by K. A. Linde
“Wow. That’s big. All because the guy’s an asshole?”
“He’s cheated on her.”
“Shit,” Damon said under his breath. “You’re sure?”
“Yes—at least once though I’m sure there are others,” Trihn said. “Cheating is my hard limit. I don’t understand how she can overlook it. It breaks people and friends and families. It ruins lives. It forces people to do things they’d never do otherwise. I can’t go to that wedding and pretend it’s okay.”
“I don’t have siblings, so I don’t think I can weigh in on that. But I couldn’t imagine finding out someone had cheated on you and then staying with that person. I’m assuming she knows?”
Trihn snorted. “Yeah, she does.”
“Well, I know it must be hard. You feel like you’re turning your back on your sister?”
Trihn nodded.
“Kind of sounds like she turned her back on herself.”
“Yeah, a long time ago.”
Damon pulled into the driveway of his mom’s house, effectively ending their conversation. As Trihn got out of the car, she straightened her outfit and fidgeted with her hair. She wished she’d had more warning before meeting Damon’s mom. She might have worn something a little nicer.
“You look great,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it. “You ready?”
Trihn took a deep breath and nodded. “Sure.”
TRIHN HADN’T ENVISIONED meeting Damon’s mom on the second date. In fact, maybe she had never thought about meeting his mom—not because she didn’t want to. It was something she hadn’t ever thought about. She had never met Neal’s parents even though they had dated for a year and a half, and he’d come home with her to New York twice. So, meeting Damon’s mom just hadn’t crossed her mind.
But now that she was thinking about it, her stomach flopped.
Will his mother like me? Does this set the tone of our relationship? Why did I think this would be a good idea?
She hated being nervous. She wanted to be cool and confident, but essentially, she was panicking.
Damon opened the front door, and Trihn followed him into the one-story house.
“Mum! I brought you a surprise,” Damon called.
A disjointed song being played on a piano could be heard down the hallway. Damon winced as whoever was playing had missed a few keys.
“In the music room,” she called back.
The house was cozy. Pictures lined all the walls. Photographs of Damon at every age looked back at her. Random theater props took up a large portion of the space. As they walked down a hallway, they passed several musical instruments. The space was the perfect testament of the love a mother had for her son and her more creative passions. Trihn already felt at home.
They entered a massive den that had been converted into a music room. A boy no older than ten sat in front of a grand piano positioned in the corner. It completely dwarfed him as he mashed at the keys. Next to the boy sat a middle-aged woman with her hair held back into a bun by a pair of pens.
Damon cleared his throat. “Mum?”
The woman swiveled around on the seat, and the boy stopped playing.
“Damon! Perfect timing.” She turned back to the boy. “No, don’t stop playing, Joseph. Keep going.”
The boy sighed heavily and started up on the piano again. Damon’s mom hopped up from her seat.
“Mum, this is the girl I’ve been telling you about,” Damon said.
“Hi. So nice to meet you,” Trihn said, extending her hand.
“Don’t mind me. I’m more of a hugger,” his mom said. She pulled Trihn into a quick embrace. “Trihn, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Trihn said.
She was surprised that Damon had spoken about her. She wasn’t that close to her family, and with them so far away, she hadn’t discussed anything like her dating life with them. They didn’t even know she and Neal had broken up.
“I’m Melanie, but feel free to call me Mel. Everyone does.”
“You have a beautiful home, Mel.”
Mel snorted. “It’s a disaster.” She tugged at a loose lock of dark hair. “Don’t judge me for it. It’s the curse of a creative type. Projects everywhere!”
Trihn laughed. “I like it. Feels very homey.”
“Probably for the better. If I haven’t changed by now, I’m not changing anytime soon,” she said with a smile. “Now, Damon, come take over my lesson with Joseph.”
“Mum! Do you only invite me over, so I will teach your lessons for you?” he asked, his British accent thickening around his family.
