"Do you want another cup of coffee?" Nat asked the woman sitting across from her in the living room, her hands shaking while holding her now empty coffee mug.
"I think if you give another cup you might kill her," Corrine whispered, making Nat chuckle.
"I'm...I'm okay," the woman said, setting the mug down on the table by the couch and exhaling slowly, as if trying to gather her nervous demeanor before speaking; after a moment, she opened the notebook in her lap and pulled a pen from her shirt pocket, then said, "how about we start with your influences?"
"That's been done to death, that's like, the first thing they ever ask you when you get interviewed, even if you've been asked it a million times before. Everyone wants to start at the beginning. I think it's more interesting to start at your worst point. Like, how about, when my husband left me for my sister?"
A quiet came over the room as Jay ran his hands over his face while standing behind the couch, and Corrine snickered to herself. The women nodded solemnly and shrugged as she uncapped her pen.
"Well, you, I mean, it's your story, so sure, wherever you want to start is where we'll start, I've got not emotional stake in this whatsoever," she said, making Nat's eyes widen. The level of honesty took her by surprise, as she didn't often run into that trait from people in this industry. Nat shifted on the couch and cleared her throat.
"Right, well, uh, I guess the first thing that comes to mind when remembering that is how absolutely incompetent it made me feel. I mean, here I was giving advice to strangers every day on living their best lives and being happy with the people they love, and yet I couldn't even see what was going on right in front of my own face. Sure makes you feel stupid in retrospect. It's had its silver linings though, cause it helped me meet new people who are now important to me, but I won't say that it didn't ruin the life I had. If we'd just...no, not we....if I'd just talked to him, maybe it all could've been avoided."
Jay, leaning against the wall, heard the stairs creak and looked over to see Violet coming down the steps cautiously, pulling her bookbag strap over her chest. She stopped and watched her mom talk to this stranger in their living room before looking at Jay, who just smiled at her as Courtney came up behind her, having slept over the night before.
"Hey, you girls want to go get some breakfast?" Jay asked, and they nodded. He was relieved. He didn't want to be here to witness this. Jay grabbed his car keys and, with the girls in tow, headed outside. He figured they'd get some kind of pastry somewhere - specifically so he could get coffee - and then he'd drop them off at school. Anything to remove himself from what he saw as the fracturing of a well oiled machine.
***
"I don't think she needs advertisers, at least not the ones she's getting," Jay had said to Corrine the night before, when they were in the editing bay, discussing the influx of advertisers looking to turn Nat and Violet into influencers; Jay continued as he paced, "they aren't interested in her message, they're interested in getting someone people deem trustworthy to spread their message."
"Dude, will you stop pacing, you're driving me nuts," Corrine said as she sat staring at her monitors in her chair, "there's like a million places to sit, just pick one."
"It's just...they're trying to co-opt and then corrupt, you know? I'm not saying she's like a...a cult leader or someone with a lot of pull to people to make them ultimately rearrange their entire lives, but people DO trust her enough to take her advice seriously and this newfound fame has only brought in even more people. Parents. Families. Estranged children. And now here come the swooping vultures, ready to take advantage of that as much as they possibly can."
"My guy, they're just advertisers. They're allll sleazy, there's no varying degrees of sleaziness. If you're sleazy, you're sleazy. You're overthinking this. Besides, what are the odds that she even entertains the idea? Sure, money is enticing, but she's not stupid, Jay, give her some credit," Corrine said, tapping away on her editing board.
"I just don't wanna see her screw up, and I don't wanna see her screw Violet up. She did what she did to get her daughter back, not to gain noteriety, that's just been an unintended side effect. I'm afraid if she goes down that path, the same thing will happen again," Jay said, forcing Corrine to exhale loudly and turn around in her desk chair to face him.
"Okay," she said, "I'm only gonna say this once, because if you don't listen the first time then clearly you've indicated I am not worth listening to and so why bother repeating myself if nobody listens. She's smart. She's said multiple times that she's doing the show for the sake of those who need guidance, not for the monetary reward or the clout. With all that in mind, don't you think we should, oh I don't know, give her the benefit of the doubt?"
Jay sighed and nodded, sitting on the couch and crossing his arms.
