This choice: April gets some outside input—would you believe that she and Dani get along? • Go Back... "I just don't know what I'd do with a She Shed, you know?"
"Hell, I don't know what to do with the desk in my bedroom half the time."
Danielle Gosset had been a friend of Haley's since they were little. At least, that's how she understood it. In reality, the dour and dumpy plumpkin plopped in the cashier's chair up front at Cutie Pie's had pretty openly disliked her. But underneath (most of) her scowling, Dani at least had the decency not to press the issue to one of her favorite coworkers. Especially not someone who was so cool about letting Dani keep her phone up front.
"Do you like... make stuff? You seem like the kind of person who'd like to make stuff."
"I'm not too great with my hands..."
The irony of this was that April was almost certainly responsible for the extra hedge of goth gut bulging out and around Dani like an inner-tube. In the year or so that they had been coworkers, April had made no small efforts in showing a little favoritism the younger woman's way. Having Dani around was a fun little link back to her other daughter, all the way out in Charleston, and any friend of Haley's was bound to be a friend of her mama's!
In all honesty, April was just as overly lenient on any of her employees as she had been on her girls as they'd grown up. Her being so fast-and-loose with the uglies had been at least part of the reason why Karen's daughter got as big as she had...
Eh, it doesn't matter.
"It'd be silly to do all that work to not have any idea what to do with it."
April's soft belly squished against the hem of her pants and filled her salmon-shaded Cutie Pie's shirt from the front. So much of April's engagement had been in the kitchen since both of her daughters moved out, and even she would admit to having gotten a little too adventurous with her taste-testing. Though, like Dani, she didn't hesitate to claim the first from a batch of mismatched cookies.
"I think it'd make more sense to just make it a guest room."
"No way, you'd never use it." Dani's deep plum lips were already sprinkled with crumbs, "Tara's right, Ms. April. I'd kill for a room to just chill in by myself."
Dani pulled down the rim of her own uniform back over her plush paunch. Her expression lightened once she sat firmly back down in the cashier's seat. This was not the first plate of today's uglies that the two of them had shared.
"Well that used to be the den, but now that Tara's home—"
"Oh yeah, her whole 'no TVs in the bedroom' thing."
"I don't know what those self-help books are doing to her."
"Is she going to throw out the one in Haley's room?"
"I hope not—that's the old living room television, it's huge."
Dani was very clearly gearing up to ask if she could have it. And maybe she would have offered to pay for it. In favors. But once April allowed herself to percolate on it for long enough that she could connect the dots, an idea flashed. What was stopping her from just... having two dens? That way Tara could still watch murder documentaries in the den, and April could rewatch old sitcoms in her She Shed.
"Actually..." April's smiled dimpled wickedly as she allowed the thought to come, "I think it might be just the right size..."
* * *
It had been a lot of hard work. Which, to be fair, Tara had done most of.
Not because April had sat on her butt or anything, but because Tara was committed to making this happen and was being carried by the power of more than fifteen years of Cool Room Resentment. She could have moved Haley's whole box-spring if she had to, but it was April that had opted to keep it.
"Oh the bed can stay—I may want to lay down when I watch a movie."
"Ugh... 'kay..."
Tara hadn't worked this hard since she moved herself back into her childhood bedroom. And all of that stuff still had to be moved out of the Uhaul storage center too... April hoped that she wouldn't overexert herself, but she had already changed into her pajamas.
It had taken the better part of a day to move the furniture out and get the room painted, and then another day to get everything arranged just the way that she liked. April had always wanted to know what this room would look like with a green color on the walls. The lighting was immaculate thanks to Tara's one studious-looking window and the natural earth tones that came with hardwood and paneling. They had ordered two bookshelves and put them together, now they were filled with all of April's unread books and rounded out a corner with an arm-chair that sat next to Haley's old television.
"Woof... there you go, mom." Tara wiped the sweat off of her brow, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the transformed bedroom, "I think this place is just about perfect."
"It is awfully me..."
April had been on the fence about making such a selfish decision. In a perfect world, this could have been a studio or an office. But April didn't really like to do those things. Before Tara had come home, April had more or less just passed her time doing nothing. With both of her girls gone, she hadn't needed to do anything. And as much as she had bemoaned the situation, at least some small part of her missed it.
"Hey... huff I said just about... it's still... puff missing something."
Mrs. West shifted on her feet, already tired from having to help move the loveseat, while Tara moved out of the room. There was some rustling, and then quickly followed by more of Tara's exposition.
"I was thinking about what I could get you to show how proud I am of you for—"
"Tara."
"—I mean how grateful I am for you letting me move into Haley's room, and I realized that the perfect thing was sitting right under my nose..."
Tara re-entered her mother's new She Shed with...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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