Fuck! My mother met Hope out of all the people in the town. It had to be her and no one else.
What bothers me the most is, she said nothing of the sort to me when I drove back home.
Why didn’t she tell me?
“We were at the cafe waiting for our orders when I started talking to her. She told me you guys are friends.” She turns on the whisking machine. “Why haven’t I seen her around?”
“She has stuff to do,” I reply.
“Ah! She told me she has quizzes this week otherwise she’d come to the dinner.”
“What? You invited her for dinner. Here?”
Mom looks unfazed as she stops the whisking machine and tastes the batter. “I loved talking to her, and she is your friend.”
Frustration bubbles under my skin. “She’s not my friend, she’s my—” I stop.
She gives me her full attention. “Your what?”
I stare at her weighing my options. If I tell her she’ll get invested in my relationship and ask me questions. And if I don’t tell her, then I’m being a shitty boyfriend who’s hiding his relationship from his parents and not showing off his girlfriend. I’m doing it to protect Hope, but she doesn’t deserve to be hidden.
Nothing. I want to utter that word, but I can’t get it out of my mouth.
I can’t tell anyone that Hope is my nothing. It’s fucking ridiculous. I just can’t do it.
Fuck it.
I’ll just tell her. They’re going to find it out anyway.
“Is she your…well, I don’t know how to say this word. I mean I haven’t even havethe talkwith you. And trust me, this is not how I want to find out that my son has sex with girls and I just talked to one?—”
I slip off the stool. “No! Hope is not someone I have sex with. Geez, mom. Can you fucking think for a second?”
She freezes.
We both do.
I slowly realize what I’ve done.
“You just called me Mom,” she whispers.
I run a hand through my hair and sit back down. “It’s not like you are not.”
“Iamyour mother but you avoid using that word at all costs.”
I rake another hand through my hair. “Hope isn’t the girl I have sex with,” I tell her softly.
“She sounds important to you.”
I look up at her. “She is.”
Realization hits her. “Is she your girlfriend?”
“She is.”
“I met your girlfriend today. Why didn’t she tell me?”
I sigh. “I didn’t want her to meet you guys. She is special to me.”