"Yeah...yeah I guess you're right," he said, "just makes me anxious. First she's got this ghost writer coming in, and then the meeting with the advertisers, it just feels like so much is changing so fast."
"I'm no fan of change, lord knows," Corrine said, "but not all change is bad."
This statement surprised Jay, seeing how Corrine was often such a gloomy, negative person, but ever since being with Ashley, Corrine's outlook had changed a bit. Now she kind of welcomed it, since it was actually in her favor for once. Jay took in what she'd said, and he knew she was right. Nat was smart, especially when it came to her work, and she wouldn't jeopardize both that and her reborn relationship with Violet just for some cash.
...still...a part of him wondered.
***
"I hate this," Violet said, "I don't, um, I don't like this at all."
"I feel it, kiddo," Jay replied.
Jay, Courtney and Violet were sitting in the parking lot of a fast food establishment, having gotten their breakfast off the menu. They were still sitting in the car, parked a bit aways from the restaurant as they ate. Jay picked up his coffee cup and took a long sip while Violet bit and chewed, then set her breakfast sandwich down in her lap and sighed.
"She wasn't, ya know, she wasn't, uh, supposed to do this," Violet said, "she was, um, she was supposed to do the opposite. I thought it'd be different."
"It is different, for what it's worth," Jay said, "I mean, for one, she wants to include you, not that you want that. She should listen to you about that, and don't worry, I'll keep trying to get her to. But Violet, and I hate saying this because it means I'm acknowledging the fact of the matter myself - something I hate - we need advertisers, sponsors, otherwise the thing is unprofitable and unable to continue being made. MY issue is the advertisers she's courting."
"I don't mind, ya know, um, yeah, the book, the lady with the book," Violet said, "but yeah, what you said. About the...the advertisers. I don't like that. They're just after her cause of me."
"Yep. And that's what pisses me off most. Vultures, the lot of 'em," Jay said, "but Corrine told me the other night to just trust in your mother that she wouldn't do anything to harm you and your relationship with her, especially after what she did to get you back, and I do feel like she's right in that regard. Nat's always been about putting others first, helping them with what she does. I don't think she'd run the risk of hurting you again, unintentionally or otherwise. I think you leaving really opened her eyes."
"If that's true, then why is she still meeting with these people?" Courtney chimed in, surprising Jay, who just sighed and shook his head in response.
"I wish I could tell ya. Obligation? Politeness? There's a certain attitude one has to cultivate to succeed in the entertainment industry and sadly, more often than not, you can't just outright ignore people, so maybe she feels as though she owes them her time. But one thing she doesn't owe them is her show. That's what it comes down to. Listening is cheap. Entering a partnership? That'll cost her, and she knows it."
Jay wasn't wrong, but he still had a sinking feeling in his gut that Nat was entirely capable of fucking up.
Mainly because she had, so many times, regardless of her intentions being in the right place.
***
"It all stemmed from a place of worthlessness within myself, I guess," Nat said, "this feels oddly therapeutic."
"I get that a lot," the ghostwriter replied, writing something down without looking up.
"My parents, our parents, they weren't...they weren't bad parents by any means but they were very emotionally unavailable, and I think that stunted my sister, and only enforced me to be even open more so. I wanted to help others. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to do the right thing, take care of people, animals, whatever. I always saw the best in others, their full potential, but...never in myself. At least not until my ex husband did."
"It's weird," the ghostwriter said, looking up from her notebook, "people always tell you that you can't find your worth in other people, and only in yourself. It's almost as if they feel trust is somehow untrustworthy if it comes from other people. I'm not saying there's a level of co-dependency that is unhealthy, but there's a level that also makes total sense, because, well....people want to be loved, and to tell someone you can't be loved until you love yourself, that's putting all the blame on an already likely overly internally judgemental person."
Nat straightened up in her posture, surprised by the ghostwriters statement. After a moment, she just shrugged and went back to writing in the notebook.
"Just something that always bothered me," she finished.
"What's your name?" Nat asked, "I'm sorry, that's so unprofessional of me, but I don't remember peoples names until knowing them a while."
"It's fine, nobody ever remembers me, that's what makes me perfect for this job," the ghostwriter said, "my name is Misty LeClaire."
"That's a stripper name," Corrine said, making Nat laugh under her breath and then immediately apologize; Corrine just shrugged and added, "what, it is."
