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“Us,” I repeat, motioning to her and me. “Not…us,” I draw a circle in the air, including Vance. “And you said it that way on purpose because if I’d known, I wouldn’t have come.”
Mom sighs and sets her wine down. “I know. Iknowyou wouldn’t have come. Excuse me for doing what I needed to in order to get the two most important men in my life at the same table.”
I clench my fists. “What was dad then, huh?”
Her face pales, but a server approaches, rattling off something about their specialty summer drinks. At least I think that’s what she’s talking about, though I’m completely blanked out and have no memory of it.
I’m the only one who needs to order, my mother and Vance having already gotten their drinks before I arrived, and I know without even looking at the menu what I want, though I doubt I’ll be here long enough to enjoy it.
I order a whiskey. The server nods and retreats with the promise of returning with my drink and a basket of bread, and when she goes, the silence at the table is thick. I look out to the water, the sun still high enough in the sky that it twinkles in the rippling pools below. The heat from last week has cooled a bit, and it really is a beautiful night to sit out here, enjoying dinner.
If only being here right now were something I could enjoy.
“How’s the shop?” Mom asks, her manicured fingernails tapping lightly at the base of her wine glass. “Still prepping for the big Fourth of July sale?”
I don’t even want to answer her. She wants to ask me about the shop—my father’s legacy—in front of this man? The one she ran off to with barely a backward glance at my dad’s gravestone?
“Come on, Reid. I’m trying. Can’t you try, too?”
“Try what?” I ask. “What can you possibly imagine would come from a dinner like this?”
My eyes flick to Vance’s briefly before returning to my mother’s.
“Well, I guess…I hoped you would be able to sit and enjoy dinner, tell me about your life, that’s all.”
“Andhehas to be here for that?”
“Reid, I know you think—”
“Don’t.” My words come out on a bark, and I don’t miss the way silence expands around us, the neighboring tables quieting slightly.
There are few things on this earth that anger me to the point that I will speak exactly what’s on my mind, and one of them is sitting across from me. My mother’s new boyfriend.
I lower my voice and lean forward. “I don’t care what you think. About anything.”
“Reid.” My mother’s voice is hushed and admonishing, reprimanding. It’s a tone she hasn’t used on me in years.
The server returns with my drink, and it takes all my effort not to toss it back in one gulp. Instead, I sip it, trying to savor the way it burns my throat.
“Can’t you just…try to be happy for me?”
I shake my head, not as an answer, but in plain disbelief that she would even say that to me in the first place.
“You want me to be happy for you? When you ran off with this joker literallymonthsafter dad died?” I lean forward again, glaring at my mother, suddenly unable to keep my thoughts to myself any longer. “You left me to handle everything alone whileyou went on fucking cruises and vacationed in Mexico. And you want me to be happy for you?”
I take another sip of my whiskey, my hands gripping the glass tightly for fear of dropping it.
‘’I want you to be as happy for me and my choices as you want me to be for you and yours.”
At that, my jaw goes tight.
“Tabitha.” Vance says my mother’s name in a firm tone then takes one of her hands in his.
“No,” she replies, tugging her hand free. “If you’re going to say exactly what you think, I’m going to do the same.”
Vance sighs and takes a sip from his own drink as my mom crosses her arms, her eyes narrowing.
“You’ve made some of your own choices that I don’t agree with. Divorcing your wife. Taking this ridiculous…vow of loneliness or whatever it is you’re doing…”
