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“Yes. Of course. Just tell me when.”
“Good. I’m excited for you to meet him.” She reaches for my hand and squeezes. “I know you have to go to bed. You and working that restaurant tonight. That’s too much.”
She’s letting me off the hook. I’m not sure what to think. “I made a grand for us tonight, but I actually am tired.” I stand up, taking the exit she’s offered me. “Night, mom,” I say, heading toward the bedroom.
“Lori,” my mother calls out.
I turn and look at her. “Yes?”
“I don’t know why Cole was here tonight, but I know it wasn’t about work.”
“He’s my boss.” It’s a ridiculous, obvious reply, and the three words I’ve used as an excuse for too much.
“Do you know that people used to tell me that your father looked at me like I was the sun, the moon, and the world? He looked at me like Cole looks at you.”
I press my hand to my face. “He’s my boss,” I repeat, saying those stupid words again.
“Come sit down and talk to me.”
“Okay,” I whisper, and I do. I wobble back to her and I sit down.
“Is your job on the line?” she asks.
“No,” I assure her quickly. “No, Cole is a good man. My job will never be on the line, as long as I do it, and do it well.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
This is my mother and I just blurt out what I feel. “He’s rich. He’s established. I’m neither.”
“I repeat,” she says. “What’s the problem?”
“He wants to save us.”
“You think that if you lean on him then you’ll forget how to stand on your own two feet,” she assumes. “Because you think that’s what I did.”
“No, mom. I don’t think—”
She holds up a hand. “Don’t coddle me. I get I could have done some things differently. I admit that, but Cole isn’t your father and you aren’t me. I don’t know Cole, but I will give you general thoughts. What you want and need is a man who lifts you up and doesn’t hold you down, and his money or power or success doesn’t determine if he does that for you. But you know if he does or does not.”
“He always lifts me up,” I say without hesitation. “He doesn’t coddle me, using your own words. He pushes me. He forces me to be better and I think I am better because of that. He’s the reason we have this six month scholarship option.”
“Okay then,” she says. “That’s good. Moving on, my general observation is that to be with a strong man, most women either become submissive or they’re confident enough to know they can hold their own, and so they do. You’re not submissive, but you don’t seem to believe you can hold your own with Cole.”
“That’s not it.”
“Then what is it?”
I hold my hands out. “Look at where we live.”
“And?”
“The first thing he said when we got to the hallway was that he was getting us out of here.”
“He cares about you. He wants to take care of you.”
“Getting us out of this place is not a reason to move in with him.”
“He didn’t ask until he saw this place? Is that what worries you?”
