Ninette sighed, laying her head down on the desk and hoping she’d be able to stay awake for the next hour and a half. Not the longest class on her schedule by a long run, but hard to sit through anyway.
She took notes dutifully, scribbling in the margins and contributing a thought occasionally just to stay alert. Ten minutes before the bell was due to ring, her phone started buzzing.
Fuck.
A quick press of one of the side buttons made the buzzing stop, but she knew it would start again in a moment when Jaqueline called again.
Zzzz.
Zzzz.
Zzzz.
“Excuse me, could you turn that off?” the man behind her tapped her shoulder.
A hot blush crept up over her cheeks. “Yes. Sorry.” She flipped it open and off.
The end of class was greeted with a combination of relief and irritation. Relief that she didn’t have to force herself to pay attention anymore, irritation that she’d have to call Jaqueline back.
“Hey, Ninnette, this is Jaqueline. Call me back.”
“Ninnette, I wish you’d answer your phone when I call. Call me back.”
“This is Jaqueline, Ninnette. I need to speak to you. Call me as soon as you get this message.”
She pressed her fingertip to the corner of her eye to still the twitching as the phone rang again.
“Ye-es?”
“Jeesh, no need to be a bitch. I was just going to ask what we’re doing for dinner.”
“Oh, god, sorry Dave. I just got about a billion messages from Jaqueline, while I was in class, and you know I’ve-“
“Yeah, ok. So do you have it handled or not?”
Count to ten. Her eye twitched harder. “No. I do not have dinner handled. I am going to be at work until god knows what time of night. I could be home at five or I could be home at midnight, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you since fucking March!”
“Men-o-pause-al. Call me back when you calm down.” The line went dead.
“He fucking hung up on me!”
People turned to stare at her and she ducked her head sheepishly, walking quickly outside and heading for the car. Her head was pounding, and it was only two.
“Hey, Zoey. Got all your stuff?”
The girl nodded and tucked her book under her arm.
“Jacket? Lunchbox? Homework folder?”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
“Got much homework?”
She shrugged. “Math. I finished half of it in class.”
“Great. We can try a new card game today, hm?”
“Sure.”
Ninette grimaced and powered the car door open, getting in the driver’s seat as Zoey settled in the back. “Hop in, we’ll wait for your sister to show up.”
“She’s gonna be forever.”
“Yeah, probably.”
Zoey watched her in the rearview mirror for a minute before pulling out her book. Ninette puffed out her cheeks and pulled hers out as well.
Chloe showed up almost twenty minutes later in a group of girls and waved goodbye to them as she opened the car door.
“Move over, Zoey!”
“I was in here first. Go around.”
“Zoey!”
“She’s already settled, Chloe, just climb over or go around.”
The older girl huffed and clambered over her sister with the maximum amount of thrashing and pulling. Ninette ignored the whines and snaps until they had settled down again, then pulled out into traffic.
“Do you have much homework?”
“Just a couple of health worksheets, some math, and a little science.”
“Lovely. Well, when you get done, I’ve got a new card game for the three of us to try.”
“Hm.”
Traffic was heavier than usual and Ninette found herself glancing at the gas meter every few minutes on the way back to their house. It wasn’t at the bottom, but it hadn’t been working well lately, so she wasn’t sure if she could trust it or not.
“Can I have a cookie when we get home?” Zoey asked.
“If there are any.”
“Can I have one too?”
“Yup.”
They pulled into the tiny parking pad, tree branches scraping over the top of the minivan. “Alright, make sure you get all your stuff this time, ok?”
“Ok.”
“I just don’t understand what the big deal is about you putting away and extra handful of dishes!”
“Jaqueline.” Ninette took a deep breath. “I was hired as a babysitter. With specific functions. One of those was to clear out the dishwasher. Other than that, I wasn’t even told to do more than make sure the girls didn’t make an exceptional mess. I was not hired as a maid.”
“You sit around the house all day on the couch, reading a book, and you can’t even clean up the dishes?”
“That. Is. Not. My. Job.”
“Well, I’m telling you your job description has changed. Are you going to do it or not?”
After all the times I stayed here until seven in the evening or later when you didn’t even call? All the times you called me when I’d given you a-no, SEVERAL- schedules stating that it was a bad time to call me? All those stupid little “Can you go back for?” incidents? Slurs, comments, a billion and one little condescending little attitudes?
“No.”
