Just For Tonight

seven

THE week went by agonizingly slow.

From morning to night I worked hard on my approaching deadline, ignoring my body and mind for hours at a time. I'm pretty sure on Wednesday I didn't eat a single thing which would explain why I was so tired and dizzy Thursday morning.

I always struggled with putting myself first when in the midst of finishing something. When I was younger it was sports. My parents had to force me to have dinners and breakfasts because they knew when I left for the day all I did was anxiously think about a game or practice. And then when the time came around to attend the game that would be my entire focus.

Which is why now I'm sitting across from my mother and father at a Saturday brunch shoveling eggs Benedict in my starving body.

"You worry me, Hayden. Are you taking care of yourself?" My father shares a disapproving look.

I swallow my bite.

"Yes. I am." A smile forms on my mothers lips.

"Of course you are. You're on a deadline right?" My mothers warm voice directs the question my way. I nod.

"See, Tim. She's just stressed, it'll pass. I wish she didn't have this habit but we all have our vices." Margaret Riley was an understanding, lovable woman. She raised me to be forgiving but not compliant and she always took my side when Dad decided he had something important to say about my lifestyle.

"I don't like you living here alone." Worry etches on his face, settling into the wrinkles already there. "You should move back up north with us. You can write in your old room."

Now, Tim Riley is the definition of a helicopter parent. If he had it his way I'd live with them for the rest of my life, not leaving the house and letting him take care of every possible need. He worried more than he drank water, and disapproved of everything I did.

"Like I said the last hundred times you brought that up, no thank you." I smile to soften the blow, letting sarcasm sleep through my words. I loved my parents, they just had their moments.

We spent the next hour eating and talking. My mother had picked up a new hobby in her retirement—smoking marijuana. If I could flash back to the 16 years old me who got grounded for smelling like pot and almost sent my mother into cardiac arrest, I would.

Margaret had found a love for the leaf and never looked back—to my fathers' utter dismay.

My father on the other hand refuses to retire from running his landscaping business even though my brother Collin is running everything from the books to the employees.

I think he likes control, and doesn't want to let it go.

"Come home next weekend? We'll have a barbecue!" Dad shoves my shoulder as we exit the restaurant. "Collin misses you." He adds.

"Collin is a 32 year old grown man who can call me if he misses his sister." I say with a roll of my eyes. "Besides I can't next weekend. Jaz is flying in so Ayana and I are taking her out, for old time sake."

Understanding flashes their faces but I can tell my Dad is disappointed.

"Maybe the weekend after that?" I lean into his side.

"Okay, hun." He opens his arms to wrap me in a hug and I collapse into them. The familiarity of his warmth calms my stress as it's done since I was a little girl. Moms next, tearing his arms away to give her a turn. I giggle into my mothers chest and squeeze her close.

"Love you guys. Text when you get home." I back away and walk with them to their car.

"Love you too! Be safe, and EAT!" My mom waves in the passenger seat and Dad swears under his breath at the car who parked too close so now he has to wiggle out. I leave them to it and walk back towards the direction of my apartment.