Being Mina

by Alycia Amore

  She stared at him as he walked away down the dimly lit hallway. Bryan's shoulders were bent; he shoved the box in the front pocket of his sweatshirt and pulled the hood up. She bit down on her lip hard, not enough to break skin, just enough to sting. She wanted to punish herself for wanting to sleep with him, months of silence and he shows up to her apartment alone in the dark and the first thing she wants to do is bed him? There was something wrong with that, for real.

  Mina closed the door when he disappeared around the corner and locked herself in. She had been almost ready to dismiss Bryan as a part of her past that would always be around for Ava, but not directly in Mina's life. Now, she wasn't so sure. She'd wanted him so bad just a few minutes ago. She missed him but she didn't know if she was going to be able to trust him again. He said he'd make it up to her and come back. She sure as hell hoped he would.

  "Hello," Mina said when she answered the slim white cordless on the kitchen counter. The highly polished Italian marble counters her mother had taken forever to pick out glittered in the sun coming from the window above the sink.

  "What's up?" Bryan said on the other end.

  Mina felt her heart rate increase and took a deep breath before she answered him.

  "I'm just hanging out. What are you doing?" Mina self-consciously smoothed down her hair and immediately felt silly. Bryan couldn't see her. She couldn't believe they'd been talking for two whole weeks and she still felt shy and excited whenever she heard his voice.

  "Driving around," Bryan said quickly. "Trying to find something to get into."

  "That shouldn't be too hard for you," Mina said quickly.

  "It really shouldn't, but for some reason, it is today."

  Mina laughed.

  "So..." Bryan said after a long pause. "Can I come pick you up?"

  "I don't know...my mom is here so I'd have to ask her before I went anywhere." Lame excuses, but Mina knew her mother would never approve of Bryan once she saw his baggy jeans and oversized t-shirt or jersey. She'd catch one whiff of the weed smoke that maintained on his person and boot his ass off her front porch so fast he'd pick splinters out of it for a week.

  Mina almost dropped the phone when there was a knock at the front door. She heard her mother leave the living room and go down the hall to open it. She was just about to ask Bryan to call back when she heard his voice not only through the phone but wafting down the hallway.

  "Oh shit," she muttered dropping the white cordless back into its cradle. She was caught in a moment of panic. She wanted to rush into the living room and get Bryan the hell away from her mother, but she was wearing her tiny pink shorts that barely contained her bottom and a green tank top with no bra. She had no idea what would upset her mother more; the white boy standing in her living room, or her daughter barely dressed, standing in front of that white boy.

  "Mina," her mother called from the front of the house, "you have company."

  "Uh...I'm not dressed for company."

  "Well, come say hello and then you can run upstairs and get dressed. Don't be rude."

  Mina nodded. "Coming, mother."

  Bryan forgot to breathe when Mina walked into the living room. She was so sexy. Her hair was out of the ponytail and hung down her back in a silken black sheet. Some of it spread across her generous, obviously untamed breasts. He couldn't have imagined the perfect proportions of her body no matter how hard he tried. He'd never seen so much of her. Her smooth brown arms were bare, the shirt stopped well above her navel, showing her flat stomach and those shorts...those damned shorts. The pink fabric stopped just below her crotch, it outlined her pussy and left almost every inch of her legs available for his eyes to feast on. She was barefoot and even the pale pink polish on her toes managed to add to his want.

  "Hi," Mina said with a shy smile.

  "Hi."

  Bryan caught the surprised look on her face when she finally looked up from the floor. He held back a laugh. He knew she'd be surprised. He wore khaki pants that actually fit, with a belt, and a pale blue Polo shirt, white Nikes and a cocky grin.

  "Well," Diana said interrupting the silence as each appreciated the other's outfit. "You really aren't dressed for company, are you?"

  Mina felt her face grow warm.

  "Why don't you run upstairs and change. Bryan came over to ask me if you could join his family for Sunday dinner and you certainly can't go dressed like that."

  "I'll just be a minute," Mina offered turning immediately to the staircase. Her mother had just given her permission to go out with Bryan. This was monumental, as was the grin that broke out on her face as she bounded up the stairs two at a time. This was her first date. Excited didn't even begin to describe the feeling she had as she wildly pulled clothes from her closet. Her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest and she was incredibly warm all over. She was officially going out with Bryan Dillinger...and her mother had given permission.

  Bryan tried not to frown at the thought of Mina putting on her signature jeans and t-shirt on to hide all he'd just seen. Technically, she hadn't been dressed for Sunday dinner, but he couldn't imagine he'd ever want to see her in anything other than that outfit ever again.

  ***

  "You're a fucking idiot," Brenda said as she placed the giant salad bowl on the dining room table.

  Bryan glared at his step-sister, but continued setting the table. "Are you going to start this shit now?"

  Brenda tossed her out-of-the-bottle blonde hair and rolled her gray eyes. "Hell, yeah! You're miserable, making the rest of us miserable, and you don't think I'm going to say something?"

