Side by side

2

"Have you found an apartment yet?" Sam asks me as I sit on the computer reading all the files that Jimmy sent me through.

"I've called on 3 apartments and I'm just waiting for them to call me back." I say still with my eyes on the screen.

"You have to tell your mom soon." Sam says. It's been 5 days since my job interview with Jimmy and I haven't told my mom yet. I know she's gonna be very sad and angry because we're a very small family so she thinks that we should stick together.

"I will." I say still not looking at him.

"What are you gonna do about Tyler?" Sam says which makes me look at him now. "You have to hire a nanny or something."

"One thing at the time Sam. I need a place to live first." I say.

"Are you gonna hire a nanny?" He asks.

"Yes." I say. I've never had a nanny to watch Tyler, me and Kyle got my mom to watch him as she loves that so much. She's never bothered to be his nanny so it's gonna be very weird and also a little scary to have a stranger to watch my boy.

"Jenny.."

"Don't." I cut him off because I already know that he's gonna talk me into staying once again.

"You're taking him away from everything that he knows." Sam says.

"This place only reminds him of his dad."

"What about me and your mom? We're so close with Tyler. How do you think that he'll feel when you take us away from him?"

"You could move with us." I say. I don't even think it through before it comes out of my mouth but I have to admit that it's not a bad idea. We are a little family and we are only us, so why not start up somewhere new? "You have nothing here anyways."

"I have my job." Sam frowns.

"There's work in Detroit." I say.

"Are you even considering what city you're trying to convince me into moving to?" He asks referring to the high criminality.

"Oh shut up with that nonsense Sam. We live in Chicago, like it's better." I roll my eyes.

"Okay.. You can maybe convince me but it's gonna be a lot harder with your mother." Sam says. Sam is right; my mom doesn't wanna leave Chicago, she's always lived in Chicago and she's never gonna give me her blessing to move from here. It would be nice if my mom and Sam would come with me to Detroit because I could really need their support and it'll also be good for Tyler.

...

Last night I got a call back from one of the apartments so now I have a apartment to move into. 3 bedrooms, a big living room and a really nice kitchen that I can move into next week, it's perfect because then I have a week before I start my new job at Shady Records. It'll give me enough time to find and nanny if my mom doesn't wanna come with us and it'll also give me enough time to help Tyler cope with all this which is gonna happen around him. I haven't told Tyler or my mom yet because I wanted to be really sure that it was gonna happen all this.

"Tyler?" I try to get Tyler's attention as he's drawing. Tyler looks up at me from his drawing, I have his attention. "Mommy has to talk to you about something." I sit down next to him and Tyler puts his pen down understanding that this is important. "Mommy got a new job which means that we have to move."

"Move?" Tyler asks and I can see the confusion on his face. "Where?"

"To Michigan." I say.

"How far away is that? Can I still see Uncle Sam everyday?" He asks. Even though that Sam is my uncle then Tyler also calls him uncle.