Leah could hear her huff, but her words had the desired effect. “Good morning, Leah,” she responded so stiffly that Leah had to bite back her laugh. “How are you?”
She was definitely choking on those words, Leah mused. Her husband Bob might need to resuscitate her before this call was over.
I hope he knows the Heimlich. I can picture her gasping for oxygen as Bob struggles to wrap his arms around her large frame.
Leah could no longer contain her laughter as images of Bob desperately trying to save Rose from choking on her own false words.
“Is something funny, Leah?”
Oops. I guess I was laughing out loud
. Leah needed a laugh. There hadn’t been much to enjoy this last, lonely week without Alex.
“Sorry Rose. I’m just a little distracted.”
“Well. I was looking for Alex. I’ve left numerous messages on his cellphone, but he has not returned my calls. I am worried about my son. Do you know where he is? Have you called the police? Have you searched for him or is he all alone out there with no one to help him?”
Leah’s frustration was increasing by the minute, but she took several deep, calming breaths. Rose was frazzled and panicking. Of course she would assume the worst. As tempting as it would be to bark at her in return or reply sarcastically to her blatant insults. Leah decided to be the adult in this conversation.
“Rose, Alex is fine,” Leah tried to assure her. “He is safe and I pray getting the help he needs.”
“What does that mean? Where is my son? What have you done to him?”
The accusation in her voice really irked Leah’s nerves, but she kept her composure. After all, this was her future mother-in-law and she would have to figure out a way to deal with her for Alex’s sake. For as big of a pain in the neck she was, Alex loved her. She was truly his mom in all ways except blood.
“Rose, I haven’t done anything to Alex. He admitted himself into rehab,” Leah explained proudly. She was so proud of him for getting help on his own.
Rose was so eerily quiet that Leah started to get nervous, but she finally spoke up. “Rehab? That’s amazing. I never thought he would go.”
“I didn’t either,” Leah admitted, “but he came to this decision on his own. He knows he needs help and he is finally taking some action. I can’t tell you how happy I am for him.”
“How long has he been gone? How long will he be there? Can I go see him?”
“He left a week ago. It’s a thirty-day program. He is not supposed to have contact with anyone outside the facility for the entire time. You won’t be able to see him or talk to him. I can’t either. I just have to wait and hope that when he is released, he will be healed or at least on a path to healing.”
“I hope you’re right.” Suddenly, Rose ended the call abruptly, probably too shocked to talk further.
Leah couldn’t pretend to be sorry that call was over. She knew Rose loved Alex and she wanted what was best for him. She just wished she wouldn’t see her as the enemy. Alex was her heart. Leah would never intentionally do anything to hurt him. Rose didn’t know half the drama that she and Alex had endured. She couldn’t appreciate how much they had meant to each other for all these years.
Everyone had expected their relationship to fall apart as they grew older. As if they would realize one day that their feelings for each other were just a product of their youth. One day they would meet other people and move on from this lingering infatuation. Yet, year after year, Alex and Leah remained inseparable throughout elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school, and now college. Leah’s feelings had never waned despite all the obstacles they faced. They had grown stronger each year. She couldn’t imagine her life without Alex, but she feared she would have to face that reality sooner rather than later if he could not beat this addiction. It would kill him like it had so many others. Like it killed her beloved Uncle Eddie.
Uncle Eddie meant the world to Leah as a child. The best part of holidays was Uncle Eddie’s visits. He would stroll into the house and lift Leah in his arms, spinning her around until she was dizzy with delight. He would play games with her for hours, and for that time she was the center of his world. Unlike her parents, he saw her. Her really saw her for who she was and loved her for it. He never ignored her. He never neglected her. He always just loved Leah and she adored him just as much.
Everything thing changed when she was nine years old. Uncle Eddie had dressed up as Santa Claus, but it was Thanksgiving. Her mother had been outraged at her brother’s behavior, but Leah and Tristan were thrilled at their uncle’s antics. He had been such a clown, bringing laughter and love in a house unfamiliar with such emotions.
