Patience

6

The group follows the hostess to a table and Tori finds herself sitting next to Lori. Jessie and Mallory taking up the heads and Stevie and Karen across from them. Orders are quickly taken and Stevie's heart flutters when she and Tori order the same thing. Queso with flour chips. A chicken enchilada with queso smothered over it, black beans and Spanish rice. But the thing that makes both of them curious is the fact that they ordered the same Strawberry Margaritas. The whole table had margaritas but there was one lime, one watermelon, one raspberry, and one peach compared to the two Strawberries.

"Tori, would you just like to share the queso with me? I mean we're the only ones that ordered it." Stevie suggests as the waitress starts writing down Stevie's order. She was the last one to tell her order. 

"Sure, that's probably best," Tori says shakily.

"Alright sounds good." The waitress writes it down and walks away. 

"So um, Tori...tell us more about yourself," Lori demands. 

"There's not much to tell. I was born in Santa Monica, supposedly surrendered at a fire station. I started in the Los Angeles foster system, then I was transferred to Phoenix when I was three, lived there the longest. Ten years. Then when I was thirteen I was transferred to Dallas, then at fifteen Pensacola Florida, and I ended up going to Maine when I was seventeen. I graduated in Maine and then I lived in my car until I saved up enough money to go to a cosmetology school in New York where I met my husband. He was a construction worker. He built skyscrapers. Our marriage was happy and fine until his partner at work fell off the scaffolding and like died. He then started drinking heavily and started to take his anger out on me. Growing up in foster care you learn how to take care of yourselves and I hit him back but the last straw was when he pushed me down the stairs and I lost our baby. So I divorced him and I came back to find my birth parents." Tori shrugs.

"So have you had any luck?" Lori questions. 

"No, and about a month ago I got a letter from the hall of records. Because no last names are on my birth certificate they can't legally bind me to anyone so even if I had any records they wouldn't be able to give them to me because we can't prove that I'm anyone's child. I have a hunch though, but I don't want to say anything because it's stupid and it's probably just my wild imagination," Tori explains. 

"I want to hear it, maybe I can get Alec to pull some strings. He works in insurance. I know that's not helpful under any means but he has people that he can talk to about things like this." Jessie shrugs.

"No...I really don't." She shakes her head.

"She thinks Stevie Nicks is her mother." Mallory spits and Stevie's heart about leaps out of her chest. 

"MAL! How the fuck did you even know that?" Tori whispers harshly. 

"You may have mumbled it when you were drunk on red wine once." Mal shrugs. 

"Um, I think you should leave." Karen starts standing up from her seat and Stevie just puts her hand out to stop her. 

"Stevie she's probably a psychopath," Karen whispers not quite quiet enough. 

Tori hears it and the tears well up in her eyes as she pushes away from the table and grabs her stuff. She throws a twenty down on the table for her food and her margarita and starts running out of the restaurant. When she gets to her car she places her head and her hands against the top of the driver's side door and the tears stream down her face. She jumps a mile when she feels a hand on her bicep. 

"Hi honey, Stevie's distraught in there." It was Lori. 

"No, she's not, she's probably calling the cops," Tori whimpers. 

"No, she's crying Tori. Stevie um...oh, she's going to kill me for telling you this, She gave birth to a baby girl on September 16, 1993. Lindsey Buckingham was the father. It was a little girl and she gave her the name Tori Paige. They hadn't decided on if the last name was going to be Buckingham, Nicks, or Buckingham-Nicks. So they didn't file the birth certificate. They had a week from the date of birth to file it. Four days after she brought the baby home, Lindsey's girlfriend stuck her fake nose in it all, which I mean she had a right to do. Lindsey had cheated on her, but she said that Lindsey couldn't be that baby's parent. Stevie was too messed up on Klonopin to take care of a baby by herself, so she and Lindsey decided that the best course of action would be to put her up for adoption so she handed the baby over to Lindsey's assistant. Two months later Cheri and Lindsey broke up and when Stevie tried to get the baby back, she was just...gone." Lori rubs Tori's back. 

"It's probably just a stupid coincidence." Tori shakes her head. 

Lori purses her lips and then untucks the silver chain around the girl's neck. "I was with her the day that she bought this. I told her that she shouldn't get it engraved because they didn't know if you were a boy or a girl. But she told me that she knew it was a girl. Tori Paige is engraved on the back of this." Lori thumbs at the diamond. 

Tori stops and looks up at the redhead with wide puppy dog brown eyes. 

"You're my niece baby. She knew as soon as she saw you last night. She wanted to talk to you but when she knocked on your bedroom door you had already fallen asleep." Lori brushes a baby hair from her cheek. 

"I should still go." Tori shakes her head. 

"Well, I really hope you reconsider. Can I get your phone number or something for her to call you?" Lori scratches her back lightly.

"It's probably best if I didn't." Tori refuses.

"If you're sure you want to leave drive safe." Lori sighs dropping her hands. 

Tori goes to get into her car but then she stops and quickly wraps Lori in a hug before getting into her car and squealing out of the parking lot.