Chapter 4
The next day everyone was lounging around the apartment. Maureen was sprawled on the couch watching a made for TV movie, Joanne was in the office working on a case, and Mrs. Jefferson was in the kitchen doing God only knows what.
When there was a commercial, Maureen sat up on the couch, scratched her stomach and headed for the kitchen to grab a beer. She entered the kitchen and silently scowled at the sight of Mrs. Jefferson who was huddled over the sink. Choosing to ignore her, Maureen carried on with her business and reached in to grab her beverage. However when she went to grab a beer all she grabbed was a handful of air.
"Huh?" Maureen questioned, knowing for a fact her beer was always where she put it. She ducked down a little to check what the problem was. Perhaps Joanne moved them to make room for something else. But when the diva scanned the fridge for the delicious, ice cold, bottled beverage, she found nothing. She did a double take, coming to the conclusion that they were not in there.
She snapped into a standing position, her mind in doubt. "I just bought a new pack yesterday. I couldn't have drank them all…" She mumbled to herself, her fingers scratching the top of her head. "Joanne?" she called out, "Joanne do you know where my-" her sentence stopped as her eyes stopped on Mrs. Jefferson, who had several empty beer bottles next to her on the counter.
"Leave Joanne alone she's working on a case, she's busy." Mrs. Jefferson said.
Maureen walked forward, picking up some of the empty bottles. "This is my beer, why are they empty."
Mrs. Jefferson smirk and moved back, tipping the last full bottle of beer over the sink, letting the liquid wash down the drain.
"What the hell!" Maureen screamed, lunging for the bottle, successfully grabbing it from the woman's hands. She tipped it over her mouth, but only a few drops came out. "Why! Why would you do that!?"
"Do you know what that stuff does to your liver?" Mrs. Jefferson said as calmly as she could. "Why not have a bottle of water instead, and if you need alcohol have a glass of wine. It's less butch."
"I can't believe…" Maureen's mouth hung open, trying to process all of this. "You can't just pour beer down the drain…what I …what kind of a human are you!" Maureen furiously ranted. Her eyes then landed on an empty bottle of vodka, she ran over and examined it. "This used to be full!"
"Sorry vodka's no good either." Mrs. Jefferson shrugged. "I'm just trying to keep you healthy, you'll thank me later."
"I got this in Canada!" Maureen shouted. "Their alcohol is so much stronger than ours! You don't just waste this stuff! Do you know how much money you just poured down the drain?!" Maureen yelled. "Joanne! Joanne come in here!"
Joanne hurried into the kitchen, worried splashed all over her face since she could hear the screaming from a mile away. "What is it?"
"She…oh my God I'm in total shock right now!" Maureen said, trying to hold back her tears.
"What happened?" Joanne asked, eyeing her hysteric girlfriend, and her calm mother.
Mrs. Jefferson smiled and pointed towards Maureen. "Your girlfriend has a drinking problem." She turned back to face Joanne. "I was simply doing you a favor; I dumped all the alcohol down the drain."
"Mom!" Joanne scolded. "Maureen doesn't have a drinking problem." She eyed the kitchen, taking in all the empty bottles of beer, and the empty vodka bottle Maureen was cradling in her arms. "Mom, you can't just come in here and do something like this. This isn't your stuff."
"I'm sorry honey, but why do you need so much alcohol in here?" Mrs. Jefferson asked.
"It's all gone…" Maureen sniffled. "All that money…all that great taste, down the drain. When am I ever going to get the chance to go back to Canada again?"
"Relax, it's not like somebody died." Mrs. Jefferson said.
Joanne shook her head. "With Maureen, it's exactly like that." She grabbed her mother's upper arm and guided her out of the kitchen. "Please go into the bedroom, while I talk to Maureen."
"Joanne you're not mad at me are you?" Mrs. Jefferson asked kind of worried.
Joanne sighed. "Just go, I'll talk to you later."
"Okay honey." Mrs. Jefferson said, and complied.
