“I can’t explain it Bri…I hated her two days ago…”
“This is so typical Frack. Why do you do this to yourself?”
“I dunno,” Nick said, taking a sip of his coffee and pushing the phone against his shoulder while he got up to rinse out his mug in the sink. “But I’ll tell you now…I think I really fell for this one.”
“Nick…I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but you always think that you ‘fell for this one’.”
“I’m serious now. I really think I did. I mean, we’ve already gone through hating each other…so it can’t go downhill, right?”
“You’d be surprised,” Brian said knowingly.
A sudden sound of a key in the lock caused Nick to chance subjects. He was just saying something stupid about the next album when Devyn walked in. “You on the phone again Carter?” she asked. “Jesus…”
“Is that the little love goddess now?” Brian asked, chuckling to himself.
“Shut up Bri,” Nick said through his teeth as Devyn grabbed an apple from the basket on the table and sat on the counter waiting to use the phone. “Okay, well, I’m gonna go. Talk to you soon.”
“Don’t get too eager there…”
“Fuck you,” Nick said laughing a bit. “I’ll call you next week." Nick hung up the phone.
“C’mon Carter. You talk on the phone more than I do…If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that you were female..” Devyn said, hopping off the counter and grabbing the phone from Nick. “Oh, that’s a sick thought,” she continued, dialing the number to her social worker for her monthly check in meeting. “Hey Kasey.”
“Devyn! How are you?” Kasey Klein, a 55-year-old social worker, exclaimed on the other end of the line. “It’s been a long time.”
“A month last week. Sorry I didn’t call sooner. It’s been kinda busy with college and all. Um…listen…the agency called yesterday. They said something about a lead on the search for my…” Devyn hesitated as she looked around for Nick. Once she was satisfied that he was out of earshot, she continued. “For my birth mother. Have you heard anything?”
“Devyn, they faxed me the file this morning but it turned up nothing. The woman on the record has a dissimilar blood patterning that can not compute with yours. I’m sorry darlin’’”
Devyn had grown fond of Kacey’s old southern drawl over the past 10 years when the two first met after Devyn’s seventh attempt at foster care. “It’s all right. Better luck next time, right?” Devyn could feel the tears burning the back of her eyes. She had hoped so hard that this call would be the one…it turned up nothing.
“Right,” Kacey announced. “Listen Dev, I’ll be in the area on the 12th. How about you and I do some catching up?”
“I’d love to. Just call when you get in.”
“I’ll do that. Bye Devyn.”
Devyn swallowed hard trying to cover the fact that she was moments from bursting into tears. Why did this always happen? Just when I think that I might have found my damn birth mom, it always turns to be a dead end.”
“Hey Dev, you all right?” Nick asked.
Devyn shook her head. “Yeah, fine,” she mumbled wiping a tear from her eye and sidestepping Nick while quickly walking towards her room. She shut the door and sat against it feeling so helpless that she couldn’t stand it…she rested her head on her knees and began to cry so hard that her body shook. She shuddered as Nick pounded on the door. Finally, she mustered up enough strength to choke out a clear, “what do you want?”
“Devyn, are you sure that you are okay?” Nick said, worried.
“I told you before!” Devyn yelled. “I’m…fi...” Sobs engulfed her before she could finish her sentence. Devyn’s vision became so blurry that she didn’t even see Nick push the door open from behind her and scoop her up in his arms. Once Devyn finally comprehended what was going on, she silently punished herself for being weak around Nick but surrendered as he lovingly soothed her.
“Jeez, you guys are a little quiet,” Mike said as he shoveled some chicken salad into his mouth. “Everything okay.”
Nick and Devyn answered at the same time: “Yeah” “Fine.”
“Okay…” Mike sighed. He quickly finished his dinner and left the table to escape from the awkwardness leaving Nick and Devyn sitting in complete silence.
Finally, Nick broke in: “So two hours ago you opened up to me completely and now you won’t even talk to me? What the hell?”
“I’d rather talk to this food,” Devyn said stirring her chicken salad with her fork.
“Fine…me too…” Nick said without thinking. At that, he grabbed a carrot from his plate and asked it how it was doing. Before he knew it, Devyn was cracking up and finally burst into full-blown laughter. “Okay…” Nick rolled his eyes. “You can stop laughing anytime now…” Devyn continued laughing as though she hadn’t in a long time. “I hope you swallow your tongue,” Nick said curtly.
“Even that wouldn’t stop you from making dumbass comments,” Devyn said, finally calming down and wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.
“Actually, technically, it would,” Nick said very matter-of-factly.
“Yeah…and…” Devyn said, picking up her plate and taking it to the sink.
“Nothing,” Nick sulked. “Nothing at all…”
Chapter Eleven
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