Aquilla didn’t mean to eavesdrop. She only wanted a drink of water.
“Hey, beautiful, how are things going?” Connor answered, just as the last bell rang.
“She hates me, and she hasn’t been here a full day yet,” Liz assured him, sliding to the chair at the small table in the kitchen.
“She doesn’t hate you, Liz. Give her some time. She’s just been ripped from the only home she’s ever remembered. You, of all people, know how hard this must be for her.”
“I just wanted it to be a happy family reunion. I know I am expecting too much from her, but I can’t help it. I want to do so much with her, and I don’t think she’s going to want to do anything with me. She doesn’t even like Reese.”
“I don’t think you are expecting too much. I think you are expecting too much too fast. Give her some time, sweetie.”
“I need to see you, Connor.”
“Well, that’s good to know. How do you presume we do that? Don’t you have some FBI agent staying with you?”
“Yeah, and my ex-husband.”
“Wait…Manny is STAYING there?”
“Not by my choice, I can’t tell him no, he has a right to be here.”
“I guess you’re right, just don’t kiss him, okay?”
Liz snickered. “No worries.”
“I love you, Liz.” Connor quietly said.
“Don’t do that Connor. I can’t handle anymore right now.”
“You can’t handle me loving you and letting me be here for you. Let your guard down, Liz. You deserve to be happy.”
“How can you say that? I let my daughter get kidnapped. I have no idea what kind of life she has lived and she won’t talk to me. I don’t deserve to be happy.”
Hearing Liz say that made Aquilla feel sad and guilty. She didn’t mean for her to feel that way. She just didn’t belong there. Not now, maybe when she was three, but not now that she was an adult, well almost anyway. In her mind, she was an adult. She was eighteen, not seventeen.
“Can you get away for a little bit tonight?” Connor asked.
“No, I better just stay here. I don’t want to leave just in case she wants to talk to me or something.” Fat chance of that happening, she wouldn’t even come out of her room.
“You can go,” Aquilla said, interrupting. She wanted her to know that she didn’t need to stay there on her account. She wasn’t going to talk to her, she had nothing to say to her.
“Let me call you back, Conner,” Liz said, seeing Aquilla enter the kitchen.
“Okay, but try to get away for a couple hours. You can wait until everyone’s in bed. We’ll just go over to the Goose and drink a beer and talk.”
“I’ll let you know.”
“I’m right here if you need me, Elizabeth.”
“I know, thanks.”
“Hi,” Liz said to Quill. Hi. Really? How stupid did that sound?
“Hey, I just wanted a drink of water. Where can I find a glass?”
“Right above the coffee pot. Do you want something to eat? You didn’t eat much.”
“No, thanks, I’m good.”
“Ice?”
“No, I hate cold water, it hurts my teeth.”
“Do you need to go to the dentist? Did you have regular dental checkups or doctor’s appointments?” Dumb? Yeah, probably.
“Yes, I saw the dentist twice a year. I had braces when I was 12, my teeth are fine.” Really? Did she think she was some medically deprived orphan or something?
“Sit with me,” Liz requested, pulling out a chair for her.
Great, I would love to sit and be fucking interrogated by you. “This water tastes like a swimming pool,” Aquilla alleged as she sat and stared at the water in the glass.
Liz smiled and picked up her phone. “City water,” she guaranteed. It always tasted like there was bleach or something in it. On days when they treated it, you couldn’t stand to smell it, let alone drink it.
“Hey, we just got to the store. Seri here had to lose the press on the back roads,” Manny answered, smiling at Seri or Sarah, whatever her name was. He was going to ask her about that.
Seri smiled back. What the hell? Was she attracted to Quill’s dad? Oh, for God’s sake. This wasn’t good. He needed to go back to New York.
“Can you pick Shel__ Aquilla up some bottled water?”
Aquilla smiled at her correction. She knew she was trying. It wasn’t that at all. It wasn’t any of them. She just didn’t fit in with their family.
“Yeah, sure. Anything else?”
“No. That should do it.”
“Thank you,” Aquilla said. “You can meet your friend tonight. I’m fine.”
“You may be okay with that, but I promise you, your dad wouldn’t be. Manny would be pretty mad if I did that, and it would turn into a big argument I’m sure of it.”
“But I heard you tell whoever you were talking to that you needed to see him. You should see him.”
“Maybe it was a her,” Liz teasingly replied.
“Maybe, but what mother in her right mind would name her daughter Connor?”
“I did say that, didn’t I?”
Aquilla nodded with a weak smile. “You should go, Seri will be here with me. Do you love him?” What? Where the hell did that come from? You don’t care, remember?
Liz smiled. “It’s complicated. Do you love Julius?”
“It’s complicated,” Quill replied.
Liz laughed. “I think I do, but I haven’t really allowed myself to be happy since the day you were taken. I didn’t think I deserved to be happy. I was always afraid that you were either dead or being abused. I never let myself think that you were safe and happy.”
“I was, I was happy and I always had everything that I needed and more.”
“Can we talk about your relationship with Julius?” Liz wasn’t sure why she was having such a hard time with that part. She was sure that he had been doing things with her the whole time she was growing up. He had to, none of it made any sense.
“What about him?”
“I’m just having a hard time trying to figure out how you can love a man that kidnapped you.”
Aquilla was trying to hold it together. She wanted to yell at her and tell her she didn’t know shit about anything. “Are you talking about my father or Julius?”
“He’s not your___.” Liz stopped. She couldn’t say that. “Both, I guess,” she rephrased.
“First of all, he is my father, well, he was anyway. They killed him, and Julius didn’t do anything. He was just a little boy when I was taken. He couldn’t have stopped anything. Julius took care of me. I loved him. The way I loved him just changed the older I got.”
“You’ll find someone, Shel__Quill. You are a beautiful young lady. The right man will come along and sweep you off of your feet. I promise.”
“I’m going to be with Julius. I’m only staying here until I turn eighteen and find him.”
Wow, what did she say to that? “I hope in time you change your mind. I’m really excited for you to go to school and meet friends your own age. Sarah tells me that you’ve never really gotten to go to school.”
Fuck, is this lady serious? “Um….I won’t be going to school here. I graduated this year. I won’t be doing that.” Aquilla had always wanted to go to a school where there were a lot of kids, gym class, a cafeteria, sports, and band. She didn’t want that anymore, not here anyway.
“Quill, you have to graduate under Shelby Rimmer. You’re not Aquilla Chavez. You will never get into a college with that diploma.”
Aquilla snorted and got up. This needed to stop right now. Who the hell did she think she was? “I am Aquilla Chavez. I don’t care about college, and I am not going to school here,” she demanded and stormed out.
Well that went well. What the hell was she supposed to do with this girl? How did she get through to her? She could only pray that this Monica girl could get somewhere, she sure the hell wasn’t able to.