Olive's expression doesn't change. She stands in the doorway like a statue carved from ice, her posture perfect, her face utterlyunreadable. Only her eyes betray any emotion, and what I see there makes my stomach turn to lead.
Disgust. Disappointment.
"I was looking for you," she says, and her voice is perfectly controlled, each word precisely articulated. "Some of the guests wanted to meet your… girlfriend."
The pause before "girlfriend" stretches for an eternity. In that pause, I hear everything she's not saying. That I'm not worthy of her son.
"We'll be right there," Phoenix says. He's managed to get his belt fastened, his shirt tucked in, some semblance of order restored to his appearance. I'm still struggling with my dress strap, my fingers numb and clumsy.
Olive's gaze flicks to me. She takes in my flushed cheeks, my swollen lips, the red marks on my neck where Phoenix's mouth was just moments ago. Her eyes travel down to my bare feet, and I realize with horror that I kicked off my heels at some point and have no idea where they landed.
"Five minutes," she says. "Make yourselves presentable."
She turns and leaves without waiting for a response. The door closes behind her with a soft click that sounds like a guillotine falling.
I stare at the closed door, unable to move. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat. My skin is hot with shame, burning from the inside out. I have never been so humiliated in my entire life.
"Oh my God," I whisper. "Oh my God."
"It's fine," Phoenix says, reaching for me.
I step back, out of his grasp. "It'snotfine! Your mother just caught us having sex in her library!"
"Jade, listen to me. It's embarrassing, but it's not the end of the world. She's seen worse."
"That doesn't make me feel better!" My voice is rising, edging toward hysteria. I can hear myself and I can't stop.
Despite everything, Phoenix laughs.
The sound is so unexpected that it stops me mid-spiral. I stare at him, incredulous.
"When you put it that way," he says, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
I punch his arm. Hard. "This isn't funny!"
"It's a little funny."
"It's not! She's going to hate me forever. I'm going to be the story she tells at dinner parties for the rest of her life. 'Remember that horrible girl Phoenix brought home? The one who desecrated my library?'"
Phoenix catches my hands before I can hit him again. He pulls me close, wrapping his arms around me despite my attempts to squirm away. His chin rests on top of my head, and I can feel his chest shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Stop laughing," I demand into his shirt. "This is serious."
"I know it is. I'm sorry." He doesn't sound sorry. He sounds like a man who's trying very hard not to laugh and failing miserably. "But Jade, you have to admit, the image of my mother's face when she opened that door is going to be burned into my memory forever."
"That's not a good thing!"
"It's a little bit of a good thing." He pulls back and cups my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him. His eyes are warm, his expression softening into something more serious. "Hey. Breathe. We're going to get through this."
"She's going to hate me."
"She won’t."
"You didn't see the way she looked at me."
"I saw." He brushes his thumbs across my cheekbones, wiping away tears I didn't realize had started falling. "Mymother has a way of expressing displeasure. It's terrifying, I know. But it doesn't mean she hates you. It means she's embarrassed and surprised."
A hysterical laugh bubbles up from my chest. "That makes two of us."
