Chapter Fifteen

HAPPINESS

Sierra groaned when the comforter slipped off her face and the light pierced through her eyelids. She loved the expansive windows every other day of the week, except Saturdays, it was the one day a week she got to sleep in, so being assaulted by the sun wasn’t her idea of a good morning. 

Just as she resolved to throw herself under the covers again and attempt to fall asleep again the phone buzzed on the nightstand, the ringtone alerted her that it was an international call. Sighing out loud she sat up in bed and picked up the phone, she couldn’t avoid them forever. 

“Hello?” She croaked and cleared her throat, cringing at the sound of her own voice. 

“Hey Honey!” Her mother’s bubbly voice rang through the speaker making her smile, calls to her mother had been short and sweet in the past few weeks as had they been to everyone else who decided to ring her from home, each time she used work as an excuse for her busy schedule, in their eyes she was probably a lonely workaholic, but she refused to explain to them why she was avoiding contact with her friends and family. 

“How are you, Mum? Is Dad there?” Sierra shut her eyes and smiled, it must be late at night in San Francisco so no doubt they were either huddled up in bed or on the couch. 

“I’m here, Honey.” her dad answered, she could hear the smile in his voice, it had been a while since they spoke, the time-zone difference didn’t give either of them much room for long conversations, she figured the reason they called on a Saturday morning is that they figured it would disturb her less. Little did they know. 

“I miss you guys, is everything okay there, I hope you’re taking care of each other and not bickering non-stop.” She pretended to scold, God knows their relationship revolved around casual bicker and constantly poking fun at one another, sometimes she wondered how she turned out so different from her parents. 

“Of course we are, everything is just fine, Honey.” Her mother answered obviously, but the mirth in her tone was hard to miss. 

“I’ll pretend I believe you.” Sierra chuckled, feeling a longing tug at her heart, she missed being within driving distance of them, on days like this she would usually make the drive out to Berkeley to spend the day with them. 

“Enough about us, how are you?” Sierra smiled at her mother’s emphasis. 

“I am fine mom, I’m alive and kicking, Singapore has yet to get the better of me.” She joked, knowing how irrationally worried her mom got.

“I worry about you Sierra, have you been eating and at least enjoying the place, work isn’t everything no matter how much you love your job.” She held back a smile at her mom’s lecture if only she knew the truth, but Sierra enjoyed the mystery of being there.

She felt free. 

“I understand you’re worried, Mom, but I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself, I have been for all these years.” Her mom may not say it out loud, but Sierra knew the reason she was so worried was because of the breakup. 

When she was in college her mother used to venture into the city more often than Sierra would have liked just to check on her, but when she met Brent, her mom’s visits lessened, she finally had someone she could trust to take care of her daughter in her absence and with Sierra more than halfway across the world, she didn’t have either assurance that Sierra was okay. 

“It’s natural for a mother to worry about her daughter, especially alone on the other end of the globe.” She pictured her mother pouting into the phone and her heart softened. 

“I’m not alone, Mom. Ken has been a great help, he’s a sweet young man, he doesn’t let me go without eating three meals a day, he keeps me company and he keeps me safe.” The last time her mother video called when she was on her way home from work, her parents got a chance to meet Ken. 

She saw the relief in her mother’s eyes when she realized that her daughter had someone to count on and while she may not trust him the way she did Brent, it was a small consolation to know Sierra wasn’t alone. 

“I know, I know and I don’t doubt that he’s a lovely young man. I just feel like you should make the most out of your trip there, go out and meet other people.” The mention of other people brought Roman’s face to the forefront of her mind causing her to bite her lip. 

Part of her itched to say the words, to tell her parents about the man who’d shown her so much of the world already, but a bigger part of her wanted nothing more than for Roman to remain her own little secret, her little piece of heaven without reality creeping in with its reasoning and negativity. 

Her mother must have taken her silence as a queue to explain herself because before Sierra could respond, she spoke again, “You’ve been there almost two months now, what fun have you had?” hundreds of images floated across Sierra’s mind, images mostly of her and Roman, but some with Ken and his lady friend too, she decided that one of those would be a better fitting example.

“I go out all the time, I’ve tried all kinds of cuisine since I’ve been here, and seen the city. Honestly, Mom, I am happy.” Perhaps it was something in her voice that caused her mother to grow quiet. 

“If you are happy, Sierra, then so are we.” Her father spoke after a beat of silence. She may not be outright lying to them, but omitting the truth was along the same lines, she was just glad that when she said the words, the flutter in her chest mirrored her words.

She was happy.