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“Hell, there’s so much. Where to begin?” We sit around the table the rest of the night as not only Tia but my mom tells him of the time I skipped school to go to the zoo but ended up getting a bee sting so bad that it landed me in the ER. The stories continue all night long.
I stopped drinking hours ago. We get ready to leave, but Noah wants me to show him my childhood room. Mom has left it the same since I moved out seven years ago.
“It’s not much, babe,” I offer, moving into the room with a twin-sized bed covered with a navy blue and red quilt. There’s still art all over the walls, though most of the decent stuff is at my apartment.
“Is this where you would have visions of cute boys and jack off at their images?” he whispers.
“I’m pleading the fifth on that, Mr. James,” I reply. On my desk next to my bed sits some trophies I’ve won throughout the years. He brings each one up to his line of sight and reads them all out loud.
“The Seattle Arts Association.From Lake Washington to the Ocean.” He keeps a hold of it, and continues to stare at it.
“Oh, yeah. I won a contest I entered my first year in college. It was a sit-down dinner, and my mom made me buy a suit,” I explain, remembering the day vividly.
“Yeah, my mom made me get a new suit too.”
“What?” I ask, moving my attention to him.
“I was there that night. I remember. I had the first award, and then Liam came down with an appendicitis. We had to rush him to the hospital.”
“Wait. You were there? My award was second. Oh, fuck, we were in the same room at the same time. Isn’t that crazy?” I ask.
He sets down the trophy, turning around in my arms.
“Or, it’s fate.”
* * *
Noah saysgood-bye to my two favorite people in my life, and my mom gives me a thumbs-up when he turns his back to leave. I’m glad to have her approval. But I never had any doubt that they would fall in love with Noah like I have.
“Wanna get away next weekend?” he asks on our drive home from my mom’s. He drank tonight to calm his nerves, but he’s not drunk.
“What? Where?”
“Liam and I own a place near Bellingham. It’s secluded and…” His hand runs up my thigh, suggestively.
“What?” How did I not know this? But again, we’ve only been dating four weeks.
“I didn’t tell you? When our grandpa died, we inherited his cabin. He’d take us up there as often as he could. Although, Mom made him promise not to feed us fast food or take out.” He rolls his eyes.
I’m still dumbfounded by this one rule of his mother’s. And every time he brings her up, I’m a little more scared to meet her.
“Mom hated it up there. It was too long of a drive, she didn’t like the cabin, there were bugs and about ten million other reasons she never came. He took us fishing and hiking. Grandpa was active into his early eighties and died peacefully in his sleep. It’s what he would have wanted. Anyway, now that it’s spring, and getting a little warmer…”
“Fuck yeah, I want to go. I want you to share every part of yourself with me.”
His hand stays on my knee, and it’s quiet for a beat, the traffic heavy for a Saturday evening on the I-5.
“Ash, honey?”
I love when he calls me honey. It’s sweeter than baby, and it just fits.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Thanks for sharing your family with me. They’re both kind and funny and love you so much.”
“They fell in love with you, too, Noah. They don’t take to strangers often.”
“I sure fell in love with them, also. Your sister is certainly spirited.” I huff a laugh. Spirited is a great way to describe Tia.
