Page 201 of The Doctors Will See You Now

“Nope,” my mother responded without hesitation, and before I could stop her, she grabbed my plate and started filling it up with a more than healthy serving of everything.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. That’s enough, crazy food lady.” I took my plate from her busy hands before she could dish out crepe number three for me. “I’d like to be able to get into my apartment tonight without needing a crane to get my ass into the elevator.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, sweetheart.” She scoffed. “You’re nearly too thin as it is. A few extra pounds would do you good.”

I sighed, and Jean-Pierre grinned at me from across the table.

“So, what’s new with you, Harlow?” he asked in an attempt to steer the conversation away from my mother trying to overfeed me.

“Not too much.” I shrugged. “I saw Kinky Boots with Dad a few weeks ago.”

“Was that the show he met Nicole at?” my mother asked.

“Yep.” I took a bite of Nutella and whipped cream and crepe goodness and moaned out loud. “Jesus, these are good. My compliments to the chef,” I said with a raise of my fork toward Jean-Pierre, and he grinned.

“Thank you. I’m happy you like them.”

“Do you want another, sweetheart?” my mom asked, and I rolled my eyes.

“Uh, no. I think I’m still good with the one and half I have left on my plate.”

“Tell me more about Scott,” my mother demanded, and my brow furrowed in confusion.

“Scott?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Your father told me a little bit about him, but I want all of the juicy details.”

“There are no juicy details.”

Well, I guess there were some juicy details…

I mean, we’d been hanging out a lot lately and obviously having sex on the regular. There was no denying that sex with Scott was off the charts, but no fucking way was I going to tell my mother about that. She might’ve been quirky as hell and oftentimes too open-minded, but I had boundaries I refused to cross.

“We’re just friends,” I said, and the instant the words left my lips, they felt like total bullshit, not to mention the pointed look my mom flashed in my direction basically called me on that very fact.

“What?” I questioned. “We’re just friends. Nothing more.”

Well, friends who had a lot of sex. Friends who spent a lot of time together. But, yeah, other than that, we were friends. Scott and I were just friends…right?

She pointed her fork in my direction. “I don’t believe you.”

“You know I don’t do long-term relationships.”

She sighed. “I think you say you don’t do them, but deep down, one day, you will when you find the right guy.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.”

She rolled her eyes. “You get your stubbornness from your father.”

Jean-Pierre chuckled, and my mother glanced at him in confusion.

“What?” she asked, and he just grinned.

“She actually gets her stubbornness from you.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, and his eyes shone with amusement. “She definitely does.”