My Future With Mr White by J A Fielding Page B

as he took a spoonful of his soup. “Great soup, Estelle,” he said before taking another spoonful. Estelle smiled in appreciation and began eating her own soup.
    Meanwhile, Natasha made her way up the stairs to her old room. She pushed the door open and saw Rita playing peek-a-boo with Alexis on the bed. It was the perfect picture. She smiled and softly knocked on the door.
    “Can a tired old mummy join the party?” she asked.
    “ Hey. You are here,” Rita said smiling.
    “ Yes I am and so are you,” Natasha said as she walked towards the bed. She took a seat on the edge of the bed and gave Rita a hug before picking up Alexis.
    “ Yeah, I am,” Rita said exhaling.
    “ How’s my little girl doing,” Natasha said as she rubbed her nose against the baby’s nose. The baby hated that, she could tell by the way she frowned every time she did it, but she thought it was cute. So she always did it for her own sake. She put the baby back down on the bed and turned her attention to Rita. “So, do you want to tell me why I had to find out that you spend the night here from my Nan?” she asked. Rita took a long deep breath as Natasha took a spoonful of soup.
    “ I…it’s complicated. I didn’t want you to make a big deal out of it,” Rita started.
    “ Make a big deal out of what?  What the hell is going on, Rita?” Natasha asked. Rita leaned back and looked at Natasha. “Come on, tell me already. I can’t stand the damn suspense,” Natasha said again. She could see the exhaustion in Rita’s eyes, as if she had not had a good night’s sleep in a while. Whatever it was, she did not understand why Rita felt like she could not talk to her. After all, the two had grown up together and seen each other through the hardest times. “Sweetie, please talk to me,” Natasha begged as she looked into Rita’s eyes.
    “ It’s Mama,” she started. Natasha looked at her.
    “ Okay. What happened? Is she okay?” she asked.
    Rita shook her head and brushed a tear. “I don’t know. I think she’s using again,” she said. Natasha reached over and placed a hand on Rita’s. Six years ago, Rita’s mother had been hooked on prescription painkillers and it had been a hard time in Rita’s life especially because the two of them were never really close. The road to her mama’s recovery was hard and long but she did manage to get clean eventually even though she fell off the wagon a couple of times.
    “Are you sure?” she asked.
    “ No, I don’t know. She is just weird and distant. I never see her and when I do she is always in a hurry to go somewhere and there is this new guy in her life and...” Natasha shook her head and put her hand cutting her short.
    “ New guy?” she asked. “Since when?” Rita shook her head again.
    “ I don’t know. No one knows. I can’t reach her, she is not answering her phone and she is not at home and I am freaked out Tasha,” she said. Natasha looked at her sympathetically and smiled.
    “ Why didn’t you come to me earlier?” she asked.
    “ I wanted to...but there is also work and....” Her words trailed off as Natasha noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. This was not just about Rita’s mother. There was something else.
    “ How are you and Dave doing?” Natasha asked, looking at Rita. Rita brushed away another tear.
    “ I don’t know,” she said in a whisper.
    “ What do you mean, you don’t know?” Natasha asked. “When was the last time you talked to him?”
    “ Last week. I just can’t talk to him right now,” she said. Natasha raised an eyebrow.
    “ What do you mean right now? What happened?” she asked. She looked at Rita and she could have sworn she had never seen her so sad.
    “ Last week, he was supposed to be in Miami on some conference and we even Skyped in his supposed hotel but I saw what I thought to be his car heading into the Four Seasons, so I followed him just to be sure,” Rita paused and took another long deep breath.
    “ So, what did