"Can I take a seat?"
She was so absorbed in her own thoughts that Geneva's sudden presence by her side took her totally off guard.
"Yes… Yes," she answered, still munching the not-my-favourite-but-not-bad-when-you're-so-hungry cereal bar. She put the remaining tea on the coffee table in front of her.
"I want to apologize, first of all," said Geneva when she had sat down on an armchair next to Kathy's.
There were two options: She could pretend she had no idea what the woman wanted to apologize for, or… Or nothing, for she really hadn't a clue how this conversation was going to develop. So, poker face.
"My mother sometimes gets a little carried away…"
According to Geneva's version, Mrs. Martin had suddenly decided she didn't agree with the terms of her sister's will, and had convinced her brother to visit Mrs. Sloan's lawyer late the previous evening and the notary early that same morning, where she also dragged her daughter. When she was finally convinced - Angus and Geneva had only felt obliged to come with her - that nothing could be done to change a single syllable, she adopted the bitter attitude Jesse and Kathy had been witness to.
"She's my mother and I love her," went on Geneva. "But I don't want you to think I see things the way she does."
"The three of you looked so upset just now."
"I know! And we were! My mother because she hadn't got her own way, and Uncle Angus and I out of embarrassment. We knew what you must be thinking - what you must have thought when you found out we hadn't waited for you, to come together, as was to be expected."
"Frankly, Geneva," said Kathy, picking up the plastic glass with the artificial calmness of a stressed person. "Your serious faces are the only thing that has made sense to me in the last few days."