Chapter 34: Anita

Mom and I walked into the diner and found an empty table for two.

"I didn't think we'd get time for it right now?" I admitted.

Mom smiled at me. "Things have been hard for both of us recently. I think we both need this."

I wasn't going to argue, even though she didn't know just how hard things were going to get yet. The scent in the diner had my mouth watering, and I hadn't realized I'd been craving pie before we walked in here.

A waitress stopped by our table and took our or-der. It was the same thing we always got when we came out, a slice of pie. Mom's jobs didn't pay a lot of money, and we couldn't afford to eat out with all the bills, but Mom could at least splurge to get us both a mug of hot chocolate and apple pie once every month. We'd turned it into something we did for fun as a family of two. I wasn't feeling it this month, but I wouldn't say no to ap-ple pie.

"You look like you haven't eaten in ages," Mom laughed, watching me dig into my pie.

I shot her a smile,