somewhere in the middle

Lux was listening carefully to the manager, talk to both them, her and Michelle about the job. It sounded as if they were both hired.

"Are you serious?" Lux gave a fierce glare at her supervisor, a nerdy guy who knew a hell of a lot more about roasting coffee beans than she did.

"You still want the job, don't you?" He looked more like Harry Potter, come to think of if as she watched him all serious with his iPad making out the schedule.

"Of course." She put her hands in her hip pockets of her jeans as she waited for the next little pesky thing she'd have to contend with. There was no perfect job. But her eye strayed away from him for a second. There was her Mom with the baby.

If it weren't for being behind the counter, she would have not been nice to her. She'd been avoiding her for weeks now. And now they were face to face.

"So who told you?" She wanted to know.

"No one." Her mom was all innocent, but Lux didn't buy it.

"You're sure?" Lux questioned.

"Well, I talked to Sam's Mom." She hugged on to the runny nose kid, Lucas, they called him.

"How could you? I thought you weren't speaking to her." Lux reminded her that she was suppose to hate the woman's guts.

"Look, what is going on with you?" The baby pointed to a cookie then.

Lux was in a huff. She had to be nice, but it was so hard. She reached for the star shaped cookie.

"Can he have it?"

"All right." Her mom sighed. Lucas took it with a smile. They were real brother and sister. Nothing step, half or foster about it. The real deal.

"That'll be $3.50." Lux rang it up. "Anything else?" It was suppose to be business as usual.

Her mother looked up at the menu. "The mixed berry smoothie."

"You would." Lux said under her breath as she went to make it. She still hadn't quite gotten the hang of these yet. So she carefully blended it up with ice, mix and cream.

"They have a gazillion calories, you know." She handed over the plastic cup of cold berry mix to her.

"It says its low-fat." Her mother took it and gave Lux a twenty.

"About that." Lux gave her a sly shrug. She didn't know where the skim milk was. She gritted a smile. Oh well, the baby was gonna drink most of it, anyway..she thought.

Her mother just stared at her as if she might be a helpless dog with a puppy stuck to her.

"OK." Lux blurted then. "I'll come to dinner."

"When?" Her mother wanted to know as Lucas made a mess with the cookie.

"Friday night," Lux sighed. "And I'll bring Stanly."

"Really?" Her mother sounded as if she didn't believe her.

"Yes." Lux wanted her to go. But she knew her Mom wanted a hug. Didn't she know by now she wasn't that good with hugs.

She turned back to her Harry Potter boss who wanted to know if she wanted mornings or afternoons. What was he talking about? Weren't she and Michelle working together?