AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look around the restaurant. Her date must be in the bathroom. Where’s he going to sit if his kid is taking up the seat next to Mom?
The kid with her doesn’t speak. He smiles like an idiot at me, like he’s waiting for me to make a move, and I hold out my hand for him to shake. “Hi, I’m Savannah,” I say kindly. After all, I can be nice if our parents are dating. “This is Wilder.”
The kid has a shadow of a mustache on his upper lip, complete with fine brown hair. I squint closer at it, trying to see if it’s full or if there are parts missing. His slightly chubby cheeks are puffy, and he smooths his dark hair to the side like he’s at school picture day and they ran out of complimentary combs.
Wilder holds out his hand for the guy to shake. “Good to see you again, man,” Wilder says, and I turn to him, a look of confusion on my face.
“You two know each other?”
Wilder shrugs. “Not really. I saw him at the speed dating event. Don’t you remember him?”
Keys turn in the locks in my head, and it’s like doing a puzzle and finding the piece you thought you’d lost.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
I look the kid up and down again and finally recognize him as the nineteen-year-old guy I met at speed dating and deemed too young for me. Apparently, my mother had different thoughts about the age difference. Did he try to grow the mustache in an attempt to look mature enough to date my mother?
“What the absolute fuck?” It just comes out of my mouth. “Heather, can I talk to you a moment?” I ask, jerking my head toward the bathroom alcove and grabbing her shoulder. I hold up an index finger to Wilder. “Sweetheart, can you order me the biggest margarita on the menu? Something tells me I’m going to need a little extra.”
“Sure thing, snickerdoodle,” Wilder says, getting into the whole boyfriend charade and winking like Heather can’t see it.
“Snickerdoodle?” Heather asks, but she follows it with a gasp as I pinch her upper arm and lead her away from the table.
I march Heather to a dark-paneled hallway, and a woman comes out of the restroom. The woman immediately backs against the wall and slides out of the hallway around us. She’s smart enough to realize that I’m not in a good mood, and Heather and I aren’t talking about the weather.
“Have you lost your damn mind?” I ask, turning on my mother and getting in her face. “Is he even legal? Am I going to have to bail you out?”
She holds her hands in front of me like she’s trying to calm a wild horse. “He’s nineteen. I have a year to spare on the legality.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? What does it feel like banging a guy your daughter could have babysat in high school?”
“I don’t see it that way. I don’t see age, Savannah. You’re being ageist. Aiden is special.”
I get closer to her face. “He was named after a male character on Sex and the City?”
She shrugs. “The show isn’t that old.”
“That’s entirely my point, Heather!” I pull my hair, and I must look like a mad scientist because even my mother backs up. “You judge me for not having a boyfriend for years when you’re banging someone that can’t even buy beer?”
“He can vote, and I think he can…”
“Oh, well, let’s celebrate the little things. I’ll go out there and ask who he’s going to vote for next month in his first election. I hear the youth vote will turn the tide this year.”
“I bet you can’t give me two reasons why I can’t date him.”
“He wasn’t alive on September eleventh, and he has no formed memory of the last Bush administration.”
“I really think you should give him a chance.”
“A chance for what? To become my stepfather?”
She laughs like this is a normal conversation. “It’s just for cuffing season and just like you and Wilder but without the contract. You aren’t going to run off and marry him, are you?”
“My God, Mom. Are you sleeping with him?” I ask, ignoring her question about Wilder.
“Of course, dear,” she says, waving her hand like she’s telling someone to move and turning back toward the table. “It’s definitely different. Your generation expects a lot more butt jiggling and twerking. I didn’t think sex could change…”
“Stop. Ew!”
