“So, do you talk to your parents much?”
He looked up at her question. “As little as I can get away with—they still try to make me give them dirt on the other one.”
Aurora shook her head. “That’s insane. It’s been ages.”
“Don’t I know it.” He fought a pang of jealousy at the lucky goblet touching her lips. “How are your folks?”
“They’re still around. Mom is still pushy. They sold the house and moved into an apartment, so they don’t need as much help now. But it gets frustrating being told what to do all the time.”
Duncan snorted. “Some things don’t change.”
“She’s mellowed, don’t get me wrong. But it gets exhausting dealing with her opinions on how I’m raising Katie.” Aurora stared at the wine in her glass. “We’ve always treated her as her own person. I think that’s the part my mom struggles with the most. She acted as if we were an extension of her and Dad.”
“I still remember you explaining to me you got grounded if you brought home more than two B’s on a report card.”
“Yeah, those high expectations didsomuch for my mental health.” Sarcasm dripped from her words as she rolled her eyes. She finished her wine and set the glass down. “Maybe you should pick the next subject; I can only think of depressing subjects tonight.”
“Tell me about Jeff. How did you meet him?” He bit into his General Tso’s as a smile spread across Aurora’s lips.
“We had some mutual friends that introduced us in college. We’d all get together for video games. He was so animated and funny. We started hanging out just the two of us, and the rest of the story wrote itself.”
“How long were you together?”
“We were married for thirteen years, together for sixteen.” She poured herself another glass of wine and stared at it as if lost in thought. “He was the first boyfriend that I felt like I could really be myself with, you know? No expectations of what I should be, or how I needed to change. Just me.”
Her smile was contagious. He felt one of his own creeping in, happy she’d had that. “Sounds like a good guy.”
“He was amazing.” She was looking off into space, her wine forgotten in her hand. “I couldn’t have gotten through graduate school without him. We were both working, and he took care of everything, so all I had to do was study.”
“So you weren’t yourself with us?”
“Fuck, no!”
Duncan choked back his water, so it didn’t go all over his laptop.
Aurora gasped. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize you were drinking. No, I didn’t even know who I was back then. I was too busy trying to be who I thought my mom wanted me to be.”
“Is the swearing thanks to the wine, or did you get a potty mouth in college?” He winked at her.
“The potty mouth is from college, although I try to rein it in when I’m being professional. That’s what happens when you repress your kids.” She winked back. Now he was laughing. “Although it’s not like I never swore in high school.”
“You? Never.” He gave her a smirk. “Not our Roar.”
Aurora giggled so hard she snorted. “You have a faulty memory there, sir.”
“I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about.” His eyes looked up and away, feigning innocence, before coming back down and grinning at her through the screen.
“You probably wouldn’t have recognized me if you’d seen me in college. I had my rebellious stage in my twenties.” Her eyes danced as if they were hiding a secret.
He raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”
“One Halloween, I wore a leather skirt and fishnets as part of my costume.”
He slammed his fork down. “Pictures or it didn’t happen. I gotta see this.”
“Alright, let me dig through the archives here.”
Laughing, she clicked around on her computer for several minutes, then sent the photo over. He waited for it to load. There on his screen was a young Aurora. She wore a witch’s hat, leather miniskirt, fishnet stockings, and heeled boots. Her makeup was dark and sultry, and she wore a purple corset that made her curves even more pronounced.
