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Chapter Fifteen
“Hey, ma.”
“Hey, daughter. You sound good, really good,” Zsa Zsa replied.
“I feel good,” Zsanine smiled, her eyes focused on her engagement ring.
“You have no idea how good that is to hear. I’ve still been worried about you.”
“I understand you being worried before, but there’s no need to worry about me now. I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m happy.”
“Why is that?” Zsa Zsa asked.
“Because,” Zsanine paused. “I’m engaged.”
“What? Really?”
“Yes, really. Zander proposed to me this morning.”
“Well, I guess congratulations are in order.”
Zsanine heard the anti-climatic response.
“I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t even expect you to be happy for me, but that’s okay. I’m happy enough for the both of us.”
“I just worry about you, that’s all.”
“And I understand your worry. But this is what I need for you to understand, mom. I have never known this kind of love before. I have never known a man like this before. He loves me without condition and has demonstrated his willingness to break down walls for me. That’s powerful, mom. Zander’s love for me is more than just words. It’s action.”
“From what I understand, your involvement with him is what put you in that horrible situation,” Zsa Zsa replied. “That’s the part that scares me. That he will have to save you again.”
“And he might. But I am confident that if I need saving from anyone about anything from any side, Zander will do that. He couldn’t have anticipated what happened. He couldn’t have. He also couldn’t have anticipated that I wouldn’t put my own safety first.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t do what I know to do to be safe,” Zsanine continued. “I didn’t let my staff know where I was going. I didn’t do my due diligence in investigating who I was meeting with. I made huge mistakes that helped put me in that situation. So as easy as it is to lay blame at Zander’s feet, make sure you and everyone else who blames him lay some responsibility at my feet, too.”
“I had no idea,” Zsa Zsa acquiesced.
“I know you didn’t, mom, and that’s okay. You have all the information now.”
“And now I feel horrible for judging that young man without knowing all the facts,” Zsa Zsa admitted.
“That’s part of why I never introduced you guys before, because of the judgment I knew would come, the razzing from my brothers, who, by the way, have no significant other in their lives.”
“That’s so true,” Zsa Zsa laughed for the first time since they started talking.
“Maybe if they had someone, they wouldn’t be so busy worried about who might be in my life,” Zsanine laughed with her.
“There was one thing they did say about your young man.”
“What was that?” Zsanine was genuinely curious.
“That he don’t take no stuff, not even from them.” Zsa Zsa laughed again.
“I love it,” Zsanine giggled. “And I love him, mom, because of how he loves me. He loves me with an abiding love that causes me to want to be better in every aspect of my life. I can be my complete self with him, strong, vulnerable, silly, sad, angry, and he never judges. He never makes me feel bad because of how I feel. That’s rare, mom. Zander is a rarity.”
Zsa Zsa listened to her daughter without the filter of the preconceived notions she’d adopted from what she heard from others. She listened to her daughter talk about the man that loved her, and Zsa Zsa was reminded of the man that loved her.
