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CHAPTER TWELVE
Melody
“When did your brother say he would be home?” my mom asked as she emptied her dishwasher.
I sat in her kitchen at the small wooden table we used to have dinner on every night. I’d driven out to see her since I hadn’t had a chance to stop in yesterday.
“Thanksgiving,” I said, keeping my eyes set on the flowered cup filled with hot herbal tea in front of me. My fingers twirled the small fringe of my scarf. I’d put it on that morning out of habit and I was glad I had. It made Asher feel closer somehow. Though I knew that was silly. I hadn’t seen Asher since we’d had sex last night. He’d gone out this morning before I’d even gotten out of bed. Running most likely. I knew he would. It was his thing. He always said he didn’t get the body he had by sleeping in and lounging around all day. Now I knew first-hand just what that gorgeous body felt like on top of me and under me. I wondered what he’d thought when he woke up and found me gone.
“Well, I can’t wait to see him. Life just isn’t the same since he moved to Phoenix.” She turned toward me after putting some cups away and fell silent for a few seconds as she stared at me. “What did you do differently?”
“Huh?”
“You look different. Did you do something with your hair?”
“No.”
“Well, something is different. You look…grown-up…or something. Who’s the boy?”
“What?”
“Who’s the boy who has you looking so dreamily into your tea?”
I’d been thinking about Asher and the awesome, mind-blowing sex we’d had last night, but I couldn’t tell her about that. And, why had she even asked? Did I have some message written on my forehead that said, “Just had my first fuck?” or “No longer a virgin?”
“I have a date tonight,” I finally blurted out. Good thing it was still true…though, I wasn’t as excited about it as I had been before…Asher. Shit, was I going to compare everything that happened to me now with “before Asher?”
“A date? Why didn’t you tell me? What’s his name, and where are you going?”
“This is why I didn’t tell you. The twenty questions.”
“Oh, come on, Melody. I’m your mother and I have a right to know the name of the boy you have a date with.”
“Alex Clayton. And he’s not a boy, he’s a man.”
“Okay. Well, since he’s aman, are you still on the pill?”
“Mom!” God, she was blunt and nosy.
“I’m just asking. I know you haven’t dated before, and I want you to be prepared that’s all.”
“I’m not thirteen. And really, Mom, I don’t know which is worse, you asking me if I am still on the pill or the thought that you are actually condoning the reasons one might need to be on the pill.”
“I’m not condoning sexual activity. I just want you to be cautious. That’s all. You’re an adult now, and well, you don’t have a lot of experience.”
“Now see, Mom? That’s the key word here, ‘adult.’ I am an adult.”
“Yes, you are. But I still worry, and you are still my child. No matter how old you are. Capisce?”
I reached out to grab my tea and knocked the cup over instead, spilling lukewarm tea that was sure to make a huge, ugly stain all over Mom’s linen placemat.
“Sorry, Mom.”
All this talk about sex had me flustered and I couldn’t help wish it were Asher we were talking about, not Alex. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just throw it in the washer with some bleach. It will come out. So, where is he taking you?”
“To the Maroon Five concert at the Shoreline.”
“Isn’t that where we went with Ted and Asher for the Bridge School concert a few years ago? We had such a great time on the lawn. Will you be on the lawn or in the seats?”
