Tanked: TANKED Read Online Free PDF Page B

It’s ready.”
    I climb up on the bar stool on the outside of the kitchen counter and she places a cup of coffee in front of me, I pick it up and inhale the aroma.  Oh it smells so good.   I smell it again before I took a sip.  ACK! It desperately needs more cream and sugar. I reach over and grab the sugar bowl and dip a few teaspoons in the coffee before I get down off the bar stool and go find the creamer in the fridge.  Oooo my mother has stepped it up in the world. Liquid French vanilla . I pour some in my coffee and my mother says, “You like a little coffee with your cream and sugar, huh?”
    “Yes ma’am it’s the only way to drink coffee,” I reply after I take a big gulp.
    She puts a plate in front of me with a waffle and two strips of bacon. I pick up a piece of bacon and place it in my mouth.
    My mother pauses in front of me and I can tell she is up to something, “McKinsey, I want you to come to Bible study tonight.”
    I pause from buttering my waffle, eye my mother and answer her with bacon still in my mouth, “Oooo—k, why?”
    “Don’t get all pouty on me but Mary Beth and I want to introduce you to her son, Christian, you know, now that he has graduated from college and has a real job.”
    Argh, I don’t know why she doesn’t just have an auction and give me away to the highest bidder.   “OOOOOOhhhhhh Mom. Seriously, he is what twenty-six, twenty-seven years old? And I don’t need to be introduced to him, I know exactly who he is; please don’t do this to me.”
    “Well you’re not getting any younger. Every guy you date has something wrong with them, and your father treats Prima like she’s his grandchild.  You can’t “friend date” Jessie for the rest of your life.”
    Her little dig of friend dating Jessie reminds me why I moved out and got my own place. “Mom, I don’t want to date Christian. I don’t want to meet him or be introduced to him.  If you and daddy want a grandchild so bad, adopt another kid.  And about Jessie, one day he’ll meet someone and fall in love, and get married. Don’t worry it won’t be to me.” I’ve lost my appetite now, I put my fork down on my plate and it makes a loud clanking noise.
    “McKinsey Frances Morrow, sometimes you make it difficult to have a normal conversation.”
    “Mom you’re trying to fix me up with a kid who had acne so bad, he could have starred in his own commercial.  Not to mention how many times we had to hear about him having his excessive ear wax removed with a suction hose.”
    She makes a repulsed face as she asks, “That was Christian?”
    “See— you have the same reaction I do, Yes, Momma, that was Christian, and every time I think about him that’s all I picture in my head.”
    “Well hopefully he has changed over the years—”
    “Then you date him!”
    She exhales and gives me an ugly frown. “You know one day you’re going to regret talking to your momma that way.”
    “I’m sorry but please don’t try to fix me up with anybody especially at Bible study and, by the way, I won’t be there tonight.”
    She huffs but doesn’t respond. I pick up my fork and eat several pieces of the waffle. I glance at the clock and see it’s 6:35 Oh, shoot! I have to go. “Momma, I have to go.”
    She looks up at me from washing dishes at the sink and gives me a loving smile, “Alright, drive safe.”
    I give her a quick hug then run out the door.  I drive home in a hurry and race through my morning routine of getting ready.  At least I don’t look so haggard today I say to myself in the mirror as I finish getting ready.  I arrive at work five minutes before Mr. Samford.  He walks in. “Good morning, Ms. Morrow.  Could you come into my office please for a moment?”
    Great. I have the whole conversation worked out in my head on what I’m to say about meeting the great Mr. Osborne but it doesn’t do me any good. I forget everything I am going to say.
    I walk in his office and he motions to the