My blood boiled. “I didn’tchooseto be infertile.”
“Well, you could have stayed anyway. There are treatments now, you know, for that sort of thing. You sound like you barely even tried! How many times did you have intercourse? Did you try on the most fertile parts of your cycle?”
My brain shut off. I dropped the phone on the counter, letting my mom continue ranting. Her voice grew further away as I trudged to the other room.
Then the front door jiggled. My heart flipped. Elijah had returned from his short walk with River around the block.
“Hello?” Elijah’s voice called out. “Where’s my boy? Oh, not you, River, I mean my other boy.”
I ran into the front hall. When I saw Elijah, tears filled my eyes. The emotion I’d been trying to hold back broke through the dam and I started crying. I ran to him.
“I’m here,” I cried, letting him know where I was before I slammed into his chest and wrapped my arms around him.
“Felix?” he asked. He was startled but instantly started rubbing my back. “What’s going on?”
“My parents called and--” I hiccupped from sobbing. “I can’t deal with it right now.”
Elijah frowned deeply. “I hear voices coming from the kitchen. Is that them?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “I left the phone on. My mom’s probably still yelling at me.”
Elijah quickly unclipped River’s leash and tossed it aside before storming to the kitchen. I followed right behind him. My mom was still talking as if I hadn’t left and I realized I should probably hang up properly.
“Mom?” I said in a shaky voice. “I have to go, I--”
“Whose voice is that?” she cried into the speaker. “I hear a man’s voice, Felix!”
I glanced to Elijah, who frowned deeper now. He definitely heard every word my mom said.
Elijah grunted and opened his palm. “Let me talk to her.”
“Are you sure?” I mumbled. “I don’t want to subject you tothis.”
My mother was currently demanding an explanation in a shrieking voice.
Elijah set his mouth. He was strangely calm, like he was standing in the eye of the storm. “It’s fine. Give me the phone, please.”
“All right . . .”
He cleared his throat when he brought the phone to his ear and my mom instantly went quiet before she asked, “Who is this?”
“Hello, ma’am,” Elijah said. “My name is Elijah Cortez. I’m an ex-bodyguard, an alpha, I’m visually impaired, and I’m currently dating your son Felix.”
The room was dead silent. Except for the lack of dial tone, I would have thought my mom had hung up the phone. The longer the awkward silence continued, the harder my heart beat. I’d casually fantasized about this moment many times--Elijah meeting my parents--but now that it was happening right in front of me, I almost wished it wasn’t.
Elijah’s hand on my shoulder made me start. His eyes stared, unfocused, at the wall, but his expression was firm and cool. It was only then I realized how badly I was trembling. How did he even know? Did he somehow feel it before I did?
I relaxed into Elijah’s grip as the dreadful silence continued.
Finally, my mother’s tight reply came: “Elijah.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His tone was neutral and unreadable.
There was another pause as my mother chose her words carefully. “I’m sorry if this offends you, but you are not thechosencandidate for my son.”
“I understand that,” Elijah said mildly. “And yet, here I am anyway.”
If I wasn’t so tense, I would have laughed out loud.
