Inez looked at Claire over the pile of donated clothing on the kitchen table.
Claire was busy inhaling yet another slice of pizza. Her mouth full, she pointed at the last breadstick and asked Inez. "You gonna eat that?"
"No, please, help yourself," Inez waved at the demolished cardboard box that had earlier contained their shared dinner.
"I've been real hungry lately," Claire sprayed crumbs as she crammed the breadstick into her mouth.
"You sure you don't want just one tiny sip? Une poquito?" Inez asked, holding up her glass of red wine.
"No, I'm...I'm driving," Claire sounded disappointed.
"I guess it took that third kid to make you responsible," Inez teased.
Claire rolled her eyes and chewed her breadstick.
Inez finished her wine and returned to sorting clothes for the consignment shop, her usual Saturday night activity (when Andersen was unavailable, anyways.) Normally Inez sorted donations and watched the latest Netflix K-drama, but tonight she had her oldest childhood friend with her.
And Claire hated K-dramas.
"Predictable, good-girl-loves-bad-boy bullshit," Claire always said.
"So Tamra and Darius are coming with us tomorrow?" Inez asked as she folded a sweater, blue, mens' large.
Inez was genuinely surprised that Claire had been so open to additional passengers for their Richmond trip with Anita.
"They offered to pay for gas," Claire shrugged.
Inez inspected a child's sock and its sister for holes. Her eyes slid from the pattern of Disney princesses dancing along the Lacey cuffs of the pink socks to Claire's face, which had a disgruntled, faraway look to it.
Inez wondered if this was the moment to share, to let Claire know about Inez's...relationship with Andersen.
Claire wasn't overly protective of any of her brothers, Inez reflected. In fact, sometimes Inez thought Claire actively hated JJ, who was closest to both she and Claire in age. JJ and Claire were the very definition of Irish twins, pathos included. But...
If Claire had a favorite brother, it was her youngest, Andersen O'Malley.
When Andersen had first been sent home in a stretcher from some desert in the Middle East, officially and honorably discharged from active duty with part of his leg missing, Claire had been more scared than Inez had ever seen her. Claire had almost attacked the poor soldier standing sentry at the military hospital when the sentry'd suggested that they speak to the doctor before seeing Andersen.
"To get an idea of damage," the Private had explained.
"I'll show you damage, fuckwit!" Claire had launched herself at the man, and it had taken Inez, Andersen, Liam, Vikram, and even Claire's dad to pull her off the soldier.
Inez chuckled.
"What?" Claire spit crumbs on the table when she spoke.
"Nothing," Inez gave Claire a fond smile.
Claire frowned. She lowered her gaze and scanned the pile of clothes. "Can I have some of these if they fit my kids? For free?"
"Sure," Inez nodded.
Claire began to comb through the donations, examining each item of interest with a practiced eye and muttering to herself. "This is designer...it might fit Ben next year...Charlie can wear this...Grace would never wear this, even if it is good quality..."
Inez bit her lip and watched Claire. It had been a nice evening so far, especially since Claire didn't have the kids with her. Inez and Claire had actually shared pizza and conversation, something that hadn't really been possible since Claire had first given birth to Grace. It wasn't that they hadn't hung out since Claire had become a mom, it was just that every time they had time together, Claire's attention had been divided — between Inez and one or more of Claire's children.
"This is like high school, isn't it?" Claire observed.
Inez grinned. "Exactly what I was thinking. Back when I started volunteering at the Faith Brigade."
"Only it wasn't the Faith Brigade's thing then. It was your idea on their behalf, collecting old clothes and redistributing them," Claire pointed out.
"And I roped you into helping me," Inez said.
"Anything to get away from my mother. Not an issue anymore, I guess," Claire said.
They were both quiet.
"Do you want to talk about the funeral—" Inez began.
"No," Claire was firm.
"Okay," Inez knew better than to argue.
Claire went back to scrutinizing a new pile of donated clothes for bargains.
Inez bit her lip again. She was still wondering if she and Claire were both older and wiser, or at least, wise enough, to discuss Andersen and what he meant.
