I poke my head back in. “Yeah?”
“Run with me tomorrow.”
Something in his voice makes my stomach constrict.
“Okay.”
He smiles, a real one this time, nodding his approval.
I turn and flee.
Chapter 16
I tap my foot impatiently, checking my phone again.
Mom: I’m in the building...
Mom: I’m on the elevator...
The elevator doors open.
“I’m here!”
“Mom!”
I practically dive into the elevator for a hug, and we only separate when the doors start to shut on us. We’re laughing and talking a mile a minute as I take her suitcase and wheel it down the hall.
My mom is visiting for the weekend, something we trade off doing every couple of months. Per our usual routine, she takes the train to Union Station, conveniently located across the street from the Hart Senate Building. She loves seeing where I work and gets a kick out of spotting the “celebrity senators” she sees on the news.
“I’m ready to go, but Stephen wants to say hi and I need to pack up my stuff,” I explain as I lead her through the maze of cubicles,introducing her to some coworkers along the way. It isn’t long before my small office is crowded with people, drawn by my mom’s irrepressible laugh and any excuse to kick off the weekend early. I’ve just started shooing people out when Ben appears in the doorway.
“You know your blinds are open, right? Guess my invitation to this party got lost in the mail,” he says, strolling in like he owns the place.
“Honest mistake,” I say disingenuously.
Since my apology and our cautious truce, things have mostly returned to normal between Ben and me. We even ran together last weekend without resorting to blows or bloodshed. Stephen told me he’s just thrilled I stopped moping.
Ben waltzes right past me, heading straight for my mother. “You must be Beverly. It’s so nice to meet you in person.”
My mom goggles at him. “Oh! You’re Katie’s running friend?”
“Something like that,” he says with a wink, extending a hand to shake. She bypasses his hand and pulls him in for a hug, shooting me a wide-eyed look over his shoulder and mouthing,Oh my God.
Here we go.
“You’re bigger than you look on the phone.” She’s already hero-worshiping him, gazing up at him with admiring eyes.
He laughs. “And you look even younger than you do on the phone.”
I jump in before she can say anything incriminating. “Please don’t get her going. She loves when people mistake us for sisters and I need therapy for all the creepy ‘Stacy’s Mom’ stuff I have to deal with.”
He smirks. “So, Beverly, does the feisty attitude run in the family, or just the good looks?”
My mom whoops. “He’s got your goose, Katie! Where have you been hiding this tall glass of sweet tea?”
I loudly snap up the handle on her suitcase, breaking up their littlelovefest. “All right, that’s enough of that. Mom, we have reservations.” I shovel her toward the door.
“So what kind of trouble are you ladies getting into tonight?” Ben asks, walking ahead with my mom as I bring up the rear.
