Best Friends...Forever? Read Free Page A

us chewing and Grandma clearing her throat. Finally, Grandma asked my mom a question about work. Mom's mouth was full, and she awkwardly chewed fast and tried to swallow to answer.
    "Fine, going well. Got two new accounts I'm head of, so moving up in the company," she said.
    "Mmmm," Grandma said with her lips set in a straight line. She hated the fact that my parents weren't living under the same roof, but it wasn't anyone's fault. My mom had gotten the job in Grand Rapids, and my dad had it set up to transfer to a clinic there, but it fell through at the last minute, so he stayed behind in Chicago. He was supposed to be looking for something in Michigan, but so far nothing. I hated living apart from my dad — and to be honest, since the move, my parents fought a lot over the phone and during visits. They weren't separated or anything, but I worried about that. I mean, it had been two years of us living apart, and Mom was talking about another job transfer.
    "Almost finished, dear?" Grandma asked as I took the last bite of my sandwich. I nodded, but I was still hungry. Grandma had somehow found the smallest slices of bread and lunchmeat ever. I couldn't wait to get to my other grandparents' house the next day. Grandma Dombrowski didn't know the meaning of "small portions," and she was an amazing cook.
    I took my plate back to the kitchen, and Mom followed me. "Still hungry?" she asked. I nodded. She said there was a protein bar in her purse we could split. We went into the back bedroom with the coats, and she broke it in half.
    "I think I have a chocolate bar in my bag," I said. "Oh, jackpot! I have two. Do you want with caramel or plain?"
    "Plain. Ooh, I have mints. It truly is a magical day."
    "Ladies, what's taking so long?" Grandma called from the hallway.
    "I want to finish my candy bar. Please, can I say I have diarrhea or something to buy some time?" I said to Mom.
    "I'm sure that word has never been spoken in this house. Do you know, when she potty trained your father she referred to it as, 'a mess,' or, 'number two,' because any other terms were too 'unseemly' for her?"
    "How did that ever come up?" I asked. Was that what people talked about when they got married? Gross! I couldn't imagine saying anything like that in front of Vladi. At most, I could probably get "I need to use the bathroom" out, but nothing more. No, I'd lie and say I had to comb my hair or something before I'd ever use a word like "diarrhea" in front of him.
    "Your dad and I were on a date, and I said I 'had to pee,' and he stared at me like I was a heathen. Then he told me that his mother hated those kinds of words. If I didn't think it'd reflect badly on me, I'd give you a raise in your allowance if you told her you needed to wee."
    "I'd do it, too."
    We went back into the living room where Grandma was lecturing Lucy about playing on her phone.
    "There now, the girls are finally back. Let's open the gifts," she said.
    Grandma always gave Lucy, Bryan, and me money for Christmas. Every year she passed out little red envelopes and, after we'd all seen the amount, swooped down and took the checks back to put in the bank. At least that was what she said she did with them. For all I knew, she might have been planning to buy a vacation home in Capri. I knew she meant well, but it wasn't too exciting to open a card and then have it taken away. When I was little, I used to at least get a toy, too, but that ended at age eleven. Apparently that was adulthood in Grandma's eyes.
    As Grandma went around collecting our envelopes, she put another small one in my hand and winked. "Shh. Open it later."
    I waited until everyone seemed preoccupied and then went to the bathroom to see what she had given me. Inside the tiny green envelope was a twenty-five-dollar gift card for a bookstore. Grandma rocked. She had written on the card, "For my writer/reader. Keep up the good work. – Grandma."
    Leaving the bathroom, I went into her office, found a piece of paper