by Alice Tribue
“Why haven’t you told them?”
“Because Mom is still trying to push Garrett off on me and she’ll flip if I tell her I’m dating a man who’s eight years older than me and has a baby. I’m not thinking it will go over well.”
“You can’t keep doing this. You can’t keep living your life according to what Mom wants. You need to stop giving a shit. She lived her life, Em. She’s made everybody miserable for years, and now, it’s time for you to live yours and be happy.”
“I know.”
“You love Max and Xander, and they love you. That’s a beautiful thing. You should not be hiding it.”
“You’re right. I’m going to tell them about Max and Xander, and I’m going to invite him to Dad’s birthday dinner.”
“Good.”
“But I have another problem.”
“What?”
“I haven’t told Max that we’re well off?”
“You haven’t told him that you’re rich?”
“I hate that word.”
“Why? It is what it is—you’re rich. You have money, end of story. What do you think is going to happen when you tell him?”
“I don’t know. Max is a survivor. He came from nothing and built a life for himself, and I just don’t want him to think I’m a spoiled brat.”
“He knows you. He knows you’re not a spoiled brat, but you’ve been with him for almost seven months, Em. He’s going to be pissed that you lied to him.”
“I didn’t lie. He just never asked.”
“You lied. You absolutely lied. Why would he ever ask if you’re rich? You’re living in an apartment in New Jersey working as a social worker. What in all that’s you would give him the clue that you have money?”
“I know, and now, so much time has passed that I don’t know how to tell him.”
“Just tell him. He’ll understand.”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Can’t wait to see you and Colin.”
“Can’t wait to meet your boys.”
I disconnect the call and quickly change into a pair of yoga pants and a tank top. I throw a light sweater on, grab my keys, and walk over to Max’s to relieve Mrs. Park. My favorite days of the week are the days I get to go over there and spend time with Xander first. It’s our special bonding time, and I love everything about it. Using the key Max gave me, I let myself into his apartment. Mrs. Park is cleaning up the kitchen, and Max squeals at the sight of me.
“Hi, handsome,” I call as I walk over to him and lift him up. He squeezes my face with his chubby little hands and puts his open mouth on my cheek. Best. Kiss. Ever. “How’s my boy? Did you miss me?”
“He always misses his momma.”
My body freezes at Mrs. Park's words, and all I can do is stare at her. Hearing her refer to me as Xander’s mother does something to me. Maybe because deep down it’s what I want to be, but I can’t say it, can’t ask for the title, because I’m not his real mom. Max and I are together, but it’s never come up.
“Mrs. Park.”
“A mother is the one who takes care of you, the person who loves you, nurtures you, and sometimes that person isn’t the person who gave birth to you. Xander’s real mother passed away and that was tragic, it was so sad, honey. But he has a mother. He has an amazing woman with so much love to give to take care of him.”
“You think …”
“I see how you look at him. I see it written all over your face. He already knows who you are to him, look at him.”
Looking down, I see Xander's hand clutching my shirt, his head resting on my chest holding onto me like—well, like a mom.
“I’m scared that Max won’t like it.” I confess something I’ve been feeling for months.
“Max wants it too. Maybe if you two would stop being scared and just talk about it, you might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.”
Jeez, what is it with all these lessons I’m getting from people today? First, Hannah, and now, Mrs. Park. They’re both right, though; I so obviously need to discuss these things with Max. Things that I’ve been holding onto because I’m afraid of how he’ll react.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Good. Well, I have to go. Have a good night, dear.”
“You too.”
When she’s gone, I head to the couch with Xander and snuggle up with him. He does the same with me, nestling into me and watching as I run my finger along the palm of his hand. He holds his pacifier to his mouth with one hand and keeps his head on my chest. It doesn’t take long for him to drift off. I shouldn’t let him take a nap at this time because he’ll probably be up all night, but I don’t care. I’ll stay up with him if I have to, but I just want to enjoy this time for what it is. I do this all the time, sit with him and cuddle or get down on the ground and play with him, and while I do, I find myself thinking that I should cherish the moment, never forget how small he once was. Then I chastise myself because I don’t have the right to pretend that memories with him are mine to keep.
By the time I’m done making dinner, my nerves are shot. After my conversations with Hannah and Mrs. Park today, I decided that I couldn’t keep holding things back where Max was concerned. I love him. I’m so crazy in love with him, and if I have any chance at all of keeping him, I need to be honest with him. As he does every night, he locks eyes with me, giving me a silent hello and walks straight to Xander when he gets home. They have their moment together, and I use the time to make him a plate of food—chicken scampi over a bed of pasta. I set his plate down along with a drink and head into the living room.
He kisses me sweetly and the pull is there, as it always is, as I hope it always will be.
“Go eat. I got him.” He hands Xander off to me and heads to the table while I put him in his walker. I make sure he can’t reach or bump into anything dangerous and then I let him go. He roams the apartment stopping to play with the toys attached to the walker every so often. I keep him in my line of sight as I take a seat at the table with Max.