What did Andersen mean? Inez mused silently as she folded another shirt, a white silk blouse this time, woman's medium. Andersen is probably my greatest, possibly my last, real romance. He told me he wants us to grow old - well, older - together. That would be...
"Comfortable?" Claire asked, skeptically holding up a soft yellow sweater.
Inez nodded, "Seems like."
Maybe now's the moment, Inez thought, with Claire subdued and with just the two of them just hanging out, sorting clothes like they had —what was it now — more than twenty years ago? Maybe now's the moment to look Claire in the eye and just say it, just tell her that Andersen and me, well, it's just —
"Garbage!" Claire dumped an armload of clothes into an empty box labeled 'trash.' To emphasize her disgust, Claire pulled a pale blue t-shirt that read 'GRITS - Girl Raised in the South' out of the box to wipe some tomato sauce off her chin before she chucked it back into the box. "Do people seriously think you want this crap?"
Inez sighed. "I think people feel bad throwing stuff out, so they put it in our donations boxes instead. But yeah, then we have to throw it out...though I try to up-cycle what I can." Inez gestured at the rag rug on the floor, made out of the leftover threads of some of the old clothes not fit for the consignment store.
Claire made a face at the rag rug. "I know. You give us one every Christmas."
"Yes, and then you re-gift it to your mother-in-law." Inez matched another pair of socks (men's, green nylon) and tossed it at Claire's head.
Claire dodged the sock ball. "Well, she's always going on about how I'm not thrifty enough. Besides.." Claire sighed, "Vikram always gets her a nice weekend at a spa or something."
"Oh that's very kind of him," Inez fired a torn FUBU t-shirt into the trash box.
"Yeah, he's a peach," Claire grimaced.
"Aww, no spa for you?" Inez recognized.
"No money for it," Claire flung another GRITS t-shirt into the box.
"That one looks all right," Inez remarked.
Claire bared her teeth at Inez. "There was a stain."
"Okay, fine," Inez held her hands up, palms forward.
Claire bent back over her pile.
Suddenly, Inez realized something. "Wait...is that your mom's stuff?"
Claire let out a long exhale and used her arm to swipe the entire pile into the trash box. "Saint Anita saved everything. She asked me if I wanted to keep it, said she'd told JJ it was mine, not his or the others. Said she'd already washed everything for me. Saint Anita's so...so..."
Claire searched for a word.
"Considerate?" Inez suggested.
Claire cast an irate glance at Inez.
Inez grinned.
Claire kicked the trash box. "Sentimental."
Inez focused on finding another sock its match (men's, black nylon.)
Claire stood up and began to pace. "I mean, d'you know Saint Anita has a napkin from her first date with JJ? She has a bunch of dried petals from the first bouquet he bought her —my brother bought her more than one bouquet, can you believe it?"
"JJ can be very sweet when motivated. I'm sure that's true for all your brothers," Inez said carefully. After all, Andersen bought Inez flowers at least once every few months.
"Pshhaww," Claire snorted.
"JJ's not the horn dog he was way back when," Inez insisted. "He's grown up. He's got...gravitas."
Claire made another rude noise.
"I'm serious. I chatted with Anita the last time I got my teeth cleaned. She was my dental hygienist. Do you know, for example, that JJ has given up alcohol?" Inez asked.
"He's gone Baptist, the traitor," Claire huffed.
"No, he's not gone that far. Anita can't get him to go to church, she said. She said JJ told her that he'd had enough with alcohol, religion, and any other addiction except coffee," Inez smiled at the memory.
Anita had been amusingly exasperated when sharing this little nugget with Inez, who had been unable to really speak or react as her mouth was wide open for Anita's inspection.
"He told me you dated him way back when — did he go to church with you?" Anita had asked.
Whatever answer Inez might have given was discarded when Anita located a cavity, sending Inez into a painful downward spiral for both her mouth and her wallet. Inez hadn't yet worked her way out of the second hole.
"Can you imagine what kind of mom Saint Anita'll be? She'll force her kid to go to church, she'll teach 'em manners, she'll save all the kid's little 'art projects,' " Claire layered the phrase 'art projects' with strong sarcasm.
