This is Where We Talk Things Out

by Caitlin Marceau

And while Sylvie had a bad habit of extending poison ivy disguised as olive branches, Miller had a worse habit of accepting them.

“Okay, but how you feel doesn’t dictate the truth of the situation.” Sylvie laughs in disbelief. “Okay, so not only are you attacking me, you’re trying to tell me that I’m crazy for how I feel.” “What are you talking about? That’s not what I said!” “Oh, sorry, I guess I’m an idiot too, right?”

Is all. She says it so casually, but Miller knows it’s anything but. It’s Sylvie laying the groundwork in case things don’t work out and she needs to point fingers. It’s Sylvie preparing for the worst, but trying to position herself in a way that lets her shift the blame for a failed weekend onto Miller.

Sylvie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, trying to look exasperated without actually being exasperated, putting this show on just for Miller.

“I don’t want kids, Sylvie. At all. Ever. And I won’t be alone, I’ll have Florence and whatever nurse we eventually hire. And, quite honestly, I think it says a lot about someone if they can’t love another person unconditionally unless that person’s their offspring. It’s narcissistic.”

“You weren’t giving me motherly advice, you were trying to invalidate my choice not to have kids. And this isn’t the first time you’ve done this, either. I’m an adult, I know what I want, and I shouldn’t have to prove that to you for you to respect my choices.”

Her mother either fails to understand or chooses not to: it’s not that Miller is argumentative, she just stopped blindly agreeing with her mother; she hasn’t been ignoring her mother, she's just trying to live her own life; she didn’t cut her mother out, she just set boundaries.