“Free labor, kid,” she said with a wink.
Damon huffed but sat down at the piano. Joseph looked up at him with hero worship. They must have done this before. Damon started helping Joseph with the piece he had been botching.
“My son, the prodigy musician, wasting his talents on a soundboard in nightclubs,” Mel said, shaking her head.
“Not wasted,” Damon called over his shoulder.
With a smile, Trihn admired the easy flow of him playing the piano as he and his mom teased each other. There was a quality to his music here that resembled his DJ work. It wasn’t so much that he just mixed music, but he made masterpieces from existing songs.
“He’s so good at that, too,” Trihn said.
“She doesn’t think it’s wasted talent either,” Damon said.
“He’s right. I wouldn’t have spent years in small productions in London if I didn’t love it. I know he’ll do what he loves, too.”
“I think he already is,” Trihn mused.
Mel nodded. “Play your girlfriend something cheerful.”
Trihn opened her mouth to protest that she wasn’t in fact his girlfriend but quickly shut it when Damon hadn’t said anything. Instead, he started playing an upbeat tempo.
“Good,” Mel said. “Now, while he’s distracted, let’s slip out. I need to start making dinner.”
Trihn laughed as Mel pulled her toward the exit. Damon must have heard their retreat because he switched from his cheery song to Darth Vader’s theme song “The Imperial March.”
Trihn followed Mel into the kitchen, and her nerves set in all over again. Mel seemed nice and chill, but that didn’t mean that Trihn wanted to be alone with her.
What if Mel wanted to get me alone so that she could ask me a bunch of questions about myself?
Trihn had a good family background, excluding the fact that her stupid sister was engaged to her ex-boyfriend.
“So,” Mel said, “what do you think we should make?”
“Um…I’m not sure.”
“Anything in particular you like? Any allergies?”
Trihn shook her head. “Nope. I’m allergic to penicillin, but I don’t think that counts.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if you get strep throat,” Mel said with a smile. “I’m thinking roasted chicken and potatoes with corn on the cob.”
“Sounds amazing.”
“Great!” Mel pulled a wine-colored apron over her head with lettering in white that said, I cook with wine. Sometimes, I even add it to the food.
She started pulling pots and pans out of the cupboards when Trihn’s phone began buzzing. Trihn grabbed it out of her bag and silenced it. She winced when she saw that she had already missed two additional texts from her mom.
“Do you need to get that?” Mel asked.
“No,” Trihn answered immediately. “It’s not important.”
She sulked over to Mel, the weight of her mother’s phone call resting on her shoulders. She needed to forget about it.
“So, you’re a fashion designer, is that right?” Mel asked as she reached into the refrigerator and started removing ingredients.
“Yes. Well, a design major.”
“I love that. Fashion designers are artists, like musicians, actors, painters, sculptors. You assess what best drapes the human form. It’s fitting since you look like you could be a model.”
“I was,” Trihn adm
itted. “While in high school, I modeled some.”
Mel raised her eyebrows. “Oh, wow. That’s incredible. Fashion design and modeling. Damon mentioned you’re a dancer as well.”
Trihn nodded. “I was in a ballet company in New York.”
“Such a talented person for so young,” Mel said. She glanced at Trihn with a smile. “Sounds just like Damon. I see why he likes you.”
“He’s really great. We just started dating, but I feel like I already know him well. He’s so easy to talk to.”
“Gets that from his father,” Mel said. “Here.”
She handed Trihn a potato peeler, and they moved into A rhythm around the kitchen. Trihn’s mother was an exceptional cook, and the familiarity in something so basic made her ache with homesickness.
It wasn’t that she regretted coming to Las Vegas. She loved her school. Her friends were here. She wouldn’t have met Damon. But things would have been a lot different in the city.
“Trihn, I know I don’t know you all that well, but is everything all right?” Mel asked.
Trihn blinked up at her through a teary blur. Shit. Am I crying? How had that happened? She didn’t even have onions to blame it on.
