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I was so reluctant to send it, but I did. Did I want to wait for the response? Or did I want to run to the barn and absorb myself in mucking out the goats’ stall? Neither seemed like an appealing option.
Before I could make my decision, she’d replied.
> MOM: Interesting. Invite her to the lunch.
Was that approval? Or was she going to berate us for being gay at the lunch itself? I had no idea. I wanted to believe she’d be accepting because she’d never explicitly said anything anti-LGBT, but I wasn’t sure.
Well, what was done was done. Now I just had to wait for Saturday to come and see what happened.
I put my phone down with my other things and got up to head out to the barn. Working with the animals always made me feel less stressed.
I’d been secretly hoping that Brianne would have something better to do, but she didn’t. She was coming for the lunch.
Of course, because she’d prepared me for the pitfalls of interacting with her family, I had to do the same for her, and I did. I told her that I wasn’t sure how my mother felt about me dating a girl. I decided that I wouldn’t tell her we were living together. There was no reason for her to see where I was living, anyway.
I was terribly nervous as I drove us over there, but Brianne kindly stroked my arm and told us that no matter what happened, we’d be together at the end of it. If it went badly, we could have a pleasant evening to ourselves to recover.
I parked the car in the Riverwalk’s lot and walked to the main strip of restaurants. The Indian restaurant that Brianne and I never made it to had a lunch buffet, and my mom liked spicy food, so it was perfect.
We waited outside. She hadn’t been entirely sure when she would get into town, and I didn’t want to keep her waiting, so we’d decided to just come early. It was a pleasant day, and we could sit at the benches outside the restaurant.
I wished she would get here already, though. My palms were damp, I was so nervous.
My phone buzzed, and she told me she’d just parked. Five minutes later, I saw her striding up the path to the row of restaurants. She looked a little different from the last time I’d seen her, at Christmas, but I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed, exactly.
“Hi, honey!” she said, walking up to me and squeezing me tightly in a hug. “And you must be Brianne,” she added, smiling at her.
So far, so good. But I’d have felt a lot more at ease if she’d explicitly told me she was okay with me being gay (or whatever I was). I didn’t know why she hadn’t just said anything earlier, apart from the ominous “interesting.”
“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am,” said Brianne.
“Call me Rebecca,” said my mother. I was reminded of the same exchange when I met Brianne’s parents. I supposed we were at the age where we didn’t have to call our peers’ parents Mr. and Mrs. anymore.
We went into the restaurant and got set up with the buffet. They had a wide variety of rices and curries out for us to sample, and I loaded my plate up with a little bit of everything. But I was still so nervous that it was hard for me to even want to eat. I thought I might have gotten too much food, considering how my appetite had disappeared.
“So, honey, how’s school going?” she asked, when we’d all sat down to eat. “You told me all about the friends you have…”
“Yeah, I do have good friends,” I said, glad I could tell her the truth now. “I like hanging out with Brianne’s friends, I made friends at the Environmental Action Coalition, and now I’m working at an animal rescue for the summer, so I’m meeting even more people.”
She beamed. “How wonderful! And Brianne, what are you studying?”
“I actually graduated last month and I’m looking for jobs now,” she said.
“Congratulations!” said my mother. “I’m sure a Beasley grad like you will have no problem finding anything.”
She didn’t know that poor Brianne actually was having trouble. Being a Beasley grad didn’t mean much in Rosebridge itself, where Beasley students were a dime a dozen. I personally believed Brianne would find the right job soon, though.
“Thank you, Rebecca,” said Brianne politely.
I was glad she, at least, was great with parents, probably from all those random parties her parents made her go to. I could tell she was charming my mother.
I told her a little bit more about the classes I took, the animals at the rescue, and the town itself. There was a lot to catch up on; even though we did talk regularly on the phone, the words flowed so much easier in person. But I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“So,” she said. “You guys are dating? How did you meet?”
“Uh… I bumped into Brianne and spilled her coffee all over us,” I said. I wondered if her asking these questions was her way of showing her acceptance.
“How funny,” she said. “And how long have you been together?”
