Actually, it had been years since Betty had seen her cousin. The perfect cousin. The one who was a cheerleader all four years of high school. The one who dated the quarterback. The one who managed to marry into a rich family and never went to college.
"You mean, you're broke now?" Betty didn't want to be any help to her. So Linda's perfect marriage was loveless now. Her son was a lawyer and had moved to New York City. He wouldn't have anything to do with her.
Sure, Linda told her first thing all the things Betty was doing wrong. It was the same old thing. Oh, she could do better. Why wasn't she?
But Betty's home was paid for. She had the same job over thirty years. Something had to be going right. Evidently. Betty kept her mouth tight. It was so hard not letting her cousin get the best of her. She'd always been in Linda's shadow. Now it was different. And Linda didn't like it. She didn't like Ed. She thought Betty was crazy for wanting to adopt Ollie.
Betty could barely hear herself think, but she went on with her daily chores. She slept with Ed. Suddenly, she realized she was smiling like he was. And it felt good to be happy, after all this time.
"Well, maybe you need to just down-size." Really, Betty couldn't help Linda with her problems. Not once had Linda helped her with any of her struggles in the past. Not that she'd asked anything of the relative she grew up with. Linda could always go home to her mother.
Still, she could see Linda hated to return to the place she grew up. Still, Betty didn't let her stay. After all, Betty had a full house. Linda wasn't fond of the noise and no one to wait on her. At least, she left on her own.
No comments:
Post a Comment