Mimeomia

05 | nimbus

CHAPTER FIVE

NIMBUS

( — a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being or a saint. / a light, color, etc., that surrounds someone or something. )

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

          MICHAELA TATE IS FURIOUS. Yvonne Tate blabbers about her job and how she's preparing for New York Fashion Week, as it's less than a month away. Ulysses Tate excuses himself from the lunch table to answer the phone for the eighth time in less than an hour. Lincoln Calloway pushes a pea around his plate with a silver fork, wondering how in the world he got caught in the monthly Tate family lunch.

          Michaela knows how. 

          It all began yesterday, on Friday morning, when he called her for the first time in two years, asking her whether the interview could take place at her apartment instead, as his living room had a painting job scheduled for the following day. She hesitated, as it's not her story, but Ginny shrugged it off and returned to her Candy Crush game, so she had nothing else to say.

          Except she had conveniently forgotten about lunch with her parents, so Lincoln had no choice but to stay with them as well, as she hadn't even managed to ask him more than one question when they barged into her apartment. Michaela dared to think it wouldn't be as terrible as she had thought, but, when Lincoln and Ulysses locked eyes with each other, she knew this lunch was a recipe for disaster.

          It's not that her parents don't like Lincoln. They do, and were always supportive of their relationship, considering him part of the family . . . at least until Michaela and Lincoln broke up and called off the engagement. Michaela tried to remind her parents, especially Ulysses, that she could perfectly take care of herself and didn't need them to get involved, but her father still resents him for having broken her heart. She wasn't surprised to see him glare at poor Lincoln whenever he wasn't on the phone.

          "Lincoln, dear, tell me," Yvonne continues, wiping her mouth with her napkin, and Michaela tightens the hold around her fork, wishing her mother had kept pursuing the New York Fashion Week subject instead. "You were gone for a long time. A year, wasn't it?"

          Lincoln stops pretending to like peas, which he never has, and looks up. "Yes, but I still kept mostly to myself for another year." Michaela sips her wine and Yvonne shoots her a brief warning look, staring at the ghost of her daughter's engagement ring. "I wasn't ready to come back right after my break, at least not entirely, so I didn't . . . you know. I thought it was the best thing to do at the time."

          "Hmm." Yvonne folds her hands over her lap. "I wish you had said something, though. Having to hear it all through Michaela certainly didn't help with seeing you and your decisions in a positive light, but I'm sure you understand why we took her side."

          "Yes, of course."

          "And not just because she's our daughter—"

          "I'm also sitting right here," Michaela mutters, through gritted teeth, and checks her phone, courtesy of the conversation she's been having for the past thirty minutes to keep her mind fresh enough to avoid snapping at someone. Roya Mokri is Ginny's roommate and one of the few people Michaela is genuinely scared of, as Roya can be so emotionally empty she makes Yvonne and Ulysses from Michaela's teenage years look happy.

          There are also times Roya is as cuddly as a teddy bear, which might explain why Ginny still hasn't kicked her out of her apartment, why Kelsey Blue—the token bundle of joy at Union Daily—enjoys her company so much and why Michaela can be around her for more than fifteen minutes. The girls enjoy hanging out as often as possible, even when Michaela is absent—which seems to happen quite often—and it's occasionally one of the best things about Michaela's Friday nights.