"That sounds sweet," Inez countered.
Claire paused in her pacing to glare at Inez. "Sweet?! Do you know how many extra rooms I'd need if I just kept Grace's art projects? Forget Benny and Charlie! The amount of trash that girl 'up-cycles' is insane! Speaks to the public school's budget, I guess. They can only afford to shop at the dump." Claire tilted her head thoughtfully.
"I'll ignore that jab at my Christmas traditions. As for Grace, I have some nice ash trays she gave me. I use them to hold my jewelry," Inez defended her godchild.
"I used to just photograph everything and then throw it out. Now I don't even do that - we can't afford the digital space required for our kids," Claire fell back into her chair with an exaggerated sigh.
"You make motherhood sound so enviable," Inez said with a chuckle.
Claire blew a raspberry and tilted her chair back, staring at the ceiling.
Inez sorted four more shirts (yellow, blue, blue, plaid, all men's large) before asking tentatively. "D'you think it'll work this time?"
Claire immediately knew that Inez was referring to Anita's current round of IVF. Claire tsked, "It had better. I don't think JJ can afford to do it again. And Anita's not as young as she was when they started it all."
"Is he just funding a fantasy?" Inez wondered aloud, and then worried that she should have kept her question to herself.
"Maybe. I wish Anita would consider adoption or something, but she really wants a kid that's hers. JJ thinks it's cuz she doesn't know anything about her birth parents 'cept they're in Korea and they couldn't keep her," Claire twisted a dry strand of her hair. "Oh great, another gray hair! Should I start coloring it? "
"If you want." Inez examined a pair of children's shoes - hardly worn. The consignment shop collected a lot of kids' shoes because, Inez assumed, kids grew so fast.
"I used to dye my hair all the time as a teenager, but now...the idea exhausts me. I just don't have the energy...maybe I'm menopausal..." Claire pulled at the hair.
Slipping the almost pristine pair of Paw Patrol sneakers into the box of acceptable donations, Inez chuckled, "You're a bit young for menopause, I'd imagine."
"You think?" Claire didn't seem happy to hear this.
Inez changed the subject. "How was this afternoon? After lunch? You get everything on your list done?"
Claire sniffed. "Hardly. The boys were no help. Darius was glued to his phone - he's obsessed with some girl. Liam and Andersen kept wrestling - they broke like three plates and a picture frame! JJ had to leave early - of course."
"The jerk," Inez decided it was prudent at this moment to support her friend.
Claire suddenly sat up straight. "Do you know Vikram wants Mohini to move in with us? He says it'll be good for me."
"Your mother-in-law? Is Vikram insane?" Inez wrinkled her forehead. Claire and her mother-in-law in the same house sounded stressful, even for a semi-regular stoner like Vikram.
Claire chewed the inside of her cheek. "No, he's worried. He thinks she shouldn't live by herself and that we could use the help. She could help with the kids — I mean she sort of does already..."
Inez kept her face neutral. That was the most decent compliment she'd ever heard Claire pay her mother-in-law Mohini out loud. "Well, if you wanted, you could try it. Invite her to stay with you during a vacation or something."
Claire glowered at Inez. "Invite Mohini to watch me parent full-time? Are you insane?"
Inez opened her mouth and closed it. This was not a winnable discussion. "What do you want to do, Claire?"
Claire peered down and rubbed her stomach. "I wish I knew."
Inez pursed her lips, confused. "Wait, what are we talking about? Is Mohini moving in with you?"
Claire let her head fall back so she could stare at the ceiling again. "Not anytime soon, I guess."
Inez studied her friend. "Claire?"
Claire sat up. "Let's watch something. Something non-animated and grown-up."
Inez brightened.
"Not K-drama," Claire cautioned. "I don't get to watch grown-up stuff a lot, and I'm not ruining the moment with sugary delusions."
Inez bit her lip. "What'll we watch then?"
"Does Netflix have Pulp Fiction?" Claire asked.
"We can look," Inez sighed, and got up to find the remote.