“A youthful spirit is great for raising children.”
“Mother, do we have to have this conversation again? The one where I tell you to stay out of my personal life, and you tell me that it’s a mother’s job to take care of her children, and I say it’s not your job to take care of my social life? And then we both get mad at each other and don’t speak for a week? Is that what we’re doing now?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
I hated to pull out the big guns with the “not speak for a week” threat, but it was what I needed to do, apparently. “I love that you and Dad had a great marriage and that you loved each other very much, and I know that you’re lonely now. That doesn’t mean that’s the life everybody chooses or the one I want you to choose for me. I can find my own dates.” In theory. It had been a hot minute.
“At least you got a dinner out of it,” she offered.
“A dinner I paid for, Mom. One that felt like a freaking job interview.”
“Oh. I thought he was nice when I met him.” She sounded remorseful, and for a split second, I thought I was being too harsh on her.
“About that… where did you meet him?”
“In the waiting room at the dentist.” And that split second was over.
Of course, she did.
“I’m going to hang up now, drive the rest of the way home, and in the morning, I’m going to pretend like tonight never happened.”
She apologized again, and I appreciated it, but I’d appreciate it more if I believed that she really wouldn’t do something like this again. Last time, it had been a few months. So… progress?
I went inside, exhausted, and hopped in the shower. I loved the food, but they served a lot of sizzling plates, and I didn’t want to smell like it all night.
When I came out, I had a text notification.
I swear to the goddess, Mom, if you gave my number to that guy, I’m going to scream.
But it wasn’t from him. It was a text from an unknown number, one that didn’t get flagged as spam. I tapped it open, assuming it was something from work, and on the screen was a picture of a panther at what looked like a party.
Oh, fuck no.
At first, I thought it was photoshopped or maybe AI-generated, but then I saw the caption: “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.” It got me thinking that maybe this was something much worse.
I looked for all the typical signs the photo had been doctored and found none. It was real. Somebody had a panther just chilling at a party.
Who is this?I shot back and waited.
Nothing.
What you’re doing is illegal.
Again, no reply.
I’m going to report you.
I don’t know why I said that. I had no way of finding out where this guy was, but maybe if I scared him enough, he would stop? Wild animals were meant to be wild, not kept as some sort of party favor. Who does that?
3
LINCOLN
I refused to get out of bed because my head hurt and there was a stabbing pain behind my eyes.
I’d made terrible choices last night, the first being I’d drunk too much, though not as much as Dale.
You can add that to the list of mistakes you’ve made.