“How was your day?” I ask.
“It was busy, but busy is good for business.”
“Good.”
“I’m going to need you to stop by the development sometime next week. There are a few lots I want you to look at where we can potentially build, and I want you to see them.”
“That’s so exciting. I can’t wait,” I tell him hoping he’ll still want to live with me after finding out I’ve been less than honest about my life.
“Are you okay? You seem kind of quiet.” Of course, I do because I’m usually talking a mile a minute when he gets home, telling him about every second of my day.
“I have to talk to you about something.”
His eyes flash with what looks to me like worry as he puts his fork down.
“What’s up?”
“I was talking to Hannah today and …” I’m interrupted by Xander, who parks his walker in front of us, looks back and forth between us, and instantly begins to cry.
“Hey, buddy, what’s the matter?” Max asks pulling him out of the walker. “Ohh, you need your diaper changed, huh?”
“Finish your dinner, baby. I’ll change him,” I say quickly coming to my feet and pulling Xander out of his arms.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, totally, we’ll talk when I’m done.”
“Okay.”
All right, I’m chicken shit, I know, but I want to kiss Xander for his timing right now. My heart is pounding double time, and my nerves are shot. Why is this so hard for me? I should have told him about my family’s money a long time ago. It probably won’t even faze him because Max is so not about money. It takes me twice as long as normal to change Xander’s diaper because I’m taking my sweet time. I’m trying to drag out my stay of execution for as long as humanly possible. Around the time that my disappearance starts to look ridiculous, I decide to head back out and face the music.
I hear Max talking as I enter the r
oom and figure he must be on the phone.
“Right. Yes, sir, I’ll tell her,” he says before disconnecting the phone … My. Phone. Shit, shit, shit. He turns when he hears Xander’s baby talk. I set him down and take a few steps closer to Max.
He reaches out to me, his face unreadable, my phone in his hand, and I stare at it like it’s a smoking gun.
“Your phone rang. I saw a Connecticut number and thought it might be that asshole ex of yours.”
“That’s okay. I haven’t heard from Garrett since that night. I would have told you,” I say taking the phone from him and looking at the call log, “My dad’s office line.”
“You don’t have your dad’s number programmed into your phone?”
“He called me from his office, and I never call there. I have his cell and the house numbers programmed.” He nods but says nothing more. It’s awkward and uncomfortable, but I have to get through this. “What did he say?”
“He wanted to know if you were going to his birthday dinner next weekend.”
“Oh.”
“He didn’t know anything about me, Em.” There it is—an undeniable hurt in his voice—and it kills me because that’s the last thing I ever wanted. I just don’t know how to fix it without making it worse.
“I know. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“So talk, I’m listening,” he says dismissively
I let out a sigh because this isn’t going to be an easy conversation. “Can we sit?”
Though he looks frustrated with me, he indulges my request and takes a seat on the couch. I sit next to him, turning my body to face him.
“I told you a little bit about my family before. I’m closer to my dad than I am to my mom.”
“Yeah, your mom who wants to control you and see you married to Garrett.”
“Yes. But it’s more than that, she is,” I scour my brain trying to think of a way to describe her, how she is, what she’s like, and how she pulls strings like a puppet master. There’s no easy way to say any of that, so I just tell him the most obvious truth.
“She’d never accept you, not for me, no way in hell.” I want to take the words back immediately, realizing too late how bluntly I spoke them. How insensitive they sounded.
“What?” As I anticipated, he looks both angry and hurt.
“Okay. God, this sounds so bad. My family is rich, Max. They have a lot of money, and where my father is awesome and loving and non-judgmental, my mother is the complete opposite. The only acceptable kind of man for one of her daughters is one who comes with a big fat bank account.”
“Someone like Garrett?” he questions acidly.
“Exactly,” I confirm.
“So you don’t want to introduce me to her because I’m not good enough for you.”
“No. Baby, I don’t want to introduce you to her because I’m afraid that you’ll see what kind of person she is and think that I’m like that too. That I’m spoiled and self-centered and entitled. I didn’t want you to think badly of me.”
“Emelia.”
“I love you. I love you and Xander so much, and I was just afraid that if I told you about my family and their money, you would push me away and I couldn’t stand that. I wanted you to love me despite the fact that I was raised by someone like her.”
“I get that.”
“And I was talking to Hannah earlier and she encouraged me to tell you because…”
“Baby, stop. I get it, but you should know that I would never think of you as spoiled or any of the other things you said.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
“Well, I’m not happy that you kept it from me. You need to stop lying to me when you think it’s going to be something I don’t want to hear or something you’re afraid of how I’ll handle. You need to trust me with everything for this to work between us, Em.”
“I know,” I reply sheepishly. I never realized how hard relationships are or maybe it’s just that I’m not good at them. I certainly didn’t have a good teacher in Garrett. He was too busy being an ass all the time. “I promise I’ll do better.”