  Bryan shrugged. It was hard to believe that Brenda wasn't his mother's biological child. They had matching personalities and both were always talking shit. He couldn't figure out if it was the fact that his mother had raised Brenda for half her life or Brenda's own genetic code that brought her into being a younger version of his mother.

  "When are you people going to stop giving me shit?"

  "Never," Andrew, his thirty-year-old step-brother said as he dropped the bread basket beside the salad. Andrew looked just like his father, tall, dark brown hair and piercing dark eyes. He'd been married to Jenna, or as the rest of the family called her, 'the bitch-wife', for three years. They had two kids, Morgan, three, and Miley, who had just turned two.

  Bryan was tempted to retreat up the stairs to his bedroom and not come out until everyone had left. He'd managed to avoid these dinners for months, refusing to drive to his siblings' and being conveniently absent when they were held at his house. Linda had caught on and made him promise not to duck out on this one. Bryan couldn't bring himself to break a promise he'd made to his mother...no matter how much everyone picked on him.

  "Leave him alone," Linda said entering the dining room with a pan of baked ziti. "He knows what he did and he's already suffering. Stop giving him shit!"

  Brenda sighed and Andrew shrugged.

  "Thanks mom," Bryan said with a sigh of relief.

  "Don't even think that I'm on your side here," Linda snapped. "I just don't want you getting jumped on by your brother and sister. That's my job."

  Don dropped into his seat and smiled at Linda. "Will this family ever get through one of these meals without an argument?"

  "Dad," Brenda said taking her seat, "Are you new here?"

  David walked into the dining room from the kitchen holding a platter of roasted red potatoes and onions. He was a cross between the other siblings in attendance. He had the same dark hair as Andrew; his eyes were light gray like his older sister. He wasn't quite six foot like his father and older brother, but he was handsome. He had a square jaw, linear nose, and the perfect smile.

  "No, no, Bren," Don said shaking out his napkin and placing it across his lap. "I'm just doing a little wishful thinking."

  "It would be boring as hell around here if there wasn't a reason to yell all through dinner," David said sitting in the chair beside Bryan.

  Logan picked that exact moment
to crash into the kitchen pulling an especially thin woman behind him. Sandie smiled and waved at the family gathered around the table.

  Linda frowned...not pleased with the uninvited guest. "Did you bring the baby?" she asked flatly.

  "No," Sandie said with a shrug. "He's at home with my mom."

  "Oh," Linda said, not even bothering to hide the disappointment she felt at having to deal with the idiotic stick figure and not getting any grandma time out of it. Dorian was over a year old now and surprisingly fat considering how thin his mother was. Then, her disappointment turned to annoyance when 'the bitch-wife' entered from upstairs.

  "They're finally settled," she told no one in particular as she took the chair beside Andrew. "I put in a Sponge Bob DVD so we've got at least two hours of peace."

  Linda had stopped insisting on Morgan and Miley having dinner with them. After twenty minutes of the toddlers shoveling, throwing, or refusing food, Jenna was an absolute wreck and morphed into Super-Bitch-Wife for the rest of the evening. Instead, the kids ate an early dinner and stayed upstairs until it was time to leave.

  Linda missed Mina at Sunday dinner. She would help with the cooking. She would help with the dishes. She'd always politely thank Linda for dinner and tell her how delicious everything had been. Mina was the perfect dinner guest. She didn't stumble in at the last minute still reeking of sex like Sandie and she didn't wrinkle her nose and recite the calorie content of everything like 'the bitch wife' did. Sometimes Linda was sure that she'd stab her dear daughter-in-law with a fork if Jenna said one more thing about Italian food being "full of bad carbs and heavy sauces".

  "Well," Don said snapping Linda's attention back to the dinner at hand. "Let's eat then!"

  "Pasta, potatoes, and bread," Jenna sighed wrinkling her nose, "This is going to wreck my diet."

  Linda clenched her fork until her knuckles turned white as Don instructed Andrew to say the grace.

  ***

  Mina hugged Linda the next Wednesday. She was dropping Ava off so she could get some serious writing done on her Ethics term paper.

  "I miss you so much," Linda said when they finally separated.

  Mina smiled but remained quiet.

  "I'm fucking serious!" Linda said in a stage whisper. "You're the only decent girl any of my sons have ever brought home."

  "You always say that," Mina said as she unfastened Ava's restraints to remove her from the car seat.

  "That's because it's true," Linda sighed. "Can you believe 'the bitch wife' said my baked ziti was dried out? She's got some nerve...maybe I should just feed my family hot dog pieces in macaroni and cheese like she does."

  Mina snickered. "She doesn't really eat, Linda. She wouldn't know how it's supposed to taste."

  Linda smiled. "That's what I love about you, honey. You're so fucking smart."

  Mina didn't feel smart. She'd spent the last two weeks dodging William's invitations on another date. She was waiting for Bryan. Sometimes she wondered how long she was willing to wait for him to fulfill his promise. She hadn't heard from him and he was noticeably absent when she dropped off his daughter. Everything was the same as before. It was like the night in her apartment hadn't even happened. She handed Ava to Linda and sighed.

