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Thinking back to last night, hip to hip with Sebastian, and the way he kissed me so gently only makes me even more sure that I have to succeed in convincing Mom that our match is a good one. I have to make her believe that Sebastian and I getting together officially is inevitable.
On a whim, I message my brother Alex, who told me earlier in the week that he might be spending the weekend at home too:Did you make it home, and if so, where is Mom?
Alex:Nice to talk to you too, J. Anyway, Mom is in her suite last time I saw her.
I exhale slowly. Okay, so she is home. I guess this conversation really is going to happen today.
When we arrive, I waste no time with anything else, just go upstairs and walk the long hallways to the master suite that Mom has all to herself these days. The door is closed, and I bite my lip, considering whether to knock or just enter. Ultimately, I knock, since I know I would want her to do the same if it was the other way around.
“It’s Julia,” I call through the door preemptively.
“Come in, dear!” Mom responds, and I do just that, pushing open the heavy wood door that opens into the sitting area of her suite.
Mom is seated at her small marble breakfast table, which is covered now in a cloth to protect it as she receives a manicure from a nail technician I don’t recognize. With her hands otherwise occupied, my mother greets me with a smile, nodding toward the empty chair next to her. My heart is pounding as I sit down, twisting the hem of my shirt in my hands as I do so.
“Did you have a good week at school?” she asks, her tone friendly. I can’t tell if she knows about the time spent with Sebastian or not, so I don’t know if she’s trying to trick me into a lie. My mother always plays these ridiculous games, and it makes my anxiety spike.
“It was fine.” I tell her as I sit on the edge of my chair. “Glad to be off for the weekend though.”
“Indeed…” she drawls, taking a look at her nails, before her eyes flicker back to me. “Any plans for the weekend, dear?”
I shake my head. “Just relaxing…Er, it looks like you’re doing the same,” I reply, nodding to her nails. The nail technician just raises her eyebrows, buffing my mother’s fingernails silently.
“I didn’t feel like going out, so I just decided to get my weekly manicure at home instead.” She sighs, pausing for a moment to catch her breath. “It’s nice, but I do miss the spa.”
Why are we talking so much about nothing?!I think but out loud just tell her, “Oh, I bet.”
A few minutes stretch, filled just with vague questions about my class work and upcoming projects, before my Mom finally strikes. “So…when were you going to mention the beautiful flowers you received on Tuesday?”
I shrug one shoulder, trying to play nonchalant. “I didn’t think much of it.”
“You didn’t think much of receiving rosesin class?” She demands, vitriol creeping into her tone. The nail tech starts to work faster. “That is not what you are in school to be doing, Julia. All it is is a giant distraction.”
“It’s like I asked to get them in the middle of a lecture,” I gripe, and Mom just sneers.
“And I assume they were fromSebastian van den Bosch,hm?”
“They were,” I confirm, squaring my shoulders for what is surely about to be a fight. “What of it?”
“Ha!” she barks, turning her eyes to the other side just for a brief moment. “Only that I’ve already told you that you’re forbidden from messing around with thatgrown man,and here he is sending you roses. My girl, men don’t send roses just because. What exactly have you been doing to have him so smitten?”
My mouth falls open in shock. “Mom, what exactly are you implying?”
The nail tech finishes, drying my mothers’ hands and massaging lotion into them as quickly as she possibly can before she starts to clean up. Once my mother has her hands back, she points one long, freshly manicured finger in my direction. “I’m implying that you’ve been sneaking around with that pervert, because I know that you have!”
I roll my eyes and cross my arms right as the manicurist disappears out of the bedroom door and Mom and I are truly alone. “Oh, come on, Mom. We went for a walk in the park and a boat ride. That’s all. Nothing so nefarious as what you’re trying to say I’ve been doing.”
“So you have or haven’t slept with Sebastian?” she demands.
“Ihaven’t,” I hiss, quite offended that she even had to ask in the first place. “But with the way you’re taking this, it’s unlikely I’d tell you the truth even if I did!”
She sucks in a breath, standing in a flash so she looms over me. “I know you think you’re grown, Julia, but you are far from it. You’re being naive and selfish, and this match is simply not going to happen, no matter how much you moan and complain. This is my home, and you are my daughter, and it’s about time that you remember that.”
I rear back as if slapped. “I’m my own person, Mom! Sebastian is a good man, and he’s been nothing but a gentleman to me thus far, but you still insist on calling him a pervert and insinuation that I’m an idiot for believing that he’s a good man.”
Mom sinks back into her seat and folds her hands in front of her, trying to keep her composure after snapping. “I was like you once, Julia, and look at where it got me? Alone, and humiliated in front of my peers. Connecting with someone out of some misguided notion of love will only lead to pain and heartache later in life. I refuse to let that happen to you.”
“You have to let me make my own mistakes,” I insist, yet the memories of her painful divorce making headlines bring tears to my eyes. “I know if you wanted to, Sebastian would talk to you himself. Maybe that would make you–”