“Yes. Sorry.” She wiped at her eyes and looked away, embarrassed.
“Call them mum instincts, but you seem very down for a woman with so much going for her.” Mel gave her a concerned smile. “It might be awkward for you, but if you want, you can talk to me. I’m a good listener.”
Trihn blew out her breath and wiped at her eyes again. “I’m not normally this much of a mess, but I just got into an argument with my sister. So, my mom has been calling me nonstop, and I know she’s just going to yell at me about it.”
“What started the argument?”
“My sister is getting married.”
Mel tilted her head. “Not a good thing?”
“No, he’s a jerk. But my mom and sister are really close, and my mom would never understand why I refused to be there for my sister.”
“I bet your mother is more intuitive than you give her credit for. She wants you to be as happy as your sister is, and I doubt she wants to see her daughters fighting. Damon is an only child, but I hated him having arguments with anyone. I couldn’t imagine if it were with another sibling.”
“Yeah. It’s just complicated.”
Mel nodded. “It always is. Maybe you should just hear her out, and if you don’t like what she has to say, I have a bottle of wine we can open. It’s five o’clock somewhere.” She pulled out a bottle of wine and set it down in front of Trihn.
Trihn laughed. “Can we open the wine anyway?”
“Way ahead of you.” Mel reached for a corkscrew in a drawer and held it in front of her face for Trihn to see. She poured each of them a glass of a pinot grigio.
Trihn took a sip for good luck and then stepped out of the room to call her mom back. She didn’t even bother listening to the messages. She would rather go into this blind.
“Trihnity,” her mother, Linh, said in a huff.
Trihn glanced over her shoulder and took a few more steps down the hallway, away from the kitchen.
“I’ve been calling you for an hour. Where have you been?”
“Hey, Mom. I’m great. Doing just fine myself. How have you been?”
“Take this seriously.”
Trihn rolled her eyes and moved further out of earshot into an empty room. “For your information, I’m out with this new guy that I’m dating.”
“A new guy? What happened to Neal? I really liked him,” her mother said, forgetting for a moment why she had called.
“He broke up with me a month ago.”
“You didn’t tell me,” Linh said. She sounded sad.
“Yeah, well, sorry. I’ve been busy,” she said lamely. “Did you want to talk about why you called?”
“I spoke with Lydia.”
“I’m sure you did.” Trihn ran her hand back through her hair and closed her eyes, waiting for the blowup to happen.
“Do you want to tell me why you’re upsetting your sister about this entire thing? She won’t tell me anything, except that you won’t come to New York for the wedding and that you won’t be your sister’s maid of honor.”
Trihn took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “I can’t support Lydia and Preston because he’s cheated on her.”
“That’s absurd.”
“And that’s the reason I haven’t told you.”
“Okay,” Linh said. “If he did cheat on her—and I’m not certain he did—then Lydia must not know.”
“Not exactly,” Trihn whispered.
Lydia knew that, while she was dating Preston, Trihn had slept with him. She was pretty sure that he had done it after he and Lydia had become official.
“And you have proof?”
“Sort of.”
Her mother sighed. “Maybe both of you just need to cool off. I can’t force you to be at your sister’s wedding, and if you really have this big of an issue with Preston, then perhaps you should actually work it out with Lydia.”
“I think we’re past that point.”
They had been past that point for a long time.
“I hate to see you two fighting. I’d love to fly you home for a weekend. We could all talk this out, and hopefully, by the end of it, we could go wedding dress shopping in the boutiques. I know you’d love that.”
Wedding dress shopping for Lydia sounded amazing—if it wasn’t for the fact that she was marrying Preston.
“I don’t know, Mom. I just…need time to process all of this.”
“Okay. I understand. I’m only a phone call away if you need me. You know that, right?”
“Of course,” Trihn said, softening at her mother’s words.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.” Trihn hung up the phone.
