Spice

16 || Fenugreek

The next morning, the Bailey sisters took their parents out to a little hole in the wall restaurant for an all North American breakfast. This was partly Silver's hope of bribing her mother into giving up about the blind date by piling her plate high with crispy hash browns, and turkey bacon.

Mrs. Bailey tipped her nose up at her obvious intentions, but she still ate it. "I hope you don't think I'm so easily convinced. I just want what's best for you."

Silver's heart sank in her chest, but she still forced her cheeks up. "Mom, I'm not opposed to going on a blind date, but don't you think it's too soon?"

"Yeah, mom." Thenia chimed in with a smoothie straw lingering around her lips. "Look, tomorrow's my sister's wedding date. What would it look like if she immediately starts dating around?"

Miss Iceberg Bailey kicked her sister's shin under the table. "You don't need to be so helpful."

"You're so ungrateful. Look, this is the treatment I receive for my help." Thenia rolled her eyes. "Bitch."

Expertly ignoring her daughters' quibble, Mrs. Bailey began to compromise with her stubborn eldest daughter. "I'll give you six months. After six months, you should start looking for someone to settle down with."

Even though she was using the word 'should', Mrs. Bailey definitely did not mean it in the modal verb sense. She meant 'you have to.'

Still, Silver selectively chose to accept this condition, and take it at face value. As long as her mother stopped hounding her about marriage for the time being, she would jump into the fire pit.

After breakfast, the Bailey sisters separated from their parents to catch their flight back home.

Silver felt that her return to Toronto was like a new lease on her life. She had only been in her hometown for the weekend, but through that weekend, she had experienced such tense emotions that it made her shoulders cramp up.

Even though it was only one visit, it was enough to make her feel like there was something blocking one of her arteries. Even though the visit had ended on a somewhat positive note, she still felt distressed by the prospect of being thrown into another relationship when she still wasn't over her previous one.

For goodness sake, today was her supposed wedding day. Silver was sure that the man her mother had an eye on was a wonderful person, but what in the world was she doing by dating at this time?

The more she thought about it, the more stressed she felt. She nibbled on her bottom lip so much that it started bleeding. By the time she reached her apartment, her lip was somewhat swollen and red.

After putting her bag away and taking a shower, Silver walked around her apartment to check that everything was clean and proper, the way it was supposed to be. For the most part, everything remained unchanged, but when she reached a certain closet, and found her old camera, her expression became sullen.

It was broken.

The camera had been a gift from her dad for her twenty-first birthday, so it wasn't exactly new, but she took good care of her things, so it should definitely not have flatlined, either.

Like any person who took good care of their items, she had put the camera in its protective padded bag on a high shelf of her hallway closet. Unfortunately, later on, Victor, like the complete asshat he was, had decided to put a bowling ball on top of it.

To be precise, it was his custom, ten kilo bowling ball, which he did not remember to take with him when he'd unceremoniously cleaned himself out of her apartment.