“What are my boys talking about?” my mother interrupted as she danced over to us with a grin on her face.
Fuck. She looked so happy. I did my best to muster up a smile that matched hers, but knew I was failing.
“Just talking about how long you and Greg have been together,” said Nathan, pulling her in and putting his arm around her. She looked so small next to him. I could see her in his features…his eyes and nose and light hair. I had gotten most all my features from the man I had spent years trying to forget, but saw in the mirror all too often.
“A long time,” she said drawing out the word dramatically. She looked toward me and held out her hand with pride. “I forgot, I haven’t showed you the ring, Chandler.”
I looked down at her dainty fingers speckled with sunspots, a modest round diamond sat on her ring finger.It’s smaller than she deserves,was all I could think, but I gave her the “ooh” and “ahh” she was looking for, bringing it in for a closer look.
She smiled at me proudly before looking at me intently.
“What?” I asked, wondering what she was thinking.
“I’m just wondering when you might have someone on your arm,” she said, a hint of sadness in her voice.
“You know I’m busy, Mom. I just became CEO of a huge company. There’s not a lot of time.”
“But you always have an excuse. If it’s not this company, it will be something else. I just wonder why you haven’t met anyone you want to bring around.”
“And subject them to all of you?” I joked, hoping it would ease the look she was giving me and lighten the mood.
“I mean it, Chandler. You’re not getting any younger…”
“Gee, thanks, Mom,” I muttered, taking a sip of whiskey.
“You know what I mean. I just want you to be happy.”
“What about Nahan?” I asked, pointing my thumb at my brother who looked from me to her innocently.
She waved him off. “He’s busy with school. And he’s young.”
“I’m not a freaking grandpa!” I scoffed.
“Could be,” said Nathan, nudging me with his shoulder.
“You two are insufferable.” I shook my head at them both.
“Fine, fine. It’syourlife,” said my mother, putting her hands up in defense. She knew when to drop it. Just like I knew when to drop it and keep my opinions to myself when it came to her relationship with Greg. She knew how I felt about him, though. It was obvious to just about anyone.
I couldn’t understand why they had to get married now, after all this time. I wondered what changed. What made them make the sudden leap toward marriage. They could just continue living in sin, although that was something I could throw up imagining, and not make such permanent decisions.
“There’s my girl,” said Greg, holding his arms out to her as if he wasn’t just with her two minutes ago. I refrained from rolling my eyes as he took her hands and led her back to their makeshift dance floor in the middle of the restaurant.
“Are you ever going to like him?” asked Nathan, noticing the look in my eye as I watched after them. “You know, he’s not all that bad.”
“I know,” I said, lying through my teeth. It was hard not to tell him how I really felt, but he was Greg’s son. I signaled for the server and pointed at my drink, wishing I had a funnel of whiskey to numb me and get me through the rest of this party.
“Want another?” I asked Nathan, looking at his near empty beer.
“Sure. Why not?”
I signaled for another beer. Soon, we were done with our second round of drinks and I was feeling better. I was glad I had my brother there with me, even though we didn’t see eye to eye on our parents. He was a good kid, and if anything came out of my mother and Greg’s relationship, I was glad it was him.
“Are you seeing anyone?” I asked curiously.
“You kidding? I hardly have time to sleep this final semester,” he said with a shake of his head.
“You’re taking college a lot more seriously than I did,” I said, thinking back to the glory days with Wyatt when we would drink and fuck anything with two legs.