That evening, Uncle Eddie and Leah’s mother got into a nasty fight. It wasn’t unusual. Every time he came over it ended up in a shouting match. Leah was too young to understand the anger between brother and sister at the time, but as she got older she realized the source of the feuding was Uncle Eddie’s addiction to alcohol and crystal meth. Uncle Eddie had lost his job on the police force. His once promising career ended in shame as he was unceremoniously kicked out of the force. His wife Linda left him and took their three daughters away. He never saw them again.
Leah wished she’d been mature enough to understand how much that loss pained him. Uncle Eddie had adored his kids. The separation was unbearable, and his way of coping sent him further into the drug abyss.
She’d been too young to realize his problems, but now she understood. Living with an addict had opened her eyes to a pain her childhood innocence could never contemplate.
Leah had seen only the good in her uncle. The fun and excitement he brought into her stale and empty home. But hidden behind his smile was a deep, lingering agony and loneliness that was eating away at him, killing him slowly each day. Her failure to see had always haunted Leah. Her blindness to his pain because of her selfish enjoyment of the bliss her uncle brought to her life was a crime she could not forgive herself for.
That unforgettable night, Uncle Eddie and her mother argued so furiously at one another for hours and then suddenly until there was an abrupt silence.
Uncle Eddie returned to the living room where Leah had waited for him. He lifted her into his arms and sat her on the couch next to him. “It’s time for me to leave, baby girl.” Leah started to cry and Uncle Eddie stood up and walked over to the bar. He grabbed a bottle of whisky, drank some, and put the rest of the bottle in his jacket as he headed for the front door.
Leah ran up to him and clutched his leg, trying to prevent him to leave. “Please take me with you, Uncle Eddie. Take me and Alex to your home,” she begged.
Leah knew no one would miss either one of them. They were both already forgotten by their families. Just extra burdens that they had to bear. She knew it would have been different with Uncle Eddie. She could be happy. They both could be.
Uncle Eddie knelt down in front of Leah and pinched her plump cheeks. Even as a child, Leah could see the hurt in his glassy eyes. “I wish I could keep you, squirt,” he told Leah, “but I would just destroy us both. I’m not well and I’ll just make you sick too.”
Not understanding what was wrong with him, Leah tried to convince him that she and Alex could take care of him. They could help him get better. “I’ll make you chicken soup and tea so you will get better,” Leah promised him. “I’ll read you stories and make you cards. I can take care of you, Uncle Eddie.”
Uncle Eddie hugged her tightly. “I love you, squirt. So much that I won’t allow myself to destroy you. If you really want to help me, then take care of yourself. Grow up and be the successful woman you were born to be and don’t let anyone stop you from being the best. Make me proud, my Leah. Make me proud. I will always be watching you and looking out for you to make sure you are being the woman I know you were born to be.”
Leah sat up in her bed, closing her eyes as if trying to block out the painful memories. That was the first and only time she had ever seen her Uncle Eddie cry. It was also the last time she’d seen her Uncle Eddie. The next morning during breakfast, her mother got a call that Uncle Eddie had overdosed.
Leah could never forget the cold look on her mother’s face as she returned to the breakfast table and announced that her brother was dead. Leah could never forget her words. “Well, he got what he deserved,” her mother icily explained. “He chose that hell over his family. At least now he won’t take us with him.” She sat there and calmly resumed eating her eggs benedict while Leah sat there weeping at the loss of the one person in her family who loved her.
Leah still cried for the uncle she lost too soon, and most nights she sat in her apartment crying for the man she feared she would lose in a similar way. She was helpless to stop Uncle Eddie and she felt just as helpless to stop Alex from destroying himself. The life Uncle Eddie tried to spare her was, ironically, the life she was leading today.
Leah knew she needed to focus on the present and to stop dwelling on the things she was powerless to change. It was time for her to get her life in order. Alex was safe in rehab, hopefully healing himself, so she would take this time apart to work on herself—and that meant her job.
