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“Mom?” Daisy asks uncomfortably, the expression on her face hard to read.
My mom stares at the table in front of her, her hands clenched on top of her lap, the glow she’d had a moment ago nowhere in sight.
“This isn’t something we should talk about. It’s something weneedto talk about,” she corrects herself. I watch, gobsmacked, as her chest rises and falls sharply as she takes a deep breath and finally lifts her head to stare at us. “It wasn’t how I imagined finding my soulmate. And it’s not something I’m proud of. But sometimes—sometimes love hits you when you least expect it. I can’t regret meeting him. Besides you girls…he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Her lips tremble as she stops speaking, and a swell of emotion pummels at my chest.
I try not to judge people. I really do. When everyone sees you and immediately puts a label on you…your whole life…you try not to do the same to others.
But this?
“Did she know?” Daisy asks quietly, making our mother immediately turn away, a slight tremor to her body.
“I—I don’t think so. But sometimes she would look at me and…” She drags her gaze back to ours. “No matter what you’re thinking, Curt really is an incredible person. Her death was so hard on him…watching her sick for all those years.” Her voice trails off. “It wasn’t something that anyone planned. It wasn’t physical… before…but our hearts…they just fell…”
Wasn’t physical. Well…I guess there was that. I’m sure my father’s affairs were definitely physical.
Before we can answer her, I see Curt and Noah, who seems more subdued if his lowered head and hunched shoulders are anything to go by, beyond my mother’s gaunt features, walking towards us from the bathrooms. Curt’s face is tight. There are lines around his eyes that I swear are deeper than before Noah decided to drop that little bomb on the table. Daisy and I don’t say anything else as we watch them approach.
Noah slides in his seat once he reaches the table, but before he does…
He shoots me a glare of loathing that has me quaking in my seat, leaving me utterly confused.
What didIdo?
I quickly look away, determined to table that little conundrum for the moment. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is. What I thought was going to be a meet and greet of my mother’s new boyfriend has turned infinitely more complicated.
I study Curt as he brushes a soft kiss across my mom’s forehead and squeezes her shoulder reassuringly. Had he cheated on his wife before? There’s that old adage about once a cheater, always a cheater…could she trust him? Could he trust her?
Was my life going to be completely uprooted for something that’s doomed from the start?
You’re getting ahead of yourself, I chide my overactive brain.
“How do you girls like your food?” Curt asks, his voice holding no sign of what’s occurred.
“Great!” Daisy says cheerfully, or at least to a stranger like Curt it would seem cheerful. I can hear the sarcastic intent behind Daisy’s answer the same way I could read between the lines of Noah’s earlier benign comments.
Curt totally misses it and his shoulders relax as if he thinks we don’t know anything... or we’ve decided not to make it a thing. He presses another kiss against my mom’s hair and she relaxes into him, her whole body curling towards his, like he’s her safe place.
I’m sure his wife had thought he was her safe place, too.
We all descend into another long silence…this one painful, before the waitress is back, standing as close to Noah as she can get. She offers us dessert even though our plates have barely been touched. Except for Noah’s, that is. Evidently, the situation didn’t quell his appetite because he’s the only one with a clean plate.
“Would anyone like dessert?” she practically coos, curling a piece of her pretty hair around her finger and smacking her gum like she thinks it’s the key to Noah’s heart. Or as Daisy would bluntly put it—his cock.
“Let’s have a slice of key lime pie for everyone,” Curt says enthusiastically, before remembering he doesn’t know us. “Does everyone like key lime pie? It’s one of their specialties. They also have chocolate cake and cheesecake made fresh daily.” His words are rushed. A bit desperate, actually.
I feel like he’s trying to sell himself. Like he’s also made fresh daily and we’ll like him if we give him a chance. An unbidden laugh shoots from my mouth at the thought, bringing, of course, everyone’s attention to me. The waitress is staring at me with a cocky smile like she’s no longer worried that I’ll pose a threat to her and lover boy. But as I continue to gasp for breath, her smile drops and her brows pinch together, and I know she’s wondering if I’m actually insane.
Jury is still out on that one.
“Key lime pie sounds great,” I squeak, once I’ve gathered my composure.
My awkwardness brings a smile to my mother’s face, the first one since the origins of their “love story” was revealed.
"How about you, Noah?” she asks breathily.
He doesn’t seem as keen on playing with her as he did earlier. In fact, he ends up shooing her away. I blink twice to make sure I’m not seeing things.
Did this really just happen?