That had gone better than anticipated. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t like her conversation with Lydia. Her mom wasn’t on Trihn’s side about this thing with Preston, but she didn’t want to tell her mother the truth. That would make things difficult.
Plus, she couldn’t prove that Preston had cheated on Lydia after they had become exclusive. She just had her knowledge of Preston and the fact that he had fucked her at the beach house while there on vacation with Lydia.
“Hey,” Damon said behind her.
Trihn quickly turned around. She hadn’t even heard the music stop. She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts. “Hey. Sorry. I didn’t realize you were done.”
“Yeah, all finished. Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just talked to my mom. Wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. Your mom gave me the courage to give it a try.”
“Did that courage come in the form of wine?” he asked, gesturing to her glass.
Trihn took another sip and smiled. “Nothing wrong with wine.”
“Well, I’m glad it went well—or at least better than you’d planned. You still up for staying for dinner? I think my mom is freaking out because I brought a girl home.”
“Yeah, about that…” Trihn said. She glanced up into his big brown eyes and smiled. “Girlfriend?”
“Fuck. I knew you were going to bring that up.”
Trihn shrugged. “Kind of hard to miss.”
“I know it’s too early. I don’t want to rush you.” He stepped toward her and brushed her hair behind her ear. “But I like the idea of moving forward.”
“It is kind of early. I’m glad that I’m out of my last relationship, but it’s really only been a month since it ended.”
“I get it.”
“But I like you,” she told him. “And I like this.”
She leaned forward and dropped her lips onto his. He pulled her flush against his body. He licked his tongue against the seam of her lips, and then she opened herself to him. His kiss was electric and enticing, reminding her of all the reasons that she was giving in to him.
“Well, well, well…” Mel loudly clear
ed her throat in the doorway.
Trihn and Damon abruptly stepped apart. Her cheeks heated. That was not what she’d wanted Damon’s mom to see the first time she was meeting her.
“Sorry, Mel. It won’t happen again,” Trihn said quickly.
“Oh, who cares? We’re all adults here. I just needed someone to finish peeling the potatoes. So, when you two lovebirds are done, I could use some help in the kitchen.”
Damon laughed when his mom walked away. “Sorry about that.”
“Are you kidding? She’s so cool.”
“Well, I’m glad you like her.”
“She’s clearly the reason you’re so wonderful,” she said.
“Wonderful, huh?” He planted one more kiss on her lips.
“Yep.”
His hands started roaming her body again, and she stepped in closer.
“We should probably go help out or else we’re going to miss dinner,” he said.
“Oh, I like the sound of that.”
He groaned. “Later. I promise you, later.”
It was with great effort that he pulled away, but she liked it so much more later when he followed through on his promise.
“I’M KIDNAPPING YOU.”
Trihn looked up at Bryna standing there in mile-high black Louboutins and a skimpy red dress.
“What?” Trihn asked.
“You heard me, bitch. You have exactly one hour to get dressed and ready, and then we have plans.”
“Um…Bri, I’d love to, but I already have plans with Damon tonight.”
Bryna sank into her hip and gave her a perfect I-don’t-give-a-shit look. “You always have plans with Damon.”
“And you pushed me to him,” Trihn said. She dropped the pencil she had been using to work on her designs. Final proofs were due next week, and she was almost finished with what she hoped were fashion show–worthy designs.
“Yes. That’s all great, but he can’t have all your time. I haven’t even seen you the past couple of weeks.”
It was true. Since Trihn had met Damon’s mom, she and Damon had been spending all their time together. It was as if the term girlfriend had flipped the switch between them. Trihn knew that she should be cautious, waiting for the other shoe to drop or for someone to pull the rug out from under her. Damon was the rebound one-night stand guy after all. Yet she couldn’t help from jumping feetfirst into this scary endeavor all over again. Her heart was on the line, but when she was with Damon, her worries would disappear. And it felt good to just be with him.