“Okay,” he says quietly, and I’m surprised at how well he handled all of this. I’ve seen how his temper can flare, and though I know he’d never actually hurt me, it’s not easy to watch. “When did you become so mature when it comes to arguing?”
He smirks at me. “I’m a work in progress.”
My arms instinctively wrap around his neck, and I’m so happy when his wrap around my waist.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” His lips find my neck and he places a kiss there letting me know that all is forgiven.
“Is that all you wanted to talk about.”
“No,” I say, repositioning myself to sit in his lap. “I wanted to ask you to come to my father’s birthday dinner with me. I wasn’t going to go, but Hannah’s introducing Colin to everyone. I figure if my mom is going to have a meltdown, it might as well happen with both of her girls ruining her hopes of world domination at the same time.”
“You sure you want me there?” He smirks.
Immediately, I nod my confirmation. I don’t want him to think that I don’t want him with me. I don’t want him to doubt that at all. “I don’t want to go without you.”
“Then I’ll go.” He slides a hand in my hair making me feel warmth everywhere. I love this feeling, and I’ve come to need it. I’m thankful that he reacted way better than I ever could have hoped for. He barely even seemed fazed by anything that I said. I breathe a sigh of relief that it’s over. Now, I just have to get through this meeting of the parents. The only thing I know for sure is that no matter what happens next weekend, I will not let my mother ruin my chance at happiness. I won’t let her take away the family that I’m trying to build here with Max and Xander.
I think about what Mrs. Park said earlier and decide to save that conversation about Xander for another day. I think there have been enough uncomfortable topics discussed tonight, and all I really want to do is get Xander to sleep, crawl into bed with Max, and make love. The rest of it can wait.
Max~
Emelia and I decided to leave Xander with Mrs. Park tonight. We thought about bringing him but decided that it would be better for her parents to meet me on my own first before introducing a baby. When I found out that her family was wealthy, my first thought was that I had been right all those months ago, that Emelia was too good for a guy like me. I thought she deserved better, and then I realized that their money is not hers. She moved to another state, took an average job, and moved into your normal every day apartment because she is not about the money. I know the size of my bank account doesn’t matter to her.
When I ask about tonight, she tells me that it will just be her parents, her sister, and her sister’s fiancé. This means all eyes will be on this poor Colin guy and me. I’m wondering which one of us her parents will hate more. Since Hannah has been out of the house and stuck in her rebellion for way longer than Emelia, I’m assuming that the one they hate will likely be me.
Emelia indicates that I should pull into the driveway a few feet ahead of us, and when I do, the sheer size of their house astounds me. I think that, maybe, Emelia downplayed just how rich her family really is. We walk up the driveway and straight into the unlocked house hand in hand. It happens as soon as we walk in the door. I thought we’d get a minute to settle in before bedlam began, but the minute we hit the foyer, we can hear an argument already in progress.
“What is your problem?” we hear someone yell.
“Shit, that’s Hannah.” Em says, practically pulling us through the front of the house into what looks like a sitting room full of unfamiliar faces.
“You’re engaged and you didn’t think it prudent to make your family aware of this or even that you were seeing someone at all?”
“Why would I do that, Mother? It’s really none of your business.”
Emelia takes a few steps into the room. “Hannah?”
�
��Em,” her sister replies, turning to face us. I can instantly see the resemblance between the two; they have many of the same features—same eye color, nose, posture. There are differences too, where Hannah is tall and slender, Emelia is slightly shorter and curvier. Something that works for me in a big way. She has kind eyes, though, and right now, they’re planted on my girl and they’re filled with a lot of love and relief. They practically leap into each other’s arms, and I take a step back not wanting to get in the way of their reunion. I briefly take notice of the man standing closest to Hannah; he’s young, fit, and well-dressed. Obviously, her fiancé, Colin. I give him a chin lift, one that he returns before my attention is called away.
“Who’s this?” The question comes from who I know to be Em’s mother; it’s cold, hard, and clearly unhappy. She was not expecting me, and she’s not happy that I’m here.
“Max, right?” her dad asks walking over to me and shaking my hand. Emelia and Hannah have now parted but their hands remain connected as they look our way. “Nice to meet you, son,” he says, warmly, welcoming and nothing like his wife.
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Masters.”
“Sorry, Corrine, I must have forgotten to mention that Emelia was bringing her new young man with her tonight. Max, this is my wife, Corrine.”
“You forgot?” she spits out before I have a chance to greet her. I feel Em’s presence come up behind me, and she slides her hand in mine. “How do you forget to tell me something like that? And you.” She turns her deadly gaze on Em and I pull her closer. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks, you haven’t returned a single one of my calls, and now, you show up here accompanied by someone who I don’t know?”
“I’m sorry, Mother, but I’ve been busy. And I really don’t think I need to run it by you when I choose to start seeing someone. I’m twenty-four years old, employed, and living on my own.”
“Emelia Masters, what has gotten into you?”
I can say a lot in response to this question, but I hold my tongue because I actually like Mr. Masters and I’d like to show him respect in his own home.