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But there was no question… this hurt. How was I supposed to mourn a relationship that never happened?
No one ever made me feel the way Tristan made me feel. The way he cared for me, the way he touched me was like he couldn’t bear not to be touching me. A large part of me felt like I’d never find someone like that again.
Tristan
My mom made sure to keep me busy with a schedule packed full of family activities. I couldn’t say no, for Shiloh's sake.
I hadn’t heard from Arya since the party. I hadn’t seen her either, and it felt like she was avoiding me. I kept bringing up her name on my phone, wanting to text her or call her, but the right words completely escaped me. So I guess I might have been avoiding her, too. Regardless of what I wanted, this was a hugely crappy situation.
It didn’t help that Mason was aware of everything that happened. I hadn’t talked to him face-to-face about it yet, but it had to happen. I had to stop avoiding the McKennas.
Regina, on the other hand, was trying her best to be supportive and understanding, offering kind words and advice that basically amounted to telling my mom to fuck off. But it wouldn’t be as easy as that. I didn’t hate my mom or dad, and I didn’t want to sever the relationship. I just needed them to understand what I wanted and actually listen to me.
I silently laughed at myself. I'm running a huge franchise empire and I can't deal with my mom. What the hell.
“Let’s sit by the window,” Shiloh exclaimed as she broke me out of my daydreaming spell. We walked into the diner for lunch after a busy morning. She ran to a table in the corner and Regina followed. I took my time buying some tokens for Shiloh to try the arcade games that lined the walls of the diner.
“Your tokens, my lady,” I said dramatically as I bowed and handed the tokens to Shiloh. “Let’s order some food and then, Shiloh, you can go play games while we wait.”
“Yay! Can I play now?” she asked, jumping up and down in her seat with excitement.
“Sure. Just let me know what you want to eat first so I can order.”
“Pizza,” she yelled, still bouncing with excitement.
“Inside voice,” I reminded her. “Pizza sounds good. Regina?”
“Sounds great to me.”
The waitress–her name tag said Jenny–came over to take our order while Shiloh bounded off for the arcade games.
“Y’all know what you want?”
“Yeah, we’ll have a large pizza, half cheese, half veggie,” I said. “Milk and an iced tea to drink, please.”
“I’ll have water with lemon to drink, please. And can we get a house salad as well?” Regina added.
“Sure thing. I’ll get that order in,” Jenny said with a smile.
Regina and I sat in silence for a few minutes. She cleared her throat, obviously wanting to say something but unsure.
“Just say it,” I said, looking at her curiously.
“Your mom has been…a nightmare.”
Straight to the point was typically Regina’s style. She and my mom never really got along, which made this obsession and claim that Regina was like a daughter to her all the more bewildering. They had always been friendly, sure, and I could tell my mom admired Regina’s success and how she didn’t bow down to her. But it wasn’t until recently my mom had tried to get so close to her. This was likely prompted by Mom's suspicions about Arya. Better the devil you know, I guess.
“I know,” I said, sighing. “I’m sorry about that.”
We both knew there was nothing I could do about it, but I still felt badly for Regina.
“What happened between you and Arya? Since I’ve been here, I haven’t seen you two together. And you haven’t even talked about her.”
“It’s…complicated.”
“Well, start talking. We’ve got time. You bought enough tokens, right?” Regina laughed.
“Arya and I aren’t exactly together. My parents are the main problem. They’re close to her family–she works for my grandparents, she's paid by my mom, and you know Mason works at the distillery. It's a mess. My mom is…how do I say this? Totally unhinged, right now. She’s traditional and you know how my parents like to try to control me.”
