“You look very nice, by the way,” I tell her, because no matter how much grief she gives me, she does. Her short curly hair has been tamed with product, she’s wearing crimson red lipstick and her earrings are extra eccentric and dangly and big tonight. Add to that the fitted short-sleeved black dress she’s wearing with her signature colourful thick bangles all up her forearms that clunk and clatter with her every move, she looks very beautiful and nowhere near to her seventieth year that we’re celebrating.
“Thank you, darling.” She leans so I can peck her on the cheek which I dutifully do. “You look very handsome too. Your shoes could have done with a little polish, but still, very smart.”
I groan inwardly and turn away to order that drink as soon as humanly possible.
“Oh, look Cameron and Bruno are here!” Mum calls out with unabashed delight.
“Fucking guests of honour,” I mutter under my breath once she’s a safe distance away. The thing is, I don’t hate my brother. He doesn’t ask for my mother’s unending adoration. I suspect he doesn’t even want it half the time and very often he does try and stick up for me, but that almost makes it worse. The fact he doesn’t even try to do everything perfectly and then puts great effort into stretching my own measly accomplishments into comparable achievements that my mother sees through immediately. And frankly, he also didn’t have to marry London’s most attractive man either. That did rather make things worse.
“Hello little brother,” Cameron says with a broad grin almost identical to mine, except it’s wider and with straighter, whiter teeth because Bruno is an orthodontist so they get free top-level dental care. He pulls me into a hug that part of me melts into because as annoyingly perfect as he is, he’s still my big brother.
“Hey Cameron,” I say into his shoulder, because, yes, you guessed it, he’s a good three inches taller than my five feet eleven. Okay, five feet ten but who’s counting?
“Good to see you, Charlie,” Bruno says as we shake hands once I’m released from my brother’s embrace.
“You too, Bruno,” I say while internally willing my cheeks to not blush or my body to not twist side to side as I feel an awkward heat skitter up my spine as he pins his dark brown eyes on me.
“You both look so handsome!” Mum declares pressing her hands flat on both their chests and I bite back the comment which would draw attention to the fact that Bruno is wearing Converse trainers with his suit, which is surely worse than my unpolished shoes.
“Listen, Charlie, so sorry to hear about you and Markus,” Cameron says even though he’s texted me a handful of times since we broke up, each message checking in on me.
“Yeah, so sorry,” Bruno echoes.
I wave my hand around. “No big deal. I’m fine. It was the right time.”
“But you always seemed so good together,” Bruno comments and it definitely helps me feel less favourable things towards him especially when my mother pounces on his words.
“Didn’t they? I daresay they’ll get back together again, one day,” she muses. “If only you’d agreed to stay friends. You know, I reckon he would have even come with you tonight, had you asked nicely.”
“But I didn’t want him to,” I say through gritted teeth. “Like I told you, I already have a date.”
“You do?” Cameron asks and I wish he wasn’t quite so stunned. Surely it’s not that shocking that I managed to secure a date.
“Yes, and it’s awoman,” Mum says the last word like it’s something that shouldn’t be said in public circles.
“Really?” Bruno seems shocked, but my big brother, God bless him, is tuned into what my mother is up to.
“Good on you.” He claps the side of my upper arm. “I’m happy you’re back out there. Who is the lucky lady?”
“Her name’s Mina,” I say and I’m struck by how strange it is thinking about the Mina I know from work – Moana – as the ‘lucky lady’ I am on a date with tonight. Of course it’s strange. It’s not real. It’s fake. “We work together.”
“Is that even allowed?” Bruno asks and even the lines of his frown add something to his olive-skinned face.
“Oh, he works at an ad agency, remember? It’s not like he works somewhere important like a dentists, like you, or a law firm, like you, Cameron.”
I swear I’m going to crack a molar the way I’m grinding my teeth so hard. For some reason, the digs about my job are the hardest to swallow.
“Well, I look forward to meeting her,” Cameron says to me with a pointedly sympathetic look. Ugh, I hate his pity almost as much as I hate that Mum provokes it in him. “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll just go and hang up our coats and say hello to everyone else.”
“I’ll come with you,” Mum says and she walks off with her hands proudly on their upper backs. I turn back to the bar and am relieved when I’m served quickly, and am almost orgasmic when I hear Mum has put some money behind the bar for everyone’s first drinks. I quickly order a second drink.
With both drinks in my hands, I twist my wrist and glance at my watch as it lights up. 8:04. So, I guess Mina is late now. I suppose I should have expected that. I suppose I should prepare myself for the inevitability that she’s not going to show up at all.
“Hey,” a voice pops up out of nowhere and when I lower my wrist a face is in front of me.
Mina’s face.
I put my drinks down on the bar behind me and open my mouth to greet her, but that’s when I really take her in.
