To help cheer me up, we walked down the block to a little ice cream shop. Lola ordered strawberry cheesecake, Courtney went with salted caramel, and I drowned my sorrows in Death by Fudge. We all decided this may need to become a weekly occurrence.
We eventually made our way back to my house. My mom was reheating leftovers for dinner while my dad was trying to unclog the kitchen sink. Having retired as the principal of Cadence Junior High last year, he spent most of his free time fixing problems created by the fact that he had so much free time. This time apparently he installed the new garbage disposal wrong. Hannah and Dean were out, probably at his apartment. The girls ate dinner with me and then helped me pick out my outfit for my first day.
Once they were satisfied that I wasn't going to embarrass myself (well at least with my clothing choices), they gave me a big hug and headed home. I played a couple of games of cards with my parents and when Hannah came home, she joined us. At the end of the night, I was once more declared the Euchre champ of Casa de Diaz.
My parents went to bed shortly thereafter and Hannah and I stayed up and chatted in my room while I got my personal things situated for the morning. Pretty soon it was creeping up on midnight, so I kicked her out and laid down. Nerves flooded my system and I willed myself to fall asleep. Finally, after tossing and turning for what seemed like forever, I felt myself start to relax and I fell asleep.