• • •

Crystal had barely closed the door of her apartment when she heard, “Where have you been, young lady?”

Spinning around, she saw her mother standing a few feet away with her hands on her hips. Crystal pressed a hand to her chest, trying to slow her heartbeat down. “Good Lord, Mom, you scared me to death!”

“Watch your attitude, young lady,” her mother scolded.

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her mother that if she didn’t like it, then she should stop letting herself into her home uninvited. Frankly, though, the tirade that she would unleash would make Crystal sorry that she’d ever opened her mouth. With Dot Webber, it was best to pick your battles and hope to minimize the fallout. Making her voice as pleasant as possible, she asked, “What brings you by today?”

“I wanted to make sure you were still alive. Your sister said something about you staying the weekend with a friend. But you didn’t answer any of my calls, so I thought for sure that something bad had happened to you.”

Ella had told her today that she hadn’t told their mother about her being sick at Mark’s house. They both knew that would send her into DEFCON 5. Instead, she’d tried to be vague and then avoided answering her phone. “As you can see, I’m fine, Mom. I know you’re usually busy on the weekends, so I didn’t think you’d miss me.” Crystal knew she’d said the wrong thing as soon as the words left her mouth, but there was nothing to do but survive the coming explosion.

“Ohhh no, why would your mother be at all concerned about you? It’s not as if I was in labor for eighteen hours with you or anything. Something that minor doesn’t deserve common courtesy, does it?” Then, in a rapid-fire subject change, she tacked on, “Please tell me you weren’t with that awful Gwen. She’s living with some redneck and is pregnant yet again. All without being married. How many times do I have to tell you girls that if you roll with dogs, you get fleas? First Ella and now you. I have no idea where I went wrong.”

Shit, the drama was in full swing tonight. It pissed her off that her mother continued to make nasty comments about Ella and Declan. Crystal was surprised that her sister still spoke to her. And Declan, he was bound to tell her off at some point soon. “You don’t even know my friends, Mom, so you have no business passing judgment on them. Mia and Gwen are wonderfully supportive, and I am lucky to have them in my life. You should be happy that I have people who care for me.”

Rolling her eyes, her mother snapped, “Mia, wow, there’s another great example of what not to do. Living with some rich heathen who won’t marry her. I bet they’re part of that Fifty Shades lifestyle. The last thing an impressionable girl like you needs is to be friends with a swinger.” Her mother grabbed her arm, and her voice rose when she shouted, “Heaven help us, were you doing that this weekend? You have a perfectly good husband waiting for you to come to your senses and you’re off sleeping around? Crystal! I’ve never been so mortified in my whole life.”

“What are you talking about?” Crystal gasped. “I’m not sleeping with anyone! Good grief, where do you get this stuff? And both Mia and Gwen are in committed relationships with men who love them. And Gwen is not pregnant again—this is her first child. How in the world can you manage to make that sound so ugly when it’s not?”

Her mother jerked her purse from the nearby chair and tossed the strap over her shoulder. “I’m not standing here while you speak disrespectfully to me. When you’ve learned how to appreciate all that I do for you, then I expect an apology. Until then, you should stay home and reflect upon how you’ve screwed up your life.”

With that parting shot, she hurried out the door, slamming it closed behind her. Crystal did something that was completely horrible. She flipped her middle finger up into the air and waved it around for good measure. There was no way she’d even tell Ella about this latest round of insults. She stayed upset enough over their mother’s continued horrible behavior. Plus, Declan might actually make good on that bodily harm threat.

Since her appetite was completely gone now, she took her time undressing, taking care to gently place her new expensive outfit in the closet before making her way to the bathroom. She started the bathtub, throwing in some bath salts that promised instant relaxation. Except Crystal snorted at the description, thinking unless there was a fifth of whiskey and a couple of Xanax somewhere inside the salts, it probably wasn’t happening. Instead, she grabbed her iPad from the bedroom and settled into the steaming water. She checked her e-mail first, finding nothing but the usual junk mail. She laughed when one of them offered her ten million dollars if only she sent them her banking information. Sadly, there were probably some people out there who actually fell for that.

Next, she looked through her Facebook feed and noted with a sigh of depression that another of her old friends had recently gotten married. They looked so ecstatic in the wedding pictures that the bride had posted. Crystal wondered if she’d even looked happy on her wedding day. In retrospect she figured “resigned” was a better word. After all, it had been as close to an arranged marriage as you could get in this day and age.

Closing Facebook, she turned next to Twitter. She wasn’t really active on the platform but enjoyed seeing tweets from various celebrities. She’d had some serious lust over Taylor Kinney from Chicago Fire, but dammit, even he was getting married now. She couldn’t imagine a life with Lady Gaga being boring—that was for sure.