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“Man, I’m sorry to hear that. But, yeah, we can check on her. Wish I still had a mom to check on…”
“She passed when you were young?”
“Yeah, I was eight. She’d been sick my whole life. I’m glad she’s not suffering anymore, but I still miss her, always will.”
“I’m sorry, Ryan.”
“It’s all right. Hey, you wearing that?”
I looked down at my t-shirt and jeans. “Why? Is something wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“Nah, just asking.”
Okay, so maybe I was a little wrinkled. And with him looking the way he was looking in his jeans and plaid, button-down shirt, I figured I’d better step my game up. “Let me go change.”
As I left the room, he said to my back, “I mean, you don’t have to…”
“Shut up, Ryan,” I called back.
*****
“This is a nice house,” Ryan said, as we stepped out of his SUV in my mother’s driveway. “I mean, really nice.”
“Courtesy of Strickland Motors,” I said, as I unlocked the front door. “Your Tennessee car center.”
“I’ve heard those commercials on the radio. Your folks own that car lot?”
“Car lots. Ten locations across the state.”
“Damn! Why didn’t you tell me you were rich?”
“I’m not. My dad is.”
We stepped into the foyer, and I called for my mother. First met with silence, I told Ryan to stay downstairs while I headed upstairs to see if Mama was up there. I called her name again, still receiving no answer, and then a panic hit me. Her car was in the driveway. What if something had happened to her? What if she’d done something to herself?
I knocked on her closed bedroom door, waited for a second, and then opened it. Mama sprung up in bed, and so did he, whoever he was.
“Angela! What are you doing here?!” Mama shrieked.
I backed away from the door. “Uh-um-ch-ch-checking on you. But I see you’re okay so…oh, Lord…I’ma just go,” I rambled, adding “Shit,” under my breath.
“Wait!” the man said, as he climbed out of bed, covering his private parts with a sheet but leaving his chocolaty sculpted abs exposed. He was tall, fine, and much younger than my mother. Where the hell did she find this man?!
“Huh?” I managed to say.
“Don’t go,” he said to me. “Give us a second to get dressed. I’d like to meet you properly.”
I nodded as my eyes shifted to my mother, who was clutching the comforter under her chin with her eyes downcast. Her medium brown skin was reddening more and more by the second. “Uh, okay,” I said. “I’ll be waiting downstairs.”
Ryan was still in the foyer when I returned, and all I could do was stare at him wide-eyed.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Your mom okay?”
In a hushed voice, I said, “I just caught her screwing a man who looks like he might be younger than me.”
“Shit, really?”
I nodded.
