Saturday.

”Here you go, sweetie,” Bette said, leaning over and placing the plate down on the kitchen counter. Angie glanced up from her laptop, a warm smile on her face. Pushing aside her textbook, Angie reached for her sandwich half and murmured, ”Thanks, Mom,” mostly to her lunch.

The kitchen island, once again transformed into Angie’s makeshift homework desk, made Bette wonder what the purpose was of all the rooms in their home. There was a room literally called the study. She contemplated questioning her daughter but refrained, remembering her own scattered piles of work chaos that were often strewn throughout the house.

The morning had started early for Bette, waking with a quiet restlessness as the morning sun peeked through the curtains. Amidst a few work calls and ironing Angie’s school uniform, Bette had tried to tame the whirlwind of thoughts that continued to crop into her consciousness. Bette’s attention flickered as Angie’s phone rang, and she cast a warning glance, silently urging her daughter not to answer it while studying.

”Hi, Mom,” Angie greeted, wiping her hand on her shorts. Bette momentarily froze, her bite halfway to her mouth, and put the sandwich back on the plate. She started to slowly clear up the condiments to busy herself and avoid seeming overly invested in their conversation. Angie divulged little, responding mostly with typical teenage ”yeah,” ”no,” and ”sort of.” Bette turned to the lukewarm coffee jug, contemplating a refill.
  

”New sneakers maybe. B says that my toes are going to poke out of the end of these any day now,” Angie playfully imitated Bette, casting her mother a cheeky look.
  

”They are!” Bette turned her head and mouthed silently across the room.
  

”She’s making coffee,” Angie relayed, presumably in response to Tina asking what Bette was doing. ”Sure, I’ll put her on!”

Bette gestured to the jug and silently signaled that she was in the middle of something. Ignoring her, Angie passed her the phone which had ’Mama T’ and a sunshine emoji on the call screen. Cute, thought Bette. She shifted her coffee to her left hand, took the phone from Angie, and placed it against her ear. Angie grinned, nodding encouragingly, while Bette rolled her eyes, a playful smile softening her features.