I could almost see him recalculating our entire relationship.
“How much did Dad leave you?”
“That isn’t relevant.”
“It is if you’re making major financial decisions.”
I put down the towel.
“To whom?”
“What?”
“Relevant to whom? Me or you?”
He stood.
“You don’t have to make everything an accusation.”
“And you don’t have to make every dollar I have your business.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“From buying a two-bedroom house I can afford?”
“You could have talked to me.”
“I tried talking to you about the arrangement here.”
“That’s different.”
“It always is.”
Jessica appeared in the doorway.
“Tyler, Barbara is asking what’s going on.”
I looked at them.
“I’m moving Friday.”
“Tomorrow?” Jessica asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“The movers arrive at nine.”
Tyler stared at me.
“You arranged movers too?”
“I’m beginning to think you’ve forgotten I managed a medical office for twenty-seven years.”
He shook his head.
“This is insane.”
“No. Paying twelve hundred dollars for this room while being treated like an inconvenience would have been insane.”
Jessica crossed her arms.
“Nobody treated you like an inconvenience.”
“You put your mother’s storage boxes in my bedroom.”
“I moved them.”
“I moved them.”
She looked away.
Tyler said, “Can we all calm down?”
I sat on the edge of the bed.
“I am calm.”
“Then postpone the movers.”
“No.”
“One week.”
“Why?”
“So we can figure this out.”
“I already figured it out.”
His face changed.
There was fear there now.
Not financial fear.
Something more personal.
“You’re really leaving.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the hallway.
“You’re angry.”
“I was angry.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m done arguing.”
He sat beside me again.
“What do you want me to say?”
I thought about that.
Six months earlier, I would have had a list.
Apologize.
Admit the double standard.
Tell Jessica I mattered.
Charge Barbara too.
Give me back my money.
By then, none of those things were enough.
“I don’t need you to say anything.”
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
He looked down.
“What about the twelve hundred?”
“You won’t have to worry about collecting it.”
He gave a short, humorless laugh.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“This isn’t about the money.”
That almost made me angry again.
“It became about money the day you slid a rental agreement across the kitchen counter.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
He had no answer.
The movers arrived at nine the next morning.
Marjorie came at eight-thirty with coffee.
She took one look at Tyler’s face and whispered to me, “I’m guessing he knows.”
“He knows.”
“Is he helping?”
“I don’t know.”
Tyler came downstairs a few minutes later wearing work clothes.
“I canceled my morning jobs.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“I’m helping.”
Jessica stood in the kitchen.
She did not help.
Barbara did.
That surprised me.
She carried small boxes and wrapped two framed photographs in towels.
At one point she held a picture of William and me from our fortieth anniversary.
“You two look happy.”
“We were.”
She handed it to me carefully.
“I’m sorry things turned out like this.”
I looked at her.
“So am I.”
Then she said, “For what it’s worth, I told Jessica they should never have charged you rent if they weren’t going to charge me.”
I blinked.
“You did?”