I used to eat at places like this, she said. Before college, my mom used to take me to this diner near our old apartment when my dad worked late. Where was that? Durham. We moved to Charlotte when I was 12.
After the company got big enough, she wrapped her hands around the coffee mug Gloria had dropped off with the speed and efficiency of a person who had done this motion approximately 40,000 times. Before that, we were just regular people. My dad had a small trucking operation. Three trucks. My mom kept the books.
What happened to your mom? She looked at the coffee. Breast cancer. I was 23. I'm sorry.
Me, too. She said it simply, not with the practiced grief of someone who'd told the story many times. With the plainness of someone who had accepted it and still felt it every day. She would have told my father to his face that the Heartley thing was a bad idea. Would he have listened?
No. But she would have said it anyway. She looked up. You have a daughter, Amara. Nine.
What's she like? He thought about this. He thought about the way she'd taken her math book into the Whitmore's house like she was going to a sleepover. The way she'd looked at him when he said work thing, not fooled, but willing to let it go. She's smarter than me, he said.
And she knows it, but she's polite about it. Lauren almost smiled. It was quick and it didn't quite make it all the way, but it was there. How long have you been raising her alone? 5 years since the divorce.
Was it bad? He picked up his coffee. It was necessary. She nodded like that was a complete sentence and didn't push. That was the second time in 20 minutes she'd done something that surprised him.
The first was not getting offended when he said he wanted to keep his job. The second was recognizing when not to ask another question. Can I ask you something? He said, "Sure. You clearly have people around you all the time.
Your father's people, event staff, security. You've got money. You've got connections. Why are you in a diner at 9:30 on a Friday night with your dad's fleet supervisor? " She looked at him for a moment because you're the first person tonight who talked to me like a person instead of a position. He didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything.