Postgrad Partners

Mother and Daughter

"No idea," Tara shook her head, "Nora seemed okay when she left the office yesterday to pick Jade up from your place. You think something might have happened while they were together?"

"I'm not sure I wanna know," Tori reluctantly sat up again, starting to unbutton her pajama shirt, "Come on...we have to be at work by 9:00, and it's already 8:00."

Tara instinctively looked away as Tori was undressing, blushing as she threw on a casual outfit from her wardrobe, "Right...right...I'll just go check on Nora real quick!"

Nora leaned one hand against the railing of the balcony as she took a sip from her coffee cup in the other. She hoped the cream-filled burn against her throat would somehow cool her down, but to no avail.

Tara stood next to her, looking hesitant to speak at first until she downed some more of the liquid courage herself. "Hey...are you alright now?"

"God...I'm so sorry you had to see that, dear," Nora sighed and covered her forehead in shame, "I was just caught off guard when I saw them like that...and honestly, Jade didn't help matters by being...her."

"No, I guess not," Tara nervously shuffled her foot against the stony floor, "But, to be fair, you woke them up with a loud whistle..."

"Yes, I know...that was very immature of me," Nora shook her head regretfully, "I promise you, we're not always like this."

"So I heard...Tori said you two were getting better lately. What happened?"

"Well, I'm sure yesterday was a big part of it."

"Yeah, you left work early to pick her up and spend the day together. We thought you two had a good time, though."

"We did...at first..." Nora gave another deep sigh, taking a long sip of coffee before she continued to explain yesterday's events.

Yesterday...

Once she arrived outside the apartment, Nora sent a quick text to Jade to let her know. In no time at all, she came out, locked the front door, and ducked into the low, black coupe Nora had gotten used to driving now.

"Well...this feels weird," Jade muttered as she set her bag down at her feet.

"What? That we're alone together for the first time since we came to Miami?" Nora asked.

"No," Jade shook her head, "I'm just used to how much higher Tori's SUV is. You really like driving this?"

"I...it's a company car!" Nora let out a laugh, feeling the tension subside, "I didn't really have a say in it, but I could ask for something else if you want!"

"No, no, it's fine," Jade awkwardly waved her arms to dismiss the topic, "Let's just go get lunch already." With a reassured smile on her face, Nora put the car back in gear and started driving toward the restaurant district.

They quickly settled on a corner café, sitting together at an outside table with a sliced sub sandwich by Jade and a bowl of fresh fruit in front of Nora. If Tori had been there, she surely would have tried to capture the rare, civil moment between two West family members in a photo.

Jade sat quietly for a few minutes, her head resting in her hand as she looked out toward the coast. It wasn't until she heard a camera shutter that she turned back just in time to see her mother retracting her phone from a wide selfie shot.

"Delete that," she snapped automatically, not even asking to see the picture first.

"No," Nora smiled past her daughter's annoyed tone, "I think it actually looks nice." She turned her phone around, presenting the shot from a high angle of Nora with the most genuine smile Jade had ever seen in a photo of her. Even Jade's aside gaze at Nora's side showed a hint of a smile as well, despite being unaware of the picture being taken.