Harlow:
I’m okay. Just got out of the shower
Me:
You were on the water for a while. You gotta be hungry. Have dinner with us?
Harlow:
I’m tired. I have water and I’m just gonna lie down
Me:
You hear from your mom today?
Harlow:
No. She won’t answer my calls or texts
Me:
She needs time, sweetheart. Don’t think about it too much
She didn’t respond, and when it was time for me to leave and she still hadn’t said anything, I climbed the stairs to her room. Setting the plate on her nightstand, I looked at her curled up in bed with my raggedy old teddy bear beside her head and AirPods snug in her ears.
If I stared any longer, I’d wake her up and beg her to talk to me, knowing damn well I’d get the same short answers we’d been getting all day. My chest ached with a hurt I couldn’t explain. She was right in front of me and it felt like she was in another world.
In two decades, I’d never seen her this withdrawn. Not even when she was the shy stranger Rico showed up at the park with one day.
And the whole house was feeling it. She controlled our rhythm more than she knew; it only took a day to throw us off.
Soul was losing his shit, Rico was blaming himself, and I didn’t know what the hell to do. How had our love story turned into this so fast?
It wasn’t a secret Harlow adored her mother more than anything in the world. Their bond was deep, and their love was deeper. I knew she felt blindsided, but I just wished she would talk to us.
After pulling the blanket up to her waist, I left the room and closed the door behind me.
On the walk to work, I pulled out my phone and typed a message I knew would go unanswered.
Me:
I just left your room. There’s food on your nightstand if you wake up. I guess you were tired, you were already sleeping when I walked in.
I love you, Harlow
Unconditionally
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Get into your body and out of your head.
Lyric left me with those words when I walked out of her shop Sunday, and I was clinging to them.
Granted, she didn’t know the extent of what I was attempting to suppress. Maybe that’s why there was a forty-eight-hour cap on her advice.
I’d been running myself ragged the past two days.
Paddle boarding as soon as I woke up and just before sunset.
