a place we know| ✓

thirty

Embarrassing was an understatement. This was shame and she couldn't avoid it much longer with those dark eyes watching, observing the rhythm of her breaths and listening to her hammering pulse. Her cheeks were washed pink, gaze cast low, voice lost in her throat.

"Gunner told me all about it when you left him behind," she continued. Audrey shifted towards the other end of the couch, the tension between them becoming too much to bear. "I know it must have hurt."

Audrey blushed invisibly as she turned her head aside. "He told you about what happened between Michael and I, didn't he? That he made me... do things so I wouldn't get evicted?"

The old woman nodded slowly. "He did, dear."

"And you hate me for it?"

Just like her mother and father did, her boyfriend and daughter, and even herself. Audrey Rahal was starting to despise her mere existence.

"I might be a little disappointed," she grasped Audrey's hand and squeezed it softly. "But never angry with you."

Disappointed. Everyone's disappointed.

"But why are you disappointed in me? Why not Michael?"

"Because I know how people are, Audrey. I know you could have tried a little harder to resist him."

"That's not fair though. I tried. I did. It's not my fault. I just... why did you even invite him here when you knew?"

"He's been helpful to me, Audrey. I didn't think the both of you had so much bad blood considering you accepted his offer."

That word struck a nerve in her body–it choked her, brought about unwanted tears because she didn't know how to stop disappointing people.

"My parents are disappointed in me, Mrs. Shapiro." Her eyes were silvery and wet, her face bleak. "They've felt that way since I told them about Leah."

"What happened, Audrey? Why're you keeping this all inside?" There was no smile on her lips as she let Audrey's hand fall to her lap.

"Because I met Gunner," she hadn't begun to sob, but the swelling sensation of her esophagus and blood pooling behind her cheeks said otherwise–her collapse was imminent.

"They never liked him from the start, but I loved him. Gunner made me see things differently. My parents were a bit suffocating so I never had the chance to experience anything myself. Being with him was an adventure."

"I suppose it was."

"I moved to Denver when I was a year into dating him. Turns out that I was pregnant before I moved away, and not long after we were expecting Leah." Audrey blushed. "So it really was an adventure."

"I'm glad you decided to keep Leah. She's grown on me. Such a wonderful little girl."

"I know I was young and people expected me to get rid of her, but I just couldn't. She was my baby. She was alive and growing inside me. Yes, I should have been more careful, but actions have consequences. I held myself accountable. My daughter wasn't an inconvenience or something I could throw away because I wasn't comfortable. Look at her now. She's so beautiful and sweet and kind and the most precious thing to me."

Mrs. Shapiro was as calm as the sea on a summer's eve, her eyes speaking for the kindness lurking within her soul. She looked like she...understood. There was no judgement there.

"Where did you two meet?"

"Central Park," she replied, staring at the opposite end of the room with a distant glaze in her eyes. "That was back when my family lived in New York."