Fix by J. Mann (highly illogical behavior .TXT) 📕

in the middle of the living room?” I hear her ask.

“She likes to be with it,” my mother says.

“Why?”

“Um.” My mother falters.

I lift my head off the couch… waiting to hear how she’ll respond to this. “I don’t know,” she says finally, with a laugh.

It was a piece of the truth. She didn’t know. The other piece, of course, was why she didn’t know.

They continue to chat and laugh and generally bump about as they unpack Mary Fay. Where is my silent house? The quiet I’m used to. Hearing them heading back my way, and realizing escape is necessary, I roll off the couch onto my hands and knees, and then stand up way too fast.

Dizzy… my eyes circling in my head… is when I see him.

Thomas Aquinas. Standing in the front door like he is another of Mary Fay’s suitcases.

I stop and blink.

“Hey, Eve. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

He’s carrying my trig textbook with a bunch of papers stuck in it.

“I knocked, but—”

“No problema,” my mother says from behind me, waving him inside.

“Mom, don’t.”

She doesn’t look at me but stops her terrible Spanish. “Thomas, you’ve met my partner, Dr. Walker. Mary Fay, you remember Eve’s friend Thomas. He lives down the street and has been kindly ferrying Eve’s schoolwork back and forth.”

“A little more forth than back.” Thomas smiles broadly… at me.

“Of course, of course,” Mary Fay says. “Thomas. It’s good to know I’ve got help with Eve for the next two weeks.”

When she turns her attention my way, Thomas mouths the word friends and gestures at the two of us, smiling.

Since I don’t understand exactly how to take it, because it is Thomas Aquinas we’re talking about, I snap back: “I don’t need any help.” Trying hard not to look so helpless hobbling back toward the couch, grimacing as I sink onto it.

“Are you in pain?” Mary Fay asks. “Can I get you anything? Your medicine? A glass of water?”

Mary Fay grabs a blanket from the armchair and heads toward me.

“I guess I could use a glass of water?” I shrug as she covers me gently with the blanket.

“I thought you didn’t need any help,” Thomas says.

When I look over at him, he raises his annoyingly thick eyebrows a centimeter higher.

He is such an asshole.

“That’s true,” I say, now feeling like I have an illegal blanket covering me.

There is no way to miss Thomas’s eye roll, unless you’re Mary Fay or my mother. “Why don’t I get you a glass of water,” he says, turning toward the hallway and our bedrooms.

“Kitchen’s to the left,” I call out weakly, fiddling with the blanket to avoid looking directly at Mary Fay’s concerned face.

My mother walks into the living room rolling her suitcase behind her just as Thomas walks in and hands me my glass of water. “Eve doesn’t have to be waited on,” she tells him.

Thomas smirks. I ignore him and take a sip of water.

Mary Fay puts on her coat.

“You don’t have to take me to the airport,” my mother says. “I’ll get a Lyft.”

“Nonsense,” Mary Fay says, waving my mother’s suggestion aside. “How often do you head out to speak at your first big conference?” And then she gestures over at me. “Unless you don’t want Eve alone.”

“No, no, Eve is fine alone.”

I nod in agreement.

“It’s just that you’ve already come all the way out here.”

But now I don’t know what to do with my head when my mother mentions Mary Fay’s sacrifice in taking care of me.

“It’ll only take forty minutes. Thomas, do you mind hanging out until I get back?”

“No!” Both Thomas and I say it at the same time.

“Great,” Mary Fay says, not knowing how else to respond to our little chorus.

My mother reminds me to brush my hair and teeth as per Nancy’s instructions, making me feel like I’m four years old—and even younger when she kisses her hand and plants it on my forehead to say goodbye. The whole thing is made worse by Thomas standing ten feet away.

They head toward the door when my mother stops. “I almost forgot.” She expertly picks up my telescope and whisks it down the hall to my room. She’s back before I can get too uncomfortable trying not to make eye contact with Mary Fay or Thomas. “Good luck with school, honey,” she says.

My heart flutters. “Wait!” I shout.

Startled, my mother stops short in the doorway.

I don’t look up, yet I can completely feel Mary Fay and Thomas staring at me. Oh my god, I’m a fucking diva now. But she’s about to drive away, and, well, I know Minnesota isn’t disappearing. But what if it is? I took the Roxy—I’ve been taking it. And I don’t know the rules.

“Uh,” I say, out of breath. “Thanks, Mom.” Tears sting the corners of my eyes, sprung out of shame or fear, I’m not sure which. I totally blame Thomas-fucking-Aquinas.

“Oh, honey,” she says. “You’re welcome.”

I lie back on the couch, exhausted from the exchange, and after an awkward second, Mary Fay grabs her car keys and ushers my mother out ahead of her, calling back a “see you soon” and shutting the door behind them.

Did I think saying something would keep her here? No. I didn’t. I took the Roxy. Just like I took the hand.

I knew she’d go.

Who You Want Me to Be

IT’S NOW JUST ME AND THOMAS AQUINAS.

“Um,” I say. “I should go to bed.”

I pull off Mary Fay’s blanket.

Thomas moves uneasily, as if to help me from the couch.

“I got it,” I tell him.

I don’t feel so snarky anymore. I guess he doesn’t either.

He takes his time choosing a seat so as not to watch me logroll off the couch, finally settling into the gold armchair. I’m immediately reminded of Lidia in that very same chair. And I’m dizzy from the strangeness of it. That he is here. That she is not.

“You don’t have to stay,” I blurt. “I’m fine.”

“It’s no problema,” he jokes.

Seeing me cringe, he adds, “Truthfully, I really have