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I took a deep breath to stop myself from telling my mother to go screw herself. Annie had much more tact than I did, and she walked forward tentatively holding out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Wright.”
My mother’s name turned up. “I do not go by Wright,” she said, ignoring Annie’s outstretched hand.
Annie placed her hand down to her side. “I apologize.”
My mother said nothing. She quietly eyed Annie up and down trying to gauge who she was by what she was wearing. Outwardly, I knew that my mother couldn’t find fault with Annie. She was what my mother wanted to be, which meant that Annie had no chance.
“Why don’t we sit,” I said, guiding Annie to a chair before I took a seat next to her.
“Sit across from the girl,” my mother snapped.
I gestured to the cutlery. “There’s a setting right here.”
“I always set the entire table. It’s just good manners.”
My eye started twitching as Annie placed a hand on my own. “It’s fine,” she whispered. I knew what she was telling me. Go with the flow. Don’t cause any additional problems than necessary. Annie was the consummate diplomat, which I normally appreciated.
“Tell me about yourself,” my mother said. “Where is your family from?”
“Michigan,” Annie said.
My mother’s lips thinned. “A Midwesterner, how interesting.”
“I enjoyed it.”
Despite myself, I was on the edge of my seat. Even after a month, I hadn’t been able to convince Annie to open up about me. Sometimes I’d ask her about her past, and she would immediately clam up. I didn’t push the issue. We weren’t really dating, so it wasn’t my place to force her to tell me more about herself if she didn’t want to share.
“What does your family do?”
Annie swallowed heavily, and I knew that she didn’t like this line of questioning. “Mother,” I snapped. “Can you quit it with the interrogation. I thought that we were here for dinner.”
My mother’s eyes never left Annie as she spoke. “This is the girl you’ve been with for the last month, practically a lifetime for you. I want to know more about her.”
I opened my mouth to make sure that she backed off, at least, as much as I could. But Annie beat me to the punch.
“It’s just my father and me. He works in law enforcement.”
My brow rose slightly as I wracked my brain to try and figure out what I knew about Annie’s father. She’d mentioned him once, but I couldn’t remember what she’d said. It felt odd that he was in law enforcement. Annie and I had met at city hall, so I feel like her father being a cop was something she might have mentioned.
“I bet you both have a great deal to talk about.”
Annie nodded. “We do indeed.” Though her voice was kind, I could see the hardness in her eyes. Annie was kind and soft, but there was steel in her spine that came out when she was backed into a corner.
“What brought you to the city?”
“Work.”
“What is it that you do?”
Annie’s cheeks reddened. Her job situation had become a point of contention between the two of us. Ever since being fired from city hall, which I still felt bad about, she’d been unable to find another position. The agency had let her go, and she’d been unable to find work since. Guilt and my desire for Annie to be available when necessary, meant that I was paying her rent, and she hated it.
My mother wasn’t stupid, and from the hum in the back of her throat, she immediately put together that I was funding Annie’s lifestyle.
Thankfully, one of her staff came in letting us know that dinner was served, breaking up the tension that had fallen between the three of us.
Things were quiet as plates were placed in front of us. Lobster and crab cakes. My mother was on a seafood kick, and I tried to remember if Annie was okay with seafood because naturally, my mother hadn’t asked.
“This smells delicious,” Annie said, trying her best to break the tension. Normally, it was something that she was good at. It was another one of her many skills.