"It's fine, she's not entirely wrong," Misty said, "I'm not happy with it, but at the same time my name is already so fake sounding that when people see it inside a book, they automatically don't think I'm a real person, so it grants me an extra layer of privacy, which I, for one, really appreciate and need. I don't want to be famous, especially not for telling other peoples stories."
Nat nodded, getting an odd sense of detachedness from her. Suddenly a knock at the door, and Corrine stood up, going to answer it. Nat looked back at Misty, who was adjusting her small round spectacles as she kept writing in her notebook.
"You wanna hear a story?" Nat asked, and Misty shrugged, still looking down as she mouthed "whatever", so Nat continued, adding, "when I was a little girl, I went to a taping of this show on public access cable. It was of this woman, Tammy Truman, and she wore this bright pink suit with black trim, and she had this really nice, straight, golden brown hair. Anyway, I went because my aunt was very 'support the arts' type, she often donated to the stations, listened to public radio, stuff like that. So there I am, I must've been about 9, and I'm watching this woman talk to the audience about 'finding their solace'. Didn't know what the hell that meant, but I could tell it resonated with the audience cause they were all kind of weepy and listening intently. Even as a kid you can read the room, tone is easy to pick up, even if it's silent. So anyway at one point she asks this woman to come up on the stage with her, this older woman, maybe in her early to mid 60s, and she asks why she's struggling to fiind her solace, and the woman tells her it's because her daughter, daughters husband and their two children died in a violent car accident recently, and how can one find solace in a world that's so hell bent on showing us pain?"
Misty finally looked up, now clearly listening.
"...and Tammy Truman, she just...she listened, and she nodded, and when all was said and done, she told the lady 'if you can't find solace for yourself, finding it for others is good too'. I know she meant, like, accepting the loss, knowing her family isn't in pain now and that these things happen and things change, but...to me...that meant that you could help others find solace when they struggle to, just like she showed herself doing that very afternoon. After that, I realized two things: the first was that I wanted to help people the way Tammy Truman helped people, and the second...was that I wanted to get paid to do it. Couldn't go to school to become a therapist, that takes too damn long, comes with too much risk, but public access? That was open to anyone willing to try, and goddammit was I willing to try."
Misty tapped her pen on the notebook, chewing on her lip, before they both looked up to see Corrine and another woman entering the room.
"I thought you got lost," Nat said.
"Yeah, how long does it take to answer a door? It was like 7 feet away," Misty added, making Nat smirk; if she was joining in on the barbs, she was clearly letting her walls down, and Nat appreciated that.
"Hello, I'm Marsha Goldblatt, from Sinful Sadness," the woman said, holding her hand out to be shaken, but nobody shook it. After a moment of awkwardness, she retracted her arm and cleared her throat, adding, "well, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Sinful Sadness?" Misty asked, "isn't that the depression meal kit?"
Everyone looked towards her before looking back at Martha.
"Well, we like to think that we offer easy to put together meal preparation kits for people who, maybe, are just too depressed to cook healthy otherwise. Now, unlike a lot of other kits such as these, ours doesn't bank entirely on their dietary habits. We aren't aiming to make people feel bad that they can't be bothered to cook better. Most of those kits take advantage of the fact that people are busy, tired, or simply lack the facilities to do so, but we're not like that. We're not shaming anyone. We're trying to help people."
"But showing them here's another thing they can't do and taking money from them?" Misty asked, making Nat and Corrine smirk a bit, as Martha glared at her before fixing her face and smiling fake towards Nat once more.
"We know that a lot of people suffer with cooking when they are in a deep depression, and that's why we want to help. We provide healthy food that's extremely easy to create a meal from, so much so that my seven year old can do it, and we just want them to know that there are people out there who care about them, and the way they're taking care of themselves. Who think they deserve better."
"They deserve better? Than...the way they treat themselves? That's the kind of thing you tell trapped in an abusive relationship, not someone struggling with crippling chronic depression," Misty chimed in once more, "all that's gonna do is make them go 'well, I can't even treat myself right, you're right, I AM pathetic', and honestly what's more disgustingly capitalistic than a company pretending to care about your needs, and be your friend, under the guise of making money off you? Hell, so many are so transparent now that they aren't even pretending anymore."
"Does she have to be here?" Martha asked, pointing towards Misty.