She dragged herself out of bed and prepared a steaming cup of hot jasmine tea to calm her nerves. The memories of Uncle Eddie were too painful to resurrect. She had to maintain her focus. Her job was the best diversion for her.
Even though today was Saturday and her day off, Marcus had asked if she could come to the office. He wanted to discuss the article she wrote for the blog focusing on teens and drugs. Although she was happy to be going to work, she was also wary of the inevitable confrontation she would have with Marcus about her first article.
Leah knew this conversation was coming. She thought it would have happened much sooner when she first submitted her draft. It was not the type of story her editor wanted, but it was the only type of story her heart could write.
The article was supposed to be posted tomorrow, so she assumed Marcus would have ripped it apart before now. She felt too passionate about this subject to just let it go. She was determined to fight for this story. She would just have to find a way to convince Marcus to take a chance on her, which was a lot to ask considering she was fresh out of college, had minimal experience, and had been working for him for barely a week. She did have some experience with her college paper and had interned at some of the best magazines in the city. She would have to convince Marcus that she knew what she was doing. This may not be the topic he wanted, but it was the topic she believed they needed to publish.
She would make that argument to him. “I’m good at this. I’m good at journalism. I want to write stories that matter. Not fluff pieces about Lindsay Lohan’s latest drug bust or, even worse, the adventures of Snooki and the Jersey Shore band of fools. I don’t want to waste time on tabloid fodder. I want to make a difference.” That was the speech she rehearsed during her breakfast that she would deliver to Marcus if and when he protested her article. Leah knew this was a fight worth fighting. She wanted to help people. She needed to help others before they ended up in a quandary like the one that had been drowning her for years. She had never taken an illegal drug in her life, and yet drugs consumed every moment of it. She knew there were many others suffering the same way. If she could reach just one, at least she could feel this pain was worth something.
Leah jumped into the steaming shower, easing the last of her nerves. By the time she left her apartment, she found her courage and her stubbornness.
It was still early, but she wanted to get to the office and take some time to prepare for her debate with Marcus. A good debate was just what she needed thanks to Rose’s aggravating early-morning wake-up call. It fueled her, and now she was ready to soar.
Leah arrived at the office just before nine. Not as many folks worked the weekend shift, but there were still a fair amount of people hustling about to get the weekend editions prepared. To her surprise, Marcus was already in the office typing away on his laptop. His hair was disheveled, as if he had been running his fingers through it repeatedly. He seemed to do that a lot when he was concentrating. It made him seem so normal. He worried, just like the rest of them. He was eager to prove himself as well. That was why Leah could relate to him. Everyone could. He might be the boss, but he was just like them in so many ways and he never held himself apart from the rest.
Leah wasn’t ready to see him just yet, though. Her superwoman confidence abruptly faded as soon as she entered the office. She needed to rediscover that bravery before discussing the article.
She tried to avoid him, but he saw her immediately and motioned for her to come into his office.
There goes my debate prep time
she lamented as she walked over to this office.
He was wearing glasses, rather thick-rimmed black glasses. They made him look kind of nerdy, but in a very charming way. They certainly did not detract from his handsomeness, but they made him seem more real and less perfect.
“You’re staring,” he commented, causing Leah to blush. “It’s the glasses, right?” Leah nodded and he started to laugh. “Yeah, I expected that. My eyes were too irritated for contacts this morning so I had to whip out my horrifying geek specs. These are an old pair. I accidentally sat on my new pair so I am stuck with my Urkel lenses. Try to contain your laughter. There are some things we should discuss, and I don’t want you mocking me the whole time.”
Just like that, Leah felt at ease again. She sat in one of the leather chairs on the other side of his desk. She was trying hard not to laugh. Marcus was her boss, and mocking his appearance would not be a good career move—but damn, this was really hard. Usually the best way to deal with a problem was to face it head on, but if she looked at him for too long, she would succumb to a fit of giggles and possibly an all-out laughing attack. Her emotions were all over the place, so who knew how bad her reaction would be. She would just stick with avoidance and not look him in the eye. That would be the safer approach.