“Not this time.” She sniffed. “I tried. They’re over it. And I don’t blame them. I haven’t been a good employee for many, many years.”

“That’s not true. You’re the most charming one there and they know it.”

She let out a sarcastic laugh. “My charm ran out along with my beauty years ago.”

Inhaling a long, deep breath, I let it out just as slowly before trying to soothe her again. “I know things are hard right now, but it will work out. You can find a new job.”

“It’s not that easy!”

I closed my eyes as she cried more, wishing I was there to comfort her just as much as I wished I could shake some sense into her.

“Hey, it’ll be okay. I can help until you get things sorted.”

“Really?” She sniffed.

The instant relief she had from that made my stomach sour.

I wanted to help her. I would always help the woman who kept me, who cared for me, who raised me when my father walked away.

But the fact that she now expected it hurt.

“Oh, Clay. You’re too good to me.”

“I don’t have much,” I confessed. “But they give us a little bit of a stipend with our scholarship. I can help with bills until you get on your feet. Just… promise me you’ll start looking, Mom.”

“I promise.”

I nodded. “Alright, well… I gotta go. But I love you.”

“I love you, too, sweetie.”

“Everything will be okay.”

She didn’t respond, but I could imagine her nodding, could imagine her hair a wreck and her eyes swollen and puffy and red because I’d seen her that way so many times before.

The line went dead, and I blinked, frowning at my phone when I took it away from my ear. It wasn’t that her going through a breakup was surprising.

But the fact that she hadn’t wished me a happy birthday was.

I chalked it up to her being upset, thinking of how I was when Maliyah broke up with me. I couldn’t be a good friend to anyone during that time. So, I slipped my phone into the pocket of my hoodie and rounded the corner toward the front offices.

And I prayed she wouldn’t turn to the bottle or the pills while I figured things out.

I didn’t have time to think about how much money Mom would need, how much I could honestly afford to give her, or anything else regarding the breakup because as soon as I pushed through the door to the PR offices, a shower of confetti rained down on me.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”