"I don't want to think about the calories I'm ingesting," Alexis said, piling her plate high with carbs and processed meat.
"God knows you can afford it," her mother said.
Somehow even her mother's compliments sounded like a putdown. Alexis was well aware that she'd lost a few pounds in the past year and a half, but she certainly wouldn't be considered skinny. Those days were long behind her. Looking at her mother and Betsy, however, she realized that they'd both put on quite a bit of weight since she last saw them and that probably made Alexis look particularly slim to them. Her gaze drifted to the plates full of pancakes and cinnamon rolls and wondered whether they ate like this all the time or whether it was a holiday treat. Either way, she had no interest in changing her relatively healthy eating habits just because she was back at her parents' house. After all, she had seventeen years of reprogramming under her belt.
"So have you been anywhere really exotic?" Betsy asked. "You always wanted to travel."
"The Maldives were really beautiful," Alexis said and immediately regretted it. She'd been to the Maldives on her honeymoon. It had been an amazing trip and she couldn't bear remembering it now.
"Where's that?" asked Betsy.
"A string of islands off the coast of India. Very private."
"Sounds like you," Betsy said and it took all of Alexis's willpower not to hurl a cinnamon roll at her sister's head.
"Did you go alone?" asked Tilly, clearly fishing for information. "That sounds dangerous to go somewhere so remote on your own. You always read about these solo women travelers getting raped or murdered."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Mom, you don't read anything of the kind. I've never seen you read a newspaper in my life."
"I've seen it online," Tilly insisted.
"Well, you'll be relieved to know that I didn't go alone," Alexis replied and she caught the other two women exchange not-so-subtle glances. "How about you? Have you been anywhere?" She didn't expect the answer to be yes, but she was desperate to change the subject.
"You know your father doesn't like to travel," Tilly responded. "Joe's pretty much the same. Anyway, it would be difficult to travel with Joey."
Alexis noticed Betsy's slight irritation at her mother's mention of Joey. She suspected Betsy and Joe handled Joey's condition much better than her parents did.
"Joey probably wouldn't like being confined on an airplane, but he wouldn't mind a car trip somewhere." Betsy took a long sip of her orange juice.
"Well, maybe this summer," Tilly said, picking up on Betsy's frustration. "Joey gets two weeks, doesn't he?"