With just three weeks to go before classes ended, I decided to launch a campaign to win her over.I started by taking her a latte.I knew it was her favorite.
She tossed it in the trash.
The next time, I took her a blueberry muffinanda latte, which I confirmed was her drink of choice, and she took one sip, looked me right in the eye and threw it in the trash.
At least she had panache.
The harder I had to work, the more devoted to the whole endeavor I became.I started thinking of other little things to do.When she missed a class, I had notes waiting for her.I shared my study guide, which was a really good one.I complimented her outfits, and by the final exam, she actually smiled at me.
It was long, and it was a little demoralizing, but my plan worked.
I’ve decided to do the very same thing with Jack’s mother.After all, I wanted to be friends with Leslie because I knew I’d probably run into her frequently on a relatively small campus over the next three and a half years.But IneedJack’s mom to like me, because I know I’ll be seeing her.
Unless she manages to break us up.
But what’s her plan?Is it really for Jack to never meet anyone?Or does she think an independent, intelligent man like Jack is going to wake up one day and decide he wants hismotherto pick his next girlfriend?There’s no way that’s going to happen, so she needs to get over it already.I may as well help her along.
When it’s time to meet her for tea, I arrive fifteen minutes early, and I bring a small box with thebestmacarons I’ve ever had.Natalie found them, or I suppose technically Cillian did.His friend Gabriel made them, but his shop isn’t evenopenright now.We only get them as a special treat for our guests, and he makes them to order, just for us.
My plan to arrive fifteen minutes early’s foiled, when I realize that Jack’s mother’s already there.
“Oh,” I say, glancing at my watch to make sure I had the time right.Yep, she was even more than fifteen minutes early.“I’m so sorry for making you wait.”
She sighs, looks upward, and says, “I expected it.”
I hate her.
Sheshould’veexpected it, because she told me three o’clock and came far before that.She has no one but herself to blame, but I force a smile anyway.“To make it up to you, I brought a little something.”
She arches one eyebrow.“What is that?”Her lip curls.
“These are macarons from the?—”
“Jack must not have told you.”She folds her arms.“I’m off sugar.”
She’s off...“But we’re here for afternoon tea, right?”
“I take my tea without sugar,” she says.“I forgot that Americans drink a little teawiththeir sugar.”Now her lip’s well and truly curled.“How cute.”
After that, she makes little digs about my children and their ‘issues,’ calls my little part-time job ‘neat,’ and asks how long I think my ‘lark’ here in Ireland will last.By the time we’re seated and they’ve brought us both tea, I’m ready to punch her in the nose.Jack was right—he knows his own mother, I suppose.Coming here was a huge mistake.I should’ve disengaged.Now I may just have to order Jack that shirt as a warning to other women who come after me.
Because who would stay with someone whose mother is like this?
They’ve just brought the tea, and I’m literally calculating how long I have to sit here before I can make up an excuse and leave.Ten more minutes, I decide, as I stir my small amount of tea into my sugar.Seriously though, two small sugar packets in a teacup isnotthat much sugar.The Irish just have no tastebuds.
“You hate me, probably,” Mrs.Shanahan says, suddenly.
My head pops up, my eyes wide.“What?”
“I’m a difficult person, and in this case, for you, I’m basically impossible.I’ve been horrible to you, while you have been nothing but kind, and I do concede that my son seems happy with you.”
I drop my spoon, and it keeps going round and round three times before finally resting against the side of the cup.“Then, why are you...”I trail off, since I can’t really ask her why she’s so awful if she knows it already.
She smiles.“Why am I, what?”
I sigh.“Why are you giving me such a hard time when you think Jack’s happy with me?As a mother, that’s the part that confuses me the most.I want my kids to be happy, first and foremost.”
“You’ve never seen Jack as happy as he was when he first met Sloane.”She looks sideways at the window to the outdoors.“It was like he was walking on clouds, you know, but even then, she took him for granted.He catered to her every whim, and she always demanded more.That’s the thing, when your child’s a giver, you have to be so careful, or they’ll be taken advantage of.”