"No," Nat said, "she doesn't, but I want her to, because everything she said is true. Look, I'm sure your company, as are many others, are formed with the best of intentions, but she's not wrong. You're making the consumer feel worse every step of the way. Frankly, and forgive me if this is rude, but...if anyone doesn't need to be here, I think it's you."
Martha stared in disbelief momentarily, before briskly thanking them for their time, turning on her heel and exiting from the house, slamming the door on her way out. Nat looked back at Misty and smiled.
"So," Misty said, "where were we?"
"I like this girl," Corrine said happily.
***
Violet was laying on her bed staring at her ceiling with her headphones on, listening to white noise, when Nat entered. Violet sat up as Nat got closer, but she merely motioned for Violet to lay back down, and then laid down beside her. Together, mother and daughter, they lay there in silence for a bit, just listening to the nothing that surrounded them. After a few minutes, Violet nestled up to her mom and hugged her, resting her face on her chest. Nat smiled and stroked Violet's hair.
"I was really mean to someone today," Nat said.
"Did they deserve it?" Violet asked.
"Vi, nobody ever deserves to have someone be mean to them, I mean, unless they're, like, actively hurting others or something, then I suppose it's justified. And I guess she kinda was, actually. But still. Actually, it wasn't even me who started it, it was the ghostwriter. I like her. I think I'm gonna work with her on this book. But as far as the advertisements go, I don't know how comfortable I feel. I'd like to find something not sleazy and intrusive."
Another few moments passed as Violet nodded and yawned in response.
"Mommy?" she asked, and Nat grinned, loving that her daughter still called her that even at this age.
"Yes love?" she replied.
"I don't like advertisers either, they make me feel gross," Violet said, "and I don't like being used to make money."
"I'm not using you to make money, am I?" Nat asked, sounding hurt, but Violet just shook her head.
"No, you're, um, you're okay, you're good, but I don't like the idea of them doing it. People I don't know are coming up to me, and they're, uh, they're talking to me like they know me and it makes me very uncomfortable."
"Well, the next time they do that, just be rude back," Nat said, "and if that doesn't work, kick 'em in the shins."
"I like you when you're mean," Violet said, the both of them laughing.
"I think if you give another cup you might kill her," Corrine whispered, making Nat chuckle.
"I'm...I'm okay," the woman said, setting the mug down on the table by the couch and exhaling slowly, as if trying to gather her nervous demeanor before speaking; after a moment, she opened the notebook in her lap and pulled a pen from her shirt pocket, then said, "how about we start with your influences?"
"That's been done to death, that's like, the first thing they ever ask you when you get interviewed, even if you've been asked it a million times before. Everyone wants to start at the beginning. I think it's more interesting to start at your worst point. Like, how about, when my husband left me for my sister?"
A quiet came over the room as Jay ran his hands over his face while standing behind the couch, and Corrine snickered to herself. The women nodded solemnly and shrugged as she uncapped her pen.
"Well, you, I mean, it's your story, so sure, wherever you want to start is where we'll start, I've got not emotional stake in this whatsoever," she said, making Nat's eyes widen. The level of honesty took her by surprise, as she didn't often run into that trait from people in this industry. Nat shifted on the couch and cleared her throat.
"Right, well, uh, I guess the first thing that comes to mind when remembering that is how absolutely incompetent it made me feel. I mean, here I was giving advice to strangers every day on living their best lives and being happy with the people they love, and yet I couldn't even see what was going on right in front of my own face. Sure makes you feel stupid in retrospect. It's had its silver linings though, cause it helped me meet new people who are now important to me, but I won't say that it didn't ruin the life I had. If we'd just...no, not we....if I'd just talked to him, maybe it all could've been avoided."
Jay, leaning against the wall, heard the stairs creak and looked over to see Violet coming down the steps cautiously, pulling her bookbag strap over her chest. She stopped and watched her mom talk to this stranger in their living room before looking at Jay, who just smiled at her as Courtney came up behind her, having slept over the night before.
"Hey, you girls want to go get some breakfast?" Jay asked, and they nodded. He was relieved. He didn't want to be here to witness this. Jay grabbed his car keys and, with the girls in tow, headed outside. He figured they'd get some kind of pastry somewhere - specifically so he could get coffee - and then he'd drop them off at school. Anything to remove himself from what he saw as the fracturing of a well oiled machine.
