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We banter back and forth until the Uber comes. On the way to my parents’ condo, Alec holds my hand, making me feel giddy with excitement. It’s silly considering we spent the afternoon having sex. Holding hands shouldn’t excite me, but it does.
When the Uber stops, Alec walks me to the entrance and then pulls me in for a kiss.
“I wish I was staying longer,” he murmurs.
“I know.” My tone is breathless. I wish he were taking me back to his hotel room. His lips feel hot and firm against mine. I lose myself in the heat of his mouth and the firmness of his body. My whole body comes alive, and I cling to Alec and moan into his mouth as though we are in the privacy of his hotel room.
Alec is the first one to come to his senses. He pulls away gently and takes a step back. “I’m very close to making a fool of myself right now,” he says and buries his hands into his pockets. “I’ll text you when I get back home.”
“Goodnight,” I tell him.
“Goodnight.”
I make myself turn around and walk away when every instinct is screaming at me to get into the Uber with Alec. I giggle in the elevator. Those are not instincts. That is desire. I want Alec. It doesn’t matter how many times we have sex. I cannot get enough of him. It makes me wonder how I managed before I met him and how I’ll manage for the next few days that I’ll be in Florida.
I’m surprised to find my mom awake. She puts away the magazine she’s holding when I walk in. I feel a little self-conscious, considering that a few minutes ago, Alec and I were making out a few steps away.
“Hi, Mom. What are you doing awake?” I flop into a comfortable chair.
She grins. “It’s a treat having you here, and I want to spend as much time as I can with you before you go back.”
“Me too, Mom.”
“Your father and I want to take you and Alec for lunch at our club tomorrow.”
“I wish we could, but Alec has an early flight tomorrow.”
“Some other time then. He seems like a very nice young man,” she says with a twinkle in her eye.
The look on my mother’s face slams me back to earth. She’s getting ideas about Alec and me despite everything I told her.
“Alec and I are practically strangers.” This sounds false even to my own ears. “The blunder at the clinic is what has brought us together. We plan on co-parenting, but that’s all.”
“Maybe that was the plan, but things change, Ivy. I see how your face lights up when you talk about him. Alec was the same when he was talking about you. Sometimes fate brings two people together.”
How I wish that what she was saying was true. “Alec and I are from two different worlds. His mother disliked me on sight.”
A pang comes over me. I tell myself that I don’t care and that it doesn’t matter whether she likes me or not, but the truth is that I do. It hurts that she dislikes me for no apparent reason. I’m a pretty likable person. Most people I meet for the first time have no problem with me.
My mother lets out a laugh. “That sounds like your dad’s mother and me. She disliked me as soon as your father introduced us.”
“Really?” That surprises me. My mother is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet.
She laughs at my expression. “I married up, you see. Compared to my family, your father’s family was very comfortable, and she had hoped that your father would marry a girl from the same class.”
“That’s Alec’s mother. She doesn’t think I’m worthy of Alec.”
My mother nods. “She’ll change over time as she gets to know you. Believe me, Ivy, she’s not the first or last woman to think that no girl is worthy of her son. That didn’t stop your father and me, and I hope it doesn’t stop you two.”
This conversation is giving me dangerous thoughts and ideas. The fantasy I’ve tried so hard to tame fills my mind. Images flit in and out of Alec and me married and raising our baby together. Joy spreads across my chest as if it’s a possibility.
“Give this relationship a chance, is all I’m saying,” my mother says.
My insides tremble. “I’ll think about it, I promise.” It’s too much to contemplate right now. “So, how does it feel to know you will be a grandmother for the third time?”
A grin spreads across her face. “It feels like the first time. Your father and I can’t wait. I wish we lived closer, though.”
My mother and I chat for another hour. For the first time in months, nothing is worrying me. Not my book, not my relationship with Alec, and not the future. I feel at peace, as if everything has fallen into place.