“Then I don’t think we’ll be needing you here anymore.”
Ninette sighed. “I’ll mail you my hours.” She grabbed her umbrella from beside the door, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and walked down to her car.
Tossing it inside, she slid into the front seat and slammed the car door shut. Her movements as she turned on the headlights, started the engine, and put the car into gear were harsh and jerky.
She drove carefully, knowing her mind wasn’t completely on the road, and was still surprised to find herself pulling onto the gravel in front of Dave’s house. The lights were on, television casting its lights against the ceiling.
At least he’s not still out.
Sticking her keys in her pocket, she walked in and looked around. Laundry was all over the furniture, dishes on the table just barely visible under a pile of socks, couch under a mass of towels.
“What…?”
Alerted by her voice, Dave stuck his head in from the laundry room. “Hey, where’s my Corbett shirt?”
“Your Corbett shirt? How should I know?”
“You were the last one to do the laundry.”
“Well, I know I was, but I just fold things for you to take upstairs, I don’t know where you stick anything.”
He grimaced and disappeared again. “Fuck.”
She picked a shirt up off the floor and started to fold it, then sniffed and set it back down. “Did you throw the dirty laundry out here too?”
“Yeah.”
“So I need to wash everything again.” Her voice was completely deadpan.
“I don’t know, I guess. Not like you wouldn’t have to do it eventually anyway.”
“Yes, but in bits and pieces, not everything at once.”
“Are you on the fucking rag?” He reappeared from around the corner to glare at her. “It’s not like I’m asking you to clean the whole house, just do some laundry. And help me find my damn shirt.”
Deep breath. She counted to twenty, then to forty. “I can’t deal with this right now. I’m going to head home.”
“Fine.” He spat as she closed the door. All the way back to the car she could hear him shouting imprecations after her through the closed door.
“You’re home early.”
“Please do not start with me right now.”
“I wasn’t starting anything, just noting that you’re home early, can’t I note that my daughter is home early?”
“Yeah, knock yourself out.” Ninette dug through the cabinets, looking for a tea bag.
“The cake lady called today. Said something about needing a design?”
“Hm.”
“You’ve only got a month to go, you know. You really ought to call her back.”
“I’m going to.”
“Pre-wedding jitters?”
“No.”
Her mother leaned around the arm of her chair to look at her oddly. “You’re in a nasty mood tonight.”
“Yeah, and?”
“Care to talk about it?”
She started to snap something, then stopped. “Yes, actually. Today I was absolutely beat from working on the bloody paper for Sociology last night, I got six calls from Jaqueline when I was in class, got chewed out by Jaqueline for refusing to do something not in my job description, quit my job, and nearly tore off my fiance’s head because he completely trashed the house which we’ve-“
“You’ve.”
“-been trying to get clean for the wedding so we-“
“You.”
“-can come home to a clean house after the honeymoon.” She glared at her mother.
“Sounds like you need some down time.”
“Definitely. There’s no time for downtime though.”
Ellen looked thoughtful.
Exasperated, Ninette slapped a teabag into a mug, filled it with water, and put it in the microwave.
“Would you want some down time if you could get it?” Ellen asked over the microwave beeps. “Like next week, maybe?”
“Love it.”
“Enough to take off a week of class?”
“Next week is Thanksgiving break, so yeah.”
“Alright then.”
“What?” Ninette pulled the tea out and went to look at her mother. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to send you on a little vacation.” Elllen smiled smugly.
“You barely let me vacation when I’m on vacation with you all. What do you mean ‘sending me on vacation’?”
“Exactly what I said. I’m going to pay for a plane ticket and a room for you. Where do you want to go? No, I know. You’ll go to St. Augustine.”
“Wa-“
“You like St. Augustine. You can shop a little. Unwind. Should be slow this time of year.”
“You want me to go by myself? Is that even safe?”
“No, of course not by yourself. I’ll make sure there’s someone there to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh, not Aunt Anne!”
“No. Not Aunt Anne. You’ll see when you get there.”
“Maybe I should just take Dave with me…”
Ellen snorted. “Weren’t you just saying that Dave was part of the problem?”
“I didn’t say anything of the-“
“You meant it though. He’s driving you crazy right now. You just need some time by yourself to step back and put it all in perspective.”
“I…suppose.”
“Darn right. Now, get your stuff in line and be ready to go by Friday night.”
“But it’s Wednesday already!”
“Do you want to go or not?”
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