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When I tried to shake her hand, it felt like grasping a dead fish. She just put absolutely nothing into it, and she avoided eye contact and gave me a quick nod without actually saying anything. Her husband, on the other hand, was warm and enthusiastic. He was short, with thinning hair and a stocky build, and despite the expensive suit, he gave off a used car salesman vibe.
Stan Marquez tried his best to keep the conversation flowing as a server took our drink order. He was very proud of his restaurants and told us how many locations he had throughout the Florida panhandle. “We’re even starting to work our way down the peninsula,” he said, with a big smile. “We broke ground on a new location in Gainesville just last month. That’s gonna be exciting. Of course, the goal is to open Crab Queens all over the state and later throughout the south, but one thing at a time.”
The conversation ground to a halt at that point. The server returned with our drinks, and Lorenzo and his mom both tossed theirs back and ordered another. That was the first time I saw any resemblance between the two of them. I fidgeted with the cuffs of my gray suit jacket for a few moments, and finally Stan tried to fill the silence by asking me, “So, Will, what do you do for a living?”
Lorenzo answered for me. “Will’s an actor. He’s shooting a movie right now that’s being directed by Gage Lang, the action star. After our vacation, he’ll go back to filming on location in San Francisco.” Now I saw why he’d used my stage name. He wanted to brag about me.
“Oh, that’s great,” Stan said. “I’m a big fan of Gage Lang’s movies. Have you been in anything I might’ve heard of?”
I glanced at Lorenzo to see if he was planning to answer for me, and then I said, “This is my first big break. Before this, I did some commercials, and I had a small part in an action movie.”
“That’s gotta be a tough line of work,” Stan said. “You’ve got so many people vying for a handful of parts.”
“Yeah, but Will’s great at it,” Lorenzo said. It was unusual to see him so defensive. “When this movie comes out, he’s going to be a huge star. Just watch.”
Stan went off on a tangent about his favorite movies, which carried us through the appetizer course. Then Jackie stood up abruptly and said, “Please excuse me. I need to visit the ladies’ room.”
We all stood as she hurried from the room, and once she was gone, Stan turned to Lorenzo and patted his arm. “Your mom loves you very much, kid,” he said, as he looked up at him with a sincere expression. “She really does. She’s proud of you, too. Jackie’s always telling her friends about your work with the dog rescue in Mexico City, and how you’re now looking after the buffaloes on Catalina Island. It’s just that, you know. She has a hard time with this.” He gestured back and forth between Lorenzo and me.
“It was a mistake coming here,” Lorenzo muttered. “I’m never going to change who I am, and she’s never going to accept it, is she?”
Stan shrugged and said, “Honestly? Probably not. But she’s still your mom and she still loves you, even if she doesn’t agree with your lifestyle.”
“It’s not a lifestyle, it’s who I am.” A tinge of anger crept into Lorenzo’s voice.
I took his hand and asked, “Do you want to go?”
He shook his head. “We’ve come all this way, and we can make it through one meal.”
His mother returned right after our food was brought to the table. We all sat in awkward silence, picking at the lobster tails Stan had insisted we order, until Lorenzo finally said, “I meant to tell you, we had a change of plans. We need to leave for Louisiana first thing tomorrow morning, so we’ll have to cut our visit short.” Our original plan had been to stay in Florida for three days, but I could see why he’d changed his mind. It was tough not to hate his mother when she looked unmistakably relieved.
“Well, we’re awful glad we got to see you,” her husband said. He turned to me and added, “Both of you.”
Stan tried so hard to make small-talk. We learned he was an alumni of the local university, and he told us all about its famous football team, which at different points in its history had included Dion Sanders and Burt Reynolds. I didn’t know shit about college football, but I tried my damnedest to feign an interest and ask enough questions to keep the conversation moving throughout the rest of the meal.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo and his mother both drank more than they ate, and both couldn’t get up fast enough when the meal was finished. A round of awkward goodbyes followed, and then Jackie excused herself again to use the restroom. The rest of us walked out to the lobby, and Stan started to tell us which route we should take through the panhandle.
