There was no point in arguing with her. I rolled my eyes again, smiled, and took the bowl to the dining room, where I put it on the table. I didn’t agree with her about my attractiveness. Yeah, she was definitely biased.
After the table was set, Mom walked into the living room and turned off the TV. My father and brothers didn’t dare complain once we had to sit down to dinner. If she worked her ass off cooking, they could work their asses off, prying their eyes from the game; otherwise, Mom would give them an earful.
Dad sat down at the head of the table as Mom served everyone. It wasn’t that we couldn’t do it ourselves or that she was so traditional and waited on her family hand and foot. Oh no. She didn’t trust us. Mom didn’t trust that we would eat enough. So, whatever she put on our plates, we had to eat it all. If we weren’t licking our plates clean, she would feign hurt that her cooking wasn’t good enough. Mom was the ultimate guilt-tripper.
“Atlas, how are you, Son?” Dad asked.
“Good. I had a job interview.”
Mom stopped piling the food on Dad’s plate. “Oh, what job? You’re going to stop serving coffee and waiting tables?”
“Yes, because they hired me.”
“What would you be doing?” Andreas, my older brother, asked. We look a lot alike, except that he was way taller and more built. Both of my brothers were. They got my dad’s build, whereas I ended up being built like my mom, slight and short.
“I got hired at Cross Corp as a PA. The two VPs need an assistant. You know the one? That huge general contracting firm?”
Dad nodded thoughtfully, suddenly looking impressed. He’d be familiar with the company since he was a construction foreman. “Yes, they’re growing rapidly, and they went public last year. Impressive. And the VPs, you say?”
“Yep. I want to do something else with my life. It’s not like I’ll end up an artist, anyway.”
I had some experience working as an assistant, but I’d mostly been a barista during the day and a waiter at night. I was sure there were more qualified applicants. Hugh and Linden probably wouldn’t have hired me had we not fucked. That was the truth of the matter. I should probably care more about that, but at the end of the day, I only applied for the money. The benefits were extra.
While my parents could nag with the best of them, I was forever grateful they accepted me exactly the way I was. Coming out to them as gay had been stressful and awkward, but they loved me no matter what. And while they wanted me to go to college to become a doctor or a dentist, they never got mad at me for choosing a different path. College just wasn’t for me.
My younger brother, Athan, was currently attending George Washington University, which is very hard to be accepted into. He was also on their varsity baseball team. I wasn’t made for sports. I was jealous at first. Sometimes I wish I were as smart as my brothers, but everything about me was different from them, like I’d been adopted or something. Being the middle child didn’t help either. Andreas worked as a programmer for a big tech company. So, both of my brothers were doing well. Me? I was the creative one who barely made a dime on his art.
After we were all served, Mom finally sat down and plated her own food. “Well, I am proud of you. A PA for two VPs is animportant job,” she insisted as she piled roasted lamb onto her plate.
I took a bite of the salmon. The fish melted in my mouth. I’d never be as amazing a cook as my mother, but I sometimes cooked for my roommates to practice my skills. They seemed to like it, anyway. They especially enjoyed every Sunday, when I would come home, carrying enough leftovers to feed the four of us for a week.
As we dug into our meals, the dining room was filled with conversation, all of us practically talking at once. Athan was chatting with Mom about his new girlfriend, while Mom asked if the girl was marriage material. Andreas was talking to Dad about his recent promotion, and I sat there enjoying dinner, waiting for the moment when she would pin me with her eyes and demand to know when I was going to find someone to marry again. It was her favorite topic. Her life wouldn’t be complete until all her boys were married off.
And sure enough, her dark eyes met mine before she glanced away and served Athan a heaping pile of salad without being asked. “Atlas?”
Here it comes.
She had that look on her face that said she was about to set me up, like she’d done countless times. I loved my mother down to my soul, but damn, she was meddling.
“No, Mama.”
She sat up straight. “Tsh. You don’t even know what I’m about to say.”
“I don’t want to be set up again. The last time you did that, I ended up going out with a guy who refused to come out of the closet. I mean, if that works for him, fine, but it doesn’t for me. Do you know what a pain it is to hide yourself? Besides, he wasn’t my type.”
She waved a hand at me. “Please, how was I supposed to know? His mother insisted he was out.”
“Being out to the parents is not the same as being out to the world.”
“Anyway, this is different. I feel it in my bones.”
No matter what I said, she would push, so I took a bite of roasted potatoes and let her get it off her chest.
“Mrs. Dimitriou, you know, the lady who comes in twice a week to have her roots done?”
The dining room went silent suddenly. My brothers were both smirking at me with that ‘better you than me’ look.Ugh. They’d been through countless setups, too. But since they were both dating, I’d become the center of attention in my mother’s matchmaking schemes. I sneered at them, and they started laughing.
“No, I don’t know her, Mama.”