When Joanne walked back into the kitchen she found Maureen huddled in the corner, with the vodka bottle tipped over her mouth, trying to shake any last drops out. When she felt Joanne's presence, she looked up with tears in her eyes.
"I want her out." Maureen firmly stated.
"Maureen I can't-"
"I don't care if you can't! Look what she did!" Maureen said, bolting into a standing position and motioning towards all the empty bottles. "What kind of a person does that!?"
"How about I give you some money, and you go down to the store and buy yourself some more beer?" Joanne suggested.
"It still won't change the fact of what she did." Maureen pouted. "All the Canadian vodka is gone…I was saving that for my birthday."
"I'll tell you what," Joanne began and moved in to wrap her arms around Maureen. "When my mother moves back home, I'll take some time off work and we can go to Canada for a couple of days, just you and I, and you can buy all the vodka you want."
"Can we have drunken Canadian sex?" Maureen sniffled, resting her head on Joanne's shoulder.
"Whatever you want honeybear." Joanne smiled, and pulled her closer.
"I'd really like that." Maureen said, nuzzling Joanne's neck. "You know who I don't like?"
"My mother?" Joanne smiled, and Maureen nodded. Joanne pulled away, tucking a stray hair behind the diva's ear, placing a tender kiss on her forehead. "Why don't you go take a nap for a little while, and I'll go scold my mom for dumping your beer."
"But I want a beer." Maureen whined.
"I'll have some for you when you wake up." Joanne assured.
"Okay." Maureen said, kissing Joanne on the lips. "But if she does one more thing to piss me off…I'm going to hire a hit man to take her out!" She threatened.
"Just go to bed." Joanne smirked, giving the diva a playful slap on the ass, sending her off to take a nap.
Joanne took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, preparing herself for the talk she was going to have with her mom.
"Mom?" She knocked on the bedroom door and slowly entered, finding her mom lying on the bed reading.
"Hi sweetie." Mrs. Jefferson smiled. "How mad is she?"
"Mad, but I calmed her down. She's napping now." Joanne said and sat on the edge of the bed. "Why did you do it?"
Mrs. Jefferson shrugged. "I don't know. Who in their right mind needs that much alcohol in the house? And I'm your mother Joanne, I know you don't drink that much."
"I have a beer every now and then." Joanne said.
"Beer?" She asked disgusted. "Joanne, why not have a nice glass of wine?"
"Why does it matter what I drink?" Joanne asked and then shook her head clear. "Don't change the subject, why did you dump all of Maureen's stuff down the drain?"
Mrs. Jefferson sighed, avoiding eye contact with her daughter.
"Tell me the truth mom." Joanne firmly said.
"I just…I don't like her." Mrs. Jefferson blurted. "I wanted to drive her out of the house so it could just be us two living here while I'm away from home."
"Well I love her." Joanne said angrily standing up, ready to lash out. "I'm doing you a favor letting you stay in my home, which is Maureen's home too, and if you can't live with her, then pack your bags and stay in a hotel, because I'm not going to kick Maureen out of the house just because you don't like her. You either learn to cope with your new living arrangements, or you go find a hotel. You will not make me feel guilty for picking Maureen over you…so what's your decision?"
Mrs. Jefferson stayed silent for a moment, shocked as hell that her daughter just gave her an earful. She slowly stood from the bed and wrapped her arms around Joanne. "I'll stay. I'm sorry I did that to Maureen, I'll learn to cope. I don't want to stay in a hotel. I'm sorry Joanne. I'll give Maureen a chance, if you love her, I'll try and find something that I like about her."
Joanne unsurely pulled away, looking into her mothers eyes. "Okay…okay then? So you won't touch Maureen's stuff?"
"No I promise I'll just keep to myself." Mrs. Jefferson said.
"Okay." Joanne nodded in approval. "Now I'm going to go back to working on my case. Please just keep it down, Maureen is trying to sleep, and I want to get this case done."
"I'm going to read all afternoon. You won't see me until supper time." Mrs. Jefferson said.
"Okay." Joanne smiled and headed out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.
Mrs. Jefferson sunk to the bed, the smile on her face turning to a frown.