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Pearl ordered a bottle of wine for the table and looked at the menu. “Crow brought me here when we were first getting to know each other. The waitress was making subtle moves on him, and I got extremely jealous.” She smiled at the memory, still scanning her menu.
Had she still been a prisoner at the time? I looked at the menu and picked out the first thing that looked good. I’d never sat across from Vanessa’s mom like this, just the two of us without another Barsetti around.
It was strange.
The waitress returned, and we both ordered.
I was glad the waitress was being quick with our service. I didn’t hate Pearl, but this situation was too intimate for me. I never dined with anyone but Vanessa. Even if I had a woman in my life, we didn’t go out to dinner. It was all straight to business—fucking. Pearl was the only woman I’d been out with besides Vanessa.
She stared at me, a slight smile on her lips and affection in her eyes. “Let me pay for dinner tonight. It’s the least I can do…”
That was even stranger, but I didn’t make an argument against it.
My phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I fished it out and saw Vanessa’s name on the screen. I’d slipped out while she was at work, so she had no idea where I was. If it had been someone else, I would have ignored the call. I answered. “Hey, baby.”
“Where are you? Are you picking up dinner?” I liked the slight anger in her voice, the disappointment she felt when she didn’t see me on the couch when she walked through the door. Possessive like I was, she wanted me all the time. When that didn’t happen, she got angry.
“Sorta.”
“Meaning?” she asked, growing angrier.
I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips. “I like it when you get mad.” When I spoke to Vanessa, I forgot about her mother altogether, who was listening to the conversation.
“I’m not mad,” she said defensively. “I just want to know where you are. You didn’t tell me you were going anywhere.”
“You don’t tell me where you’re going, and I never ask,” I reminded her. Vanessa did whatever she wanted without asking for my approval or permission. If she wanted to see Carmen at the flower shop, she didn’t mention it to me. If she wanted to go out, she did that too.
Vanessa was quiet, knowing I had her cornered.
“Just admit that you hate when I’m not home.” I leaned back in my chair, enjoying the anger simmering in her silence.
“I just wanted to know where you were…that’s all.”
“Sure, baby.”
She sighed into the phone. “So are you going to tell me where you are?”
“Are you going to admit I’m right?” I countered.
More silence.
Pearl smiled as she listened to the conversation.
Vanessa caved. “Fine. I don’t like it when you aren’t home…”
“There’s my woman. Possessive. Obsessive.”
She didn’t disagree with the statement.
Now that she’d fulfilled her end of the deal, I fulfilled mine. “I’m at dinner with your mother.”
“What?” she blurted. “You are? How did that happen?”
“I’ll tell you when I get home.”
“Alright,” she said. “When do you think that will be…?”
I couldn’t stop smiling, loving how clingy she was. She used to be the opposite, trying to prove to herself and to me that she didn’t need me. But now she laid all her cards on the table, needing me like she needed air. “Two hours.”
“Okay. Love you.”
I usually said it first when we got off the phone, but she was quick to jump in before me, missing me because she was in that apartment by herself. She took me for granted, and the second I wasn’t there, she was caught off-balance. “Love you too.”
She hung up.
I put my phone back in my pocket.
Pearl was still smiling. “Vanessa is a different person with you.”
“Yes, she’s a bit clingy.”
“But you like that, clearly.”
I shrugged. “She wasn’t like that in the beginning. But now she’s a little bossy and gets angry when she doesn’t get her way. When her man isn’t around…she gets mean. For the longest time, she refused to allow herself to need me, to rely on me for her happiness. But she stopped that production and now wears her heart on her sleeve the way I do. It’s fun to watch.”
“I bet. You conquered an unconquerable woman.”
“Conquered her?” I asked. “No. I claimed her.” I grabbed my scotch and took a drink, refusing to feel guilty about my candor. Vanessa was irrevocably mine now, so I could say whatever I wanted.
“Crow is the same way. I think being married for nearly thirty years has made him worse, actually. I thought he would be less intense after our children changed my body, but that also made him worse too. He admired my scars and the pain my body had to endure to give birth to his son and daughter.”