  "Has Bryan said anything about me?"

  Linda cooed at her granddaughter and shook her head no. "Like what, honey?"

  Like we almost spent the night together, or about what he'd promised me, or about the pack of condoms he'd stolen from my night stand. "I don't know," she answered after running through the list of possible answers.

  "He hasn't been saying much of anything lately," Linda bounced Ava a bit before putting her in the playpen and cleaning up the mess of macaroni and cheese Layla had left on the kitchen table before her nap. "All I know is that he's taking a business course on-line and he's been spending most of his time at the store with Don."

  "Really?" Mina asked. She couldn't picture Bryan doing either one of those things and briefly wondered if Linda was telling the truth.

  "Yup. Don says he's teaching him the books and stuff. He's even paying him an hourly wage so he won't go back to selling weed."

  Mina frowned. "I didn't know he'd started that again."

  Linda put the empty Hello Kitty bowl in the sink and grabbed the sponge. "He was back at it for a few months after he quit the factory job. He said it was quick money and the only thing he knew he could do well."

  Mina frowned. She didn't want Bryan doing that shit. The last thing she wanted was to take Ava to visit her father in prison.

  "Oh, don't look like that!" Linda said as she wiped the stubborn cheese off the table top. "I told you he's not doing it anymore. Don told him he could make money the easy way, or he could make it the right way. Looks like he's listening."

  Mina forced a smile. "Let's hope so. Could you ask him to call me?"

  Linda stopped scrubbing at that question. Mina had never indicated that she was interested in any direct contact with Bryan before. "Sure, honey."

  Mina shrunk under Linda's curious stare. "I...uh...I gotta go."

  Mina was half asleep when her phone rang that night. She snatched it out of the cradle, and mumbled a greeting.

  "Hi, there," William's voice greeted her own. Mina was awake now and wanted to kick herself for not screening more carefully. She'd convinced herself that avoiding William was easier than saying no to him. He was just so damned charming.

  "I'm pretty tired," she started, "Can I call you back tomorrow?"

  "No, way, Mina. The last time you said that, you didn't call me at all. Anyway, this won't take long."

  "Okay then." Mina sat up in the bed and propped herself up against the pillows.

  "I would like to invite you to a very important luncheon in the city. My family is active in a lot of charities and one is having a thing on Saturday. My mother bought a whole table and she's having a hard time filling it. She invited me and told me that I had to bring someone to fill the last seat."

  "Oh, I don't know about that," Mina said trying to keep her voice even and not as panicked as she felt. "We've only been on one date and now I have to meet your parents? That's kind of weird. Besides, Saturday is only two days a way. It's such short notice."

  "The meeting the parents thing is totally obsolete. You'd be doing my mom a huge favor and I've been dying to see you again. Please say you'll go."

  "Okay," Mina sighed. "I'll get a babysitter."

  "Cool. I'll call you tomorrow to iron out the details."

  Mina hung up and pulled the covers over her head. She felt guilty for trying to ditch William. He was such a nice guy. There was nothing wrong with a luncheon was there? It was for charity after all.

  ***

  A week later Linda, Don, and Bryan stood in the living room having a heated discussion. Linda stood with her slim arms crossed against her chest and a deep frown. Don also had his arms crossed buy his face was unreadable. Bryan had his fists deep in the pockets of his baggy jeans and spoke too loudly.

  "I'm sick of this!" he snapped. "There was some girl in the shower when I got home from work. I had to go take my final without a shower!"

  "You could have used our shower," Linda countered.

  "There's no way in hell! I know what you two do in that shower!"

  Don shook his head and tried not to laugh. The whole situation had gone from volatile to comical.

  Bryan had gotten home from taking his Business final in a sour mood. When Linda asked what was wrong, he told her that Logan had pissed him off before his test. The two had argued about the girl in the shower; which led to an argument about Logan having too many girls coming in and out of the house. Logan had insisted that his younger brother was just jealous for which Bryan had no retort. Logan had left by the time Bryan returned from his test and Bryan was insisting that his parents kick his older brother out of the house. Linda was having none of that talk.

  "Bryan," she sighed, "lets be honest here. You're twenty years old now. We could ki
ck you out just as easily as your brother."

  Bryan shrugged. "I'm moving out soon anyway. Besides, I've lived somewhere other than here, Logan never even pretended like he was planning on going anywhere else. All he does is bring home girls and get them pregnant."

  Don sighed. "To be fair, that Charlotte girl isn't sure Logan is the father."

  "That just proves my point dad," Bryan snapped. "He's sleeping with skanks and bringing them in here with you and your grandkids."

  "Oh, so this is about Ava?" Linda said confused.

  "It's about all of us," Bryan answered. "Logan is bringing us all down."

  "I'm what?" Logan shouted. None of them had heard him come in over the loud discussion.