Chapter 3 - Go Ahead
Still, I invited them.
Because Theo asked.
Because Cody was eleven and not responsible for all his mother’s poison.
Or so I thought.
Drew arrived twenty minutes late in a royal-blue dress too formal for a children’s party, carrying no gift.
Cody came in wearing a yellow-and-white baseball jacket and sneakers that cost more than half the party rental.
Drew kissed the air near my cheek.
“This place is cute,” she said, making cute sound like cheap.
Theo ran up to Cody.
“Want to see the cake?”
Cody glanced at Drew.
She smiled.
“Sure, go see it.”
I should have noticed that smile.
Maybe I did.
But the party was moving.
Pizza boxes arrived.
Kids ran around the room.
The venue manager asked about candle timing.
A mother from Theo’s class complimented the cake.
Theo stood beside it every five minutes just to admire it.
Then Drew came up beside me near the gift table.
“You didn’t send Cody’s tuition payment yet.”
My body tightened.
“It’s not due until Friday.”
“They charge late if it doesn’t process.”
“It processes automatically.”
She looked at me.
“I need it early.”
“Why?”
Her eyes cooled.
“Because I’m his mother and I’m asking.”
“No.”
The word surprised both of us.
Drew blinked.
“What?”
“I said no. It goes when it goes.”
“You love control.”
“I love records.”
She laughed quietly.
“This is why people think you’re cold.”
I looked toward Theo.
He was laughing with two classmates, red jersey bright under the chandelier.
“I’m not doing this at his party.”
Drew’s voice lowered.
“Then maybe stop making everyone feel like charity cases.”
I looked back at her.
“Drew.”
“You think because you pay for things, you’re better than me.”
“No. I think because I pay for things, you should stop insulting me at my son’s birthday.”
Her mouth tightened.
“You always make yourself the victim.”
That was when Cody shouted from near the cake table, “Mom, now?”
I turned.
Drew’s face changed for half a second.
Then she smiled.
“Go ahead.”
Those two words rewrote everything.
Go ahead.
Not Cody being impulsive.
Not a child losing control.
Instruction.
Permission.
Reward.
Then he jumped.
Cake destroyed.
Theo humiliated.
Drew applauding.
A new iPhone promised like cruelty had prize tiers.
Now, after the phone notifications, Drew stared at me as though I had struck her.
“What did you stop?”
The room held its breath.
I stood slowly.
“The payments.”
Her lips parted.
“What payments?”
The absurdity almost made me laugh.
Everyone knew.
Not the details.
The shape.
Drew’s apartment that did not match her income.
Cody’s school.
Her car.
Her vacations posted under captions about “single mom magic.”
The designer sneakers.
The private baseball coach.
The phone she kept asking for before Christmas.
All funded quietly by the sister she mocked in public.
I said, “The ones you told yourself were yours.”
Drew stepped closer.
“Maggie, don’t be stupid.”
The venue manager shifted toward her.
“Ma’am.”
Drew ignored her.
“You can’t do that.”
“I just did.”
“Cody’s school—”
“You told him to jump into my son’s birthday cake for a phone.”
Her eyes darted toward the guests.
For the first time, she remembered they were there.
Her voice softened quickly.
“You’re misunderstanding. Cody was joking.”
Cody looked at her.
The room looked at Cody.
His jeans were smeared with frosting.
Fondant clung to his sneakers.
May you like
His baseball prop lay across the collapsed cake.
He was not laughing anymore.
