“I can look out for myself, Mom, I have been for the last 14 years. I don’t need you to intervene in my love life.”
My mother looks at me, and her brows furrow, “It seems you do. You are almost 33 years old. You should think about settling down. Time is ticking, you won’t be young forever. Your father says Roger is ready to get married, he would make a lovely mate and father to your children.”
“What about Asher?” I ask.
“What about Asher? I wasn’t aware of his existence until three weeks ago. Do you even know anything about that man? You have brought a practical stranger into my home. I don’t want to see you wasting your time on someone who isn’t serious about you, sweetheart.”
My shoulders tense and the words tumble out of my mouth, “I’m not wasting my time because it’s all fake!”
I catch movement out of my peripheral vision, and when I turn, Asher is standing by the door. The moment our eyes meet, he disappears back into the party, his expression unreadable.Panic grips my chest. I want to shift and hide. I want to run after him. Above all else, I want all of this to stop.
“Fake?” she cries out. “What do you mean, fake?”
Until now, I had hoped to avoid this conversation until after the holidays, but it’s clear that she doesn’t understand what she’s doing and how much it’s affecting me. And now that she’s brought Asher into it? My last bit of restraint snaps.
“Asher agreed to come home with me and pretend to be my boyfriend so you wouldn’t push Roger on me and hopefully to stop you from bugging me to settle down.” I admit.
“Bugging you? Oh, well then I am sorry that I’mbuggingyouto say you should be a responsible adult. You are getting to a certain age, Penny, you need to take a good hard look at who you want to be the father of your children.” She wags her finger at me, and I snap.
“I’m never having kids, Mom. I decided that a long time ago. I’m sorry. I don’t care if you think I lack direction.” I lift my hands and then let them fall to my side, “Maybe I do, but it’smylife. I want to let myself make mistakes and live in the city, and I want to work at Plot Twist for as long as they’ll let me. Above all else, I want to have a relationship with my mother without feeling like I’m constantly disappointing her.”
She stands there, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.
I take that silence as an answer. “But maybe it is too much to ask. Merry Christmas, Mom.”
The moment I walk into the hall, Hazel pulls me into a hug. “I am so proud of you.”
“I’m going to throw up.” I murmur into their shoulder, then pull away, “I just yelled at Mom on Christmas Eve.”
“You did, but you also stood your ground and set boundaries.” Hazel shakes my shoulders, squeezing. “Pretty sure feeling like you’re going to throw up is a normal side effect.”
“Do you know where Asher went?” I crane my neck to check the hall and the living room, hoping to see his dirty blond hair.
“I’m pretty sure I saw him go upstairs.” They nudge me, “Go after him. I’ll try to smooth things out with Mom.”
“Thank you, Hazel.” I envelop them in another tight hug.
“Yes, I love you too. Now, go.” Hazel pushes me further down the hall.
FIFTEEN
Asher
It feelsstrange to have everything out in the open. Like a weight off my chest, even though it means our agreement has ended, for better or for worse. Part of me wishes I had stormed into the room and leapt to Penny’s defense, but I know it’s not my place. This is not my battle. All I can do right now is support her in whatever she decides.
“Did you mean what you said downstairs? About regretting not asking me out sooner?”
I look up from my suitcase to see Penny standing there in the doorway. “Yes, I?—”
She holds out her hand, “Wait, I need to get this out, and I am kind of on a roll here.” She closes the door behind her, cutting off the low murmur of the party below.
I stuff the blue box into my pocket and straighten with a nod, “Okay.”
“I noticed you too, and I haven’t stopped noticing you since we met, but I was too chicken to actually talk to you. It was safer to keep the crush than to risk losing everything.” Penny paces,looking down at her fingers, pinching and squeezing them. A nervous habit I picked up during the drive up. “But then you saved me back in Harrington Park, in so many ways you can’t even imagine, and I realized I had been missing out this entire time.”
“Penny.” I mutter.
She stops in front of me and looks up into my eyes, “You deserve more than a fake relationship, and I’m thinking I do too.” She falters, her gaze dropping to my shirt collar, “Hazel told me to ask the world for what I want. Well,” her eyes find mine again, “I’m asking for you. I want to do this properly. I want to learn everything about you. I want to make our own memories, not manufacture them to make someone else happy.”
