I should leave it at that. I know I’m playing with fire, trying to enter into a fake relationship with her. But more than anything, I feel protective of her. I’m not cool with her mom doing what she’s been doing.
“I know you do,” I say. “Look, I don’t care either way. But if you do want to do it, you’ve got a justifiable reason. You’ve tried talking to her and it didn’t work.”
“Yeah. I’m truly at my wit’s end with her about this.” She sighs, looks down at her eggs, then glances at me. “You wouldn’t mind?”
I shrug. “No.”
“Well…I’ll think about it.”
For the rest of breakfast, we mostly talk about bar stuff. But I can tell Emily is still thinking about her mom, and after I come back after clearing our plates, I find her typing on her phone.
She blows some air out from her lips and looks up at me with an anxious expression.
“Here goes nothing,” she says, her thumb hovering above the send button.
3
EMILY
Not even five minutes have passed when my phone starts ringing. The image of my mom’s face popping up on the screen makes my chest tighten with anxiety about the conversation we’re about to have. I can already feel the million interrogative questions coming my way.
“Hi, Mom,” I say, pressing the phone to my ear. I give Rock a quick glance. He’s giving me a look that says,You need anything, I’m here. I’m so grateful to have a friend like him.
“Emily, honey,” my mom says on the phone. “What’s this text about? What do you mean, you’re dating Rock?”
The guilt of the lie nestles into my chest. This is exactly why I hate lying—it feels so awful. I remind myself that it truly was my last resort. “It’s not a big deal. I just wanted you to know so you can stop sending those texts to me about other guys.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Um…not long.”
“You know how your father and I feel about him.”
Yeah, they’ve made that blatantly clear. It’s been that way for years and years, since the night of our senior prom. Don’t even get me started on how much they tried to talk me out of opening a business with Rock.
I get up out of my seat and walk into the living room. I can’t have Rock looking at me right now. “Well, it’s my life, so…”
“So you’ll do what you want,” my mom says, her voice laced with disapproval. She exhales a quick sigh, then says in a slightly more upbeat voice, “Well, will he be joining us next Sunday, then?”
Oh, god. The thought of bringing Rock to one of my parents’ weekly dinners makes me break out in a sweat. It’s one thing to tell my parents the two of us are dating. It would be a whole other can of worms to have to fake it in front of them.
“He can’t,” I say quickly. “He’s busy.”
“I see.”
“Sorry, Mom, but I have to go. I’ll talk to you later?”
She sniffs in a breath. “That’s fine. We’ll speak later.”
“Love you. Bye.”
I hang up, a half-relieved, half-uneasy feeling washing over me. I’m relieved that the lie might have actually worked, but uneasy about being stuck in the lie now. I’m also bummed my mom reacted the way she did. I can’t say I’m shocked, though. It’s no secret that she and my dad aren’t the biggest fans of Rock. Even three years into us running a business together, theystilldrop hints about how there’s always a job waiting for me at my dad’s firm. I don’t understand why they can’t let it go. I don’t want to spend my life in a corporate job. It’s just not me. They mightthink that running a bar is below me, but I don’t see it that way at all. I take pride in our bar.
I gather myself up and walk back into the kitchen. Rock is washing our breakfast dishes, shaking the water off before setting them in the drainboard.
“So what am I too busy for?” he asks. “They want to meet up to tell me I’m not good enough for their daughter?”
I cringe. “My mom asked if you’d come to dinner on Sunday. Don’t worry. I won’t subject you to that.”
