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Same endgame.
“What the hell are you doing all the way out here, Parks?”
I looked up and Don Howell, one of our project managers, was standing beside our table with his wife.
I glanced at Sophie before saying, “Hey, Don. We had a thing in Everstom and now we’re starving. This is my friend Sophie. Sophie, this is Don Howell—we work together—and this is his wife, Barb.”
“Hi, nice to meet you,” she said, smiling at them, and Barb beamed back at her with a hugehias if Sophie had been sent to earth to save us all.
Barb was one of my mother’s best friends.
“We’ll let you get back to your dinner,” Don said. “But we thought it was you and wanted to say hi.”
“I’m glad you did. Nice to see you, Barb.”
“You, too, Maxxie.”
As soon as they walked away Sophie said, “You told me Maxxie isn’t your name.”
“When did I say that?”
“At the hotel, after my wedding.”
“We got pretty hammered that night,” I said, barely remembering the walk back to my hotel room.
“Yeah, we did,” she said. “I don’t even remember you leaving.”
My phone buzzed and I pulled it out.
Mom:Barb thinks she’s gorgeous, too. Hope you’re having fun!
“Are you kidding me right now?” I muttered, glancing out the window as Don and Barb pulled away.That didn’t take long.
“Problems?” Sophie asked, reaching across the table to take one of my fries because she’d finished hers.
“Barb has already texted my mother to tell her I’m on a date.”
“Is that bad?” she asked, dipping the fry into my ketchup.
“It is when we’re talking about my mom. It’s giving her false hope.”
“Oh, so you’ve got one of those mommies who wants to marry you off, huh?”
“Not necessarilymarry, but yeah, there’s definitely pressure for me to find someone.”
“Just be fine with disappointing them,” Sophie said, popping the french fry into her mouth. “That’s what I do. Every month when my grandchildless parents call me, I remind them that I have no interest in ever settling down, just so they have realistic expectations.”
“You only talk to your parents once a month?” I couldn’t imagine.
“We aren’t close,” she said, shrugging like it was no big deal. “But we’re talking aboutyourdisappointed parents, not mine.”
“It’s not just about my parents’ expectations.” I don’t know why, but I sat there in the vinyl booth and told her everything. I told her about my job, my happily married sisters, and the fact that my parents wouldn’t move on with their lives until I wastaken care of.
“So this.” I gestured to the two of us. “This just gives them false hope.”
“Can’t you fib, though? Have a girlfriend in Niagara Falls or something?” Sophie picked up her soda and took a long sip through the straw, and I wondered if there was something wrong with me for being distracted by her lips so often. She said, “Like, notlying, but can’t you let them think that you’re seeing someone with serious potential, and then when they move be like, ‘Oops we broke up’?”
“You want me to catfish my parents.”
