Episode 933: She's Not You

“I don’t want her to get the wrong idea,” Ava said.

“You really can’t clear it up on the phone or in an email or text or something?”

“We already talked about this, that would be impersonal and rude.”

“But telling your birth mom to her face that you don’t want her at the wedding, that’ll be a picnic for all of us.”

“I’m not telling her she can’t come, she can come, I just want it clear that I wasn’t behind the invitation. It’s not fair to let her think things have changed when they haven’t.”

“It’s not fair to drag me into your family drama,” Lila said.

“You dragged yourself into it. You sent her the invitation, so you’re here to tell her that you are the one who did this, that if she misunderstood it’s because of you. I didn’t mislead her.”

“Yay,” Lila said on a sigh. “So I get to be the bad guy.”

“She chose her trust fund over her kid, you have company in the bad guy department,” Avalon said.

Lila pressed a hand to Ava’s shoulder, stopping her friend at the foot of the stairs. “She couldn’t have been all that old when she made that decision. It isn’t easy. I’ve been young and pregnant and unmarried. But I wasn’t a sheltered rich girl, even though I’d had my Aunt, I’d spent enough years mostly looking after myself that at least I knew where to start. If I didn’t know anything about earning my own way or doing anything for myself and suddenly I’m a mom and I’m alone, that would be even scarier. Don’t you think in her shoes, it maybe felt like too much? Like something she didn’t think she was capable of doing since maybe she’d never done anything on her own? Maybe it wasn’t so much choosing her trust fund over you as choosing someone she thought might be better equipped to be your mom. I mean, I don’t know, I might be wrong, she might have selfishly made the decision. But you don’t know for sure, either, right? Maybe it’s time to really talk to your mom?”

“She’s not my mom. She’s my birth mom. My mom took care of me. My mom did.”

Ava shook off Lila’s hand and marched up the stairs, reaching the top just as the door to the large house swung open.

Ava’s mother, her birth mother, stood there with the most radiant smile, you’d have to be a fool not to recognize how happy this woman was to see her daughter, how much she loved her and wanted to connect with her. It was one of those things about Avalon, Lila would never understand, to have a wealthy parent or for that matter, any parent, who wanted to love you, and you push them away? Um, no.

But Ava was Lila’s friend now, and Lila would support her even if she couldn’t fathom handling things the same way. Lila joined Ava at the top of the stairs, giving her a pat on the back to tell her she was there for her, even if she really didn’t want to stand there and watch Ava hurt her mom’s feelings by by telling her she didn’t invite her.

“Did you decide you wanted my help with the wedding plans after all?” Sarette asked, her expression as earnest and enthusiastic as a little kid at Christmas.

Ava and Lila exchanged looks before Ava said, “um, yeah, we could use your help.”

Episode 934: Take A Chance On Me?