Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Tenna breathed down the line. Before she could rush forward, I asked about the girls, about Evan, about her life in Colorado. It has been just a little over a month now. It was still too early to tell how it would go, but she should definitely have an overall feeling about it now.
She started slow at first—leftover grog from being so abruptly awoken. But as she warmed up to talking, perhaps the strangeness allowed her to be more unfettered than during our weekly calls. Caught unaware, the pure Tenna came through the line, and for the first time in...her whole life, really, she sounded happy. Infectiously joyful, even.
"I started taking Stevie to the Pikes Peak Library for storytimes on Wednesday mornings," she gushed. "We get done, like, an hour before I have to go to the gym. I've been bringing Stevie along with me in the mornings while Rin's in school. I told you about working at their daycare, right? Well, actually, Ev gets off work around that time, so he picks her up at preschool, but he goes to bed pretty quickly after that. He tries to stay up until 1 so he can see Stevie Rae, but sometimes he can't help but fall asleep in the great chair hahaha. He tries so hard. Well, it's not so bad."
Then, the topic somehow veered to their sleeping arrangements. I wasn't sure I wanted to hear it, but I guess it was too late now, wasn't it?
"So, we actually have separate rooms," Tenn explained. I could just see her curling her long hair through her finger as she shifted the phone against her cheek. Background noise told me she'd gotten up, and so the sounds of a bear foraging through a forest created crackles and warped voices. It was actually really cute. "I don't know why we didn't try that before. We both need our own space, ya know? And so what? Sometimes, we're more romantic, and we stay together. Sometimes, we're just two people raising these kids. I don't—is that weird? Is that, like, too inconsistent for the girls?"
Coughing to clear my throat, I tried to get a word in, but she'd ventured off again.
"They do this whole family dinner thing on Sundays. It reminds me of when we were real little. You know? Before all the sports and drama club things, and it was impossible to get the four of us together? Ev's parents still do it. And there's no work talk, no politics talk. It's a rule. We just sit and eat a meal, chat about various things. I learned Walton—you've met Ev's dad before, right?—was a ballet dancer, then became a composer of ballet choreography and traveled with a nationally famous team. He's like a celebrity in certain places. I was at Benny's with him the other day trying to fix a flat tire without getting a new one, and, like, three of the guys who work there have daughters totally into ballet. They gave him a superhero's discount. I didn't know they could do that! They also plan picnics! And ski-trips! For twenty people!"
Tenna continued to chatter on excitedly, but I admit, I stopped paying attention to the details. She didn't sound forced or stressed. Getting away from our hometown was the best thing for her. And returning Evan to his was the best thing for him. From how it sounded, they were making things work. And Evan's family wasn't some overly patriarchal, domineering, stress-fest.
