To find out who the fuck I am, that’s why?
“To see you.”
The truth spilled out, thick enough to coat the silence that swelled between us. It was so quiet, I thought she might have hung up.
“Hello?”
I hated the fear edging my tone. We were strangers. It didn’t matter if…
“Oh, Alex, I’m sorry. I…”
Too stunned by the name she’d used, the rest of her sentence was lost on me.
“Don’t call me that,” I snapped. “My name is Bodhi.”
To my surprise, she was quick to reply, and rather forcefully, “No, your name is Alex.”
A duel of wills played out in the silence that ensued. I wanted to counter her argument but didn’t have enough background information to make a draw.
“I don’t mean to be harsh. Of course, I’ll call you Bodhi.”
Her concession confused me, but a win was a win.
“Um, okay, when can you meet?”
“Can we meet tomorrow morning? Or if that doesn’t work, I can try to rearrange a few things today.”
Rearrange? She hadn’t seen me in over twenty years. You’d think she’d clear her calendar. But then, what did I know about her life? Maybe she had a big deadline looming or a pressing nail appointment.
“Tomorrow morning’s fine.”
After firming up the arrangements, we said an awkward goodbye and I sat back, staring at the screen with my stomach coiled into knots. Was I making the right choice by going into this blind? Maybe I should read the report provided by my investigator with the background information he’d gathered on her. I’d specifically chosen not to look at it after he’d pasted a post-a-note on the report.
Remember what I said about expectation.
Talk about a disclaimer. Whatever truth lay within those papers, he felt the need to warn me. But I didn’t want her misdeeds smashed into my face before I’d had a chance to form my own opinion.
Or did I?
* * *
Sidestepping the conversation in the kitchen, I headed straight to the bedroom. It only took a minute before a light rap on the door forced me to shake off the haze. Since my back was pressed against the wood, I was face to face with Breeze in under five seconds.
She blinked at me. “Whoa, that was fast.”
“I used to be a doorman.”
Confused, she wrinkled her nose. “Really?”
“No.” Chuckling, I gathered her in my arms.
“Ah. Sarcasm. Got it. You okay?”
“I think so. Second guessing myself.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so? Second guessing is my specialty.”
“Really? I didn’t realize. In that case, I had an investigator look into my mother and he found stuff on her. But I chose not to read the report because I don’t want my opinion of her tainted before we meet.”
