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I didn’t add that I thought it would be good for me too. Mom would tell me I was crazy and that I didn’t need any adventure or excitement in my life. It was how she dealt with her life, as simple and as uncomplicated as she could get it.
The only reckless thing she had ever done in her life was marry my father and have me. She regretted the marriage but she didn’t regret having me. She respected my relationship with my father but she didn’t like it. Even now, she was trying to make me see how much better her life was, how order and discipline were what was needed, not chaos and frivolity as my father liked to have. She would see this trip as another one of his frivolous adventures and one that I shouldn’t take. No matter what the reason.
I didn’t know how to tell her that it was how she raised me that allowed me to be so good at the job that I eventually took with my father. I had enough of his eye for the big picture and also my mother’s obsession with order and attention to detail that allowed me to be such a success. I wished I had more time with him but I was grateful for what I did have. If this trip allowed me to be closer to him again then so be it.
If it also allowed me time to be with Natalie, to see what we might be, then I wouldn't waste it. If my father’s death had taught me anything it was that I shouldn’t take anything for granted. If I wanted to do something, I would do it and if that meant going on some outlandish scavenger hunt with a woman I was interested in but who wanted to have nothing to do with me, I wasn’t going to pass it up.
But convincing my mother this was a good idea was going to be a lot harder.
“This was important to Dad. I don’t get it. I don’t understand why he wants me and Natalie to go on this hunt, but he does and I need to do it. Natalie and I have never gotten along and I don’t know why. If we’re going to have to work together as partners in the company, then we need to find a way to get along. This trip allows us the opportunity to figure it out.”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t just continue to avoid her like the plague that she is,” my mother muttered.
“Because she isn’t the plague, she’s just a woman who looks and deals with life differently than you do.”
“It’s ridiculous how she and your father think they can just go through life like nothing is wrong and everything is a happy-go-lucky time. It’s one thing to do it on the show, it’s another to live your life like that.”
I resisted the urge to tell her there were worse ways of looking at the world, for example like she did. She had felt that one reckless moment had wrecked her life and she vowed never to do it again. I could understand why she was the way she was but I wish she could allow herself to let loose a little bit. But she hadn’t in the almost thirty years I knew her and I didn’t see her doing it now.
She resented Sunshine and it seemed like that animosity transferred to Natalie. She felt Sunshine took my father away from her and her son. It wasn’t the case; my parents had been divorced for over a year before my father met Sunshine. By then, Mom had tainted me from my father. But she liked to play the victim and used any excuse to share how she was wronged. I was sure she even thought she should have been given something in the will and was feeling resentful over that too. I had learned over the years that there wasn’t anything that my mother didn’t like to be resentful over. I learned to love her in spite of it and how to work around it.
“It worked for them and they have built a successful career out of it. One that I helped build and want to continue to work on. It really is your fault that I’m so good at my job and Dad wanted to keep me around even when he was gone. You were the one who instilled in me all the good work ethics and how to be organized and see everything for what it was.”
“And you could be doing all of those things for your own company. Have you ever thought of branching out on your own, starting your own show? I’m sure you have plenty of ideas and you have the staff who already know and love you.”
“I’m not poaching Dad’s crew, that wouldn’t be ethical and it more than likely would backfire and cause me to be blackballed from the industry. I would never do that, and I don’t want to. I like the job that I have and I want to keep doing it.”
“Then do it, forget this nonsense about going anywhere with Natalie,” my mother implored.
“I understand that you don’t like Sunshine, but what did Natalie ever do to you?”
Mom had hardly ever spent any time with Natalie. I wasn’t even sure if they had a single conversation in all the years Dad had been married to Sunshine. If my mother didn’t like Natalie because she thought she took my place in my father’s heart, it was unfounded. I wasn’t sure if it was something else or if my mother was just being overly dramatic.
“She has always been rude and obnoxious with me. She doesn’t respect me and who I am. I can't respect someone who doesn't respect me.”
I gave my mother a skeptical look. I might have had issues with Natalie and clashed with her over things but no matter how heated our discussions got we always respected each other or at least treated the other with a decor of understanding and respect. I couldn’t see Natalie being anything but that to my mother. Not that they had much run in with each other to warrant any animosity.
“Maybe that’s something that you need to talk to her about. Clear the air.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because if this trip works out, if Natalie and I find a way to make this new relationship work then I’m going to be spending even more time with her. If you want to be in my life and in my work, or even visit me where I work, which you are always welcome to do, you might want to try and find a way to become on better terms with Natalie.”
“Well, that isn’t only for me to do. She needs to make the effort.”
“Fair enough and that’s something that you two will need to discuss when I get back. I need to get going or I’m going to be late. I have someone coming in to take care of the mail and Pumpkin so you don’t need to come by. I’ll be in touch. I love you,” I said and kissed my mother on the cheek.
“Be careful. I love you. And watch yourself around Natalie.”
“I’ll be fine, Mother,” I said and gently pushed her out the door.
When she was gone, I finished up my packing and thought about what she had said. I wasn’t just asking her to get along with Natalie for me and the show's sake but for other reasons. If things went the way I wanted them with Natalie and me, we were going to be in a relationship. I didn’t want my mother to think or try and get in the way of that.
I hoped she would be happy for me and Natalie if it happened but I had a feeling she wouldn’t. I wouldn't worry about that now. I first had to go on a trip with Natalie and see if she could stand being in the same car with me before I could convince her to come into my bed.
Chapter 7
Natalie
