“Whatever it is you came to talk about at ten in the morning. It’s not like you to call ahead to ask if you can come over, and it’s definitely not like you to show up before noon. Then, to apologize about not visiting enough?” Samantha nodded into the house, a hint of a smirk on her face. “Come on inside. C-Mom is on her third cup of coffee, trying to stay awake at this ‘ungodly hour.’ The pot is on for you, if you wantit.”
Coffee.Alex was fairly sure he remembered Gage saying that caffeine was a no-go during pregnancy. What he wouldn’t do for a cup now. “Thanks, but I’mgood.”
Samantha’s eyebrow peaked. She looked Alex over, but didn’t say a word. Alex knew what she was thinking—it wasn’t the first time he’d come to his parents’ house looking to talk. Previously, it had always been about money. After his split from Jason, he’d come back home several times, looking for support. Samantha had paid the deposit and co-signed on the small apartment he presently lived in and, back before he’d been making money, had taken over paying his bills. He was sure it had shaded her perception of him, but those past issues paled in comparison to what she would think of him aftertoday.
He followed Samantha inside, made sure the door was closed behind him, and braced himself for theworst.
* * *
“Hi, baby,”Alex’s other mother, Clarissa, said as he entered the living room. She was sprawled across the couch dramatically, her favorite coffee mug half-full and positioned on the wood floor within arm’s reach. “I’m so happy to see you, but you’rekilling me.It’s soearly.”
Alex perched on the arm of the couch on the opposite end from where her head rested. Samantha settled in a nearby armchair. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s good to see you,too.”
“Your hair looks nice like that.” Clarissa pointed at it. “I like the blue-purple thing you’ve got going on. Dark hair suitsyou.”
Alex smiled. “Thanks.”
“Do you want coffee?” she asked, even though it didn’t look like she was going to move even if the house caught fire. She stifled a yawn. “There’s a pot in the kitchen. I just brewedit.”
Samantha crossed her leg over her knee. “I already asked. He said that he’s notinterested.”
“Weird.” Clarissa scrunched her nose. “Baby, are you okay? All of this is a little bizarre. Your mom and I areworried.”
Alex looked between his mothers, trying to find the words to say. He’d rehearsed potential scenarios with Laurence in preparation of what was to come, but it was different sitting with his family than it was tucked safe beneath Laurence’s sheets, talking strategy in whispers between meaningfulkisses.
He knew that he needed to start slow. Dumping huge news on them without properly leading them into it wasn’t going to do him anyfavors.
“Well… I’m going through some life changes right now, and I wanted to talk to both of you about it. I know that S-Mom is sometimes busy on the weekend, especially later in the day, so I needed to pick a time when both of you would beavailable.”
“Oh.” Clarissa sounded startled. She sat up, folding her legs beneath her, and reached down to pick up her coffee. For a woman going on fifty, she looked much younger than she really was, and she still had the energy of a woman half her age. She tucked a long strand of blond hair behind her ear and held her coffee with both hands, resting it in the space between her legs. “Okay. Well… we’re here, and we’re listening. What’s goingon?”
“I’m seeing someone.” Alex licked his lips nervously. He rested his ankle on his knee and focused on keeping his balance. “He’s not bad news, like Jason was. I learned a lot from that experience, and I never want to be back in that positionagain.”
“Baby, that’s great news. I’m happy for you.” Clarissa smiled, but Samantha was silent. Alex looked across the room to find her expressionless. The gears were turning behind her eyes, and she was reading him every bit as much as he was reading her, trying to figure out what was going on. Unlike Clarissa, who was happy to hear news as it arrived and who celebrated even the small things, Samantha was a woman who was guarded with her emotions and took her time to examine the bigger picture on a logical level. The news wasn’t enough to distract her from the facts—Alex had asked to speak to them both at a time atypical for him to even be awake. He wouldn’t have come to see them only to tell them that he was in a relationship. Alex already knew that she was looking for the details he’d yet todisclose.
Likely, she’d already guessed at least part of what he’d say, but he knew she wouldn’t speak a word of what was on her mind until he confirmed or denied hersuspicions.
“Who are you seeing right now?” Clarissa asked. “What’s his name? What is helike?”
“Well, that’s the thing.” Alex capped his knee with his hands and pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth while he tried to come up with an appropriate answer. “You might already know him. Not so much you, but S-Mom,probably.”
Clarissa frowned in thought, but she wasn’t the one Alex was worried about. He felt Samantha’s eyes on him. The energy in the room had changed, turned from casual to somber. Samantha knew that something was going on—Alex could feelit.
“It was the exhibition, wasn’t it?” Samantha asked. She did her best to keep her emotion from bleeding into her voice, but Alex heard the first notes of distress. “Tell me it wasn’t theexhibition.”
The question raised the hairs on the back of Alex’s neck. There was no way his mother should have assumed something like that right away… not unless there was something she wasn’t telling him about her involvement in his affairs. The pieces clicked into place, and Alex’s stomach clenched from the first pangs of betrayal. He countered the question with one of his own. “Why would you think that I met someone at theexhibition?”
Samantha was silent. Her lips tightened, the only indication that she’d been caught in herscheme.
“What did you do?” Alex unfolded his leg, setting both feet on the floor. He looked across the room at his mother, unafraid to face her down. He’d made a name for himself from nothing through smart use of social media and through local connections in Aurora. He’d planned the exhibition himself. His parents had known, but they hadn’t had a hand in arranging any part ofit.
At least, he’d thought theyhadn’t.
“Mom?” Alex pressed. “Why would you think I met someone at theexhibition?”
Samantha’s expression held firm—flat and detached, like she was at work instead of at home. “I mentioned to a few of my colleagues that you were putting on a show. That’s the only way I could imagine our social paths wouldcross.”
It was the truth—of that, Alex had no doubt. She wouldn’t lie to him. But Alex knew his mother, and he knew that what she chose to reveal when backed into a corner was usually the truth distilled into its simplest form. The bulk of it—the circumstances and details—went unspoken. Magenta flashed before his eyes, and he balled his fists infrustration.