***
"I don't think she needs advertisers, at least not the ones she's getting," Jay had said to Corrine the night before, when they were in the editing bay, discussing the influx of advertisers looking to turn Nat and Violet into influencers; Jay continued as he paced, "they aren't interested in her message, they're interested in getting someone people deem trustworthy to spread their message."
"Dude, will you stop pacing, you're driving me nuts," Corrine said as she sat staring at her monitors in her chair, "there's like a million places to sit, just pick one."
"It's just...they're trying to co-opt and then corrupt, you know? I'm not saying she's like a...a cult leader or someone with a lot of pull to people to make them ultimately rearrange their entire lives, but people DO trust her enough to take her advice seriously and this newfound fame has only brought in even more people. Parents. Families. Estranged children. And now here come the swooping vultures, ready to take advantage of that as much as they possibly can."
"My guy, they're just advertisers. They're allll sleazy, there's no varying degrees of sleaziness. If you're sleazy, you're sleazy. You're overthinking this. Besides, what are the odds that she even entertains the idea? Sure, money is enticing, but she's not stupid, Jay, give her some credit," Corrine said, tapping away on her editing board.
"I just don't wanna see her screw up, and I don't wanna see her screw Violet up. She did what she did to get her daughter back, not to gain noteriety, that's just been an unintended side effect. I'm afraid if she goes down that path, the same thing will happen again," Jay said, forcing Corrine to exhale loudly and turn around in her desk chair to face him.
"Okay," she said, "I'm only gonna say this once, because if you don't listen the first time then clearly you've indicated I am not worth listening to and so why bother repeating myself if nobody listens. She's smart. She's said multiple times that she's doing the show for the sake of those who need guidance, not for the monetary reward or the clout. With all that in mind, don't you think we should, oh I don't know, give her the benefit of the doubt?"
Jay sighed and nodded, sitting on the couch and crossing his arms.
"Yeah...yeah I guess you're right," he said, "just makes me anxious. First she's got this ghost writer coming in, and then the meeting with the advertisers, it just feels like so much is changing so fast."
"I'm no fan of change, lord knows," Corrine said, "but not all change is bad."
This statement surprised Jay, seeing how Corrine was often such a gloomy, negative person, but ever since being with Ashley, Corrine's outlook had changed a bit. Now she kind of welcomed it, since it was actually in her favor for once. Jay took in what she'd said, and he knew she was right. Nat was smart, especially when it came to her work, and she wouldn't jeopardize both that and her reborn relationship with Violet just for some cash.
...still...a part of him wondered.
***
"I hate this," Violet said, "I don't, um, I don't like this at all."
"I feel it, kiddo," Jay replied.
Jay, Courtney and Violet were sitting in the parking lot of a fast food establishment, having gotten their breakfast off the menu. They were still sitting in the car, parked a bit aways from the restaurant as they ate. Jay picked up his coffee cup and took a long sip while Violet bit and chewed, then set her breakfast sandwich down in her lap and sighed.
"She wasn't, ya know, she wasn't, uh, supposed to do this," Violet said, "she was, um, she was supposed to do the opposite. I thought it'd be different."
"It is different, for what it's worth," Jay said, "I mean, for one, she wants to include you, not that you want that. She should listen to you about that, and don't worry, I'll keep trying to get her to. But Violet, and I hate saying this because it means I'm acknowledging the fact of the matter myself - something I hate - we need advertisers, sponsors, otherwise the thing is unprofitable and unable to continue being made. MY issue is the advertisers she's courting."
"I don't mind, ya know, um, yeah, the book, the lady with the book," Violet said, "but yeah, what you said. About the...the advertisers. I don't like that. They're just after her cause of me."
"Yep. And that's what pisses me off most. Vultures, the lot of 'em," Jay said, "but Corrine told me the other night to just trust in your mother that she wouldn't do anything to harm you and your relationship with her, especially after what she did to get you back, and I do feel like she's right in that regard. Nat's always been about putting others first, helping them with what she does. I don't think she'd run the risk of hurting you again, unintentionally or otherwise. I think you leaving really opened her eyes."
"If that's true, then why is she still meeting with these people?" Courtney chimed in, surprising Jay, who just sighed and shook his head in response.
