Mom’s bright smile lit up the screen, her arm around my waist at my high school graduation. I smirked at the sight, knowing when I answered, I’d hear the worst and loudest rendition of the Happy Birthday song. It was her favorite thing to do, sing it obnoxiously enough that I hid my face in embarrassment, and that didn’t change when I moved across the country.

Last year, she made me put her on speakerphone in the middle of our weight training.

“Mom, before you start, I’m alone. So you don’t have an audience if you want to save your vocal chords.”

The joke died along with my smile when I was met with a choked-off sob on the other end.

Heat crept into my ears, my heart pounding as I ducked into one of the assistant coach’s office that was empty. “What happened?”

For a long time, she just cried, the sobs so loud I pulled my phone from my ear and started looking at flights that I could catch out tonight. I thought she was hurt, or that someone had died. But then she finally spoke.

“He broke up with me.”

I closed my eyes on a relieved exhale, but knew I couldn’t let on that was my reaction to her. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

She sniffed. “He was the one. I thought… I thought he was going to ask me to marry him.”

I scratched the back of my neck, thinking of all the things I could say to comfort her. It was a familiar cycle now, one I hoped she hadn’t caught on to. “It’s his loss.”

There was more sobbing on the other end as I gathered my belongings and nodded at a few guys left in the locker room as I made my way into the hall.

“You’re an amazing woman, Mom. If he didn’t see that, then he’s an idiot. There is someone better out there for you.”

“There’s no one out there for me!”

She screamed the words, crying on the end of them.

“I’m old, and tired, and broke,” she choked out. Sniffing, she paused only to add, “I’m… I’m really broke, Clay.”

The hair on the back of my neck raised. “Did something happen at the restaurant?”

Another long pause met me.

“I… I was going to tell you when you came for Thanksgiving. I quit. A long time ago, actually.”

“You what?”

“Brandon was taking care of me!” She cried out her defense. “He was taking care of everything. He was paying my bills, making plans for me to move in with him, making plans for…” She hiccupped. “He promised. He…”

Her words trailed off as more tears found her, and I cursed, stopping around the corner from the hallway that led to Giana’s office.

“They’ll take you back,” I said. “They always do.”