"I wish I could tell ya. Obligation? Politeness? There's a certain attitude one has to cultivate to succeed in the entertainment industry and sadly, more often than not, you can't just outright ignore people, so maybe she feels as though she owes them her time. But one thing she doesn't owe them is her show. That's what it comes down to. Listening is cheap. Entering a partnership? That'll cost her, and she knows it."
Jay wasn't wrong, but he still had a sinking feeling in his gut that Nat was entirely capable of fucking up.
Mainly because she had, so many times, regardless of her intentions being in the right place.
***
"It all stemmed from a place of worthlessness within myself, I guess," Nat said, "this feels oddly therapeutic."
"I get that a lot," the ghostwriter replied, writing something down without looking up.
"My parents, our parents, they weren't...they weren't bad parents by any means but they were very emotionally unavailable, and I think that stunted my sister, and only enforced me to be even open more so. I wanted to help others. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to do the right thing, take care of people, animals, whatever. I always saw the best in others, their full potential, but...never in myself. At least not until my ex husband did."
"It's weird," the ghostwriter said, looking up from her notebook, "people always tell you that you can't find your worth in other people, and only in yourself. It's almost as if they feel trust is somehow untrustworthy if it comes from other people. I'm not saying there's a level of co-dependency that is unhealthy, but there's a level that also makes total sense, because, well....people want to be loved, and to tell someone you can't be loved until you love yourself, that's putting all the blame on an already likely overly internally judgemental person."
Nat straightened up in her posture, surprised by the ghostwriters statement. After a moment, she just shrugged and went back to writing in the notebook.
"Just something that always bothered me," she finished.
"What's your name?" Nat asked, "I'm sorry, that's so unprofessional of me, but I don't remember peoples names until knowing them a while."
"It's fine, nobody ever remembers me, that's what makes me perfect for this job," the ghostwriter said, "my name is Misty LeClaire."
"That's a stripper name," Corrine said, making Nat laugh under her breath and then immediately apologize; Corrine just shrugged and added, "what, it is."
"It's fine, she's not entirely wrong," Misty said, "I'm not happy with it, but at the same time my name is already so fake sounding that when people see it inside a book, they automatically don't think I'm a real person, so it grants me an extra layer of privacy, which I, for one, really appreciate and need. I don't want to be famous, especially not for telling other peoples stories."
Nat nodded, getting an odd sense of detachedness from her. Suddenly a knock at the door, and Corrine stood up, going to answer it. Nat looked back at Misty, who was adjusting her small round spectacles as she kept writing in her notebook.
"You wanna hear a story?" Nat asked, and Misty shrugged, still looking down as she mouthed "whatever", so Nat continued, adding, "when I was a little girl, I went to a taping of this show on public access cable. It was of this woman, Tammy Truman, and she wore this bright pink suit with black trim, and she had this really nice, straight, golden brown hair. Anyway, I went because my aunt was very 'support the arts' type, she often donated to the stations, listened to public radio, stuff like that. So there I am, I must've been about 9, and I'm watching this woman talk to the audience about 'finding their solace'. Didn't know what the hell that meant, but I could tell it resonated with the audience cause they were all kind of weepy and listening intently. Even as a kid you can read the room, tone is easy to pick up, even if it's silent. So anyway at one point she asks this woman to come up on the stage with her, this older woman, maybe in her early to mid 60s, and she asks why she's struggling to fiind her solace, and the woman tells her it's because her daughter, daughters husband and their two children died in a violent car accident recently, and how can one find solace in a world that's so hell bent on showing us pain?"
Misty finally looked up, now clearly listening.
"...and Tammy Truman, she just...she listened, and she nodded, and when all was said and done, she told the lady 'if you can't find solace for yourself, finding it for others is good too'. I know she meant, like, accepting the loss, knowing her family isn't in pain now and that these things happen and things change, but...to me...that meant that you could help others find solace when they struggle to, just like she showed herself doing that very afternoon. After that, I realized two things: the first was that I wanted to help people the way Tammy Truman helped people, and the second...was that I wanted to get paid to do it. Couldn't go to school to become a therapist, that takes too damn long, comes with too much risk, but public access? That was open to anyone willing to try, and goddammit was I willing to try."
Misty tapped her pen on the notebook, chewing on her lip, before they both looked up to see Corrine and another woman entering the room.
"I thought you got lost," Nat said.
"Yeah, how long does it take to answer a door? It was like 7 feet away," Misty added, making Nat smirk; if she was joining in on the barbs, she was clearly letting her walls down, and Nat appreciated that.
"Hello, I'm Marsha Goldblatt, from Sinful Sadness," the woman said, holding her hand out to be shaken, but nobody shook it. After a moment of awkwardness, she retracted her arm and cleared her throat, adding, "well, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Sinful Sadness?" Misty asked, "isn't that the depression meal kit?"
Everyone looked towards her before looking back at Martha.
"Well, we like to think that we offer easy to put together meal preparation kits for people who, maybe, are just too depressed to cook healthy otherwise. Now, unlike a lot of other kits such as these, ours doesn't bank entirely on their dietary habits. We aren't aiming to make people feel bad that they can't be bothered to cook better. Most of those kits take advantage of the fact that people are busy, tired, or simply lack the facilities to do so, but we're not like that. We're not shaming anyone. We're trying to help people."
"But showing them here's another thing they can't do and taking money from them?" Misty asked, making Nat and Corrine smirk a bit, as Martha glared at her before fixing her face and smiling fake towards Nat once more.
"We know that a lot of people suffer with cooking when they are in a deep depression, and that's why we want to help. We provide healthy food that's extremely easy to create a meal from, so much so that my seven year old can do it, and we just want them to know that there are people out there who care about them, and the way they're taking care of themselves. Who think they deserve better."
"They deserve better? Than...the way they treat themselves? That's the kind of thing you tell trapped in an abusive relationship, not someone struggling with crippling chronic depression," Misty chimed in once more, "all that's gonna do is make them go 'well, I can't even treat myself right, you're right, I AM pathetic', and honestly what's more disgustingly capitalistic than a company pretending to care about your needs, and be your friend, under the guise of making money off you? Hell, so many are so transparent now that they aren't even pretending anymore."
"Does she have to be here?" Martha asked, pointing towards Misty.
"No," Nat said, "she doesn't, but I want her to, because everything she said is true. Look, I'm sure your company, as are many others, are formed with the best of intentions, but she's not wrong. You're making the consumer feel worse every step of the way. Frankly, and forgive me if this is rude, but...if anyone doesn't need to be here, I think it's you."
Martha stared in disbelief momentarily, before briskly thanking them for their time, turning on her heel and exiting from the house, slamming the door on her way out. Nat looked back at Misty and smiled.
"So," Misty said, "where were we?"
"I like this girl," Corrine said happily.
***
Violet was laying on her bed staring at her ceiling with her headphones on, listening to white noise, when Nat entered. Violet sat up as Nat got closer, but she merely motioned for Violet to lay back down, and then laid down beside her. Together, mother and daughter, they lay there in silence for a bit, just listening to the nothing that surrounded them. After a few minutes, Violet nestled up to her mom and hugged her, resting her face on her chest. Nat smiled and stroked Violet's hair.
"I was really mean to someone today," Nat said.
"Did they deserve it?" Violet asked.
"Vi, nobody ever deserves to have someone be mean to them, I mean, unless they're, like, actively hurting others or something, then I suppose it's justified. And I guess she kinda was, actually. But still. Actually, it wasn't even me who started it, it was the ghostwriter. I like her. I think I'm gonna work with her on this book. But as far as the advertisements go, I don't know how comfortable I feel. I'd like to find something not sleazy and intrusive."
Another few moments passed as Violet nodded and yawned in response.
"Mommy?" she asked, and Nat grinned, loving that her daughter still called her that even at this age.
"Yes love?" she replied.
"I don't like advertisers either, they make me feel gross," Violet said, "and I don't like being used to make money."
"I'm not using you to make money, am I?" Nat asked, sounding hurt, but Violet just shook her head.
"No, you're, um, you're okay, you're good, but I don't like the idea of them doing it. People I don't know are coming up to me, and they're, uh, they're talking to me like they know me and it makes me very uncomfortable."
"Well, the next time they do that, just be rude back," Nat said, "and if that doesn't work, kick 'em in the shins."
"I like you when you're mean," Violet said, the both of them laughing.