I would go with that for the sake of ending this conversation sooner than later. I loved my mom to death, and since my Nan was gone, she was all I had. This didn’t make her the easiest person to deal with.
“So, what exactly did he say?” she probed before I could voice an excuse of needing to use the bathroom. “Was he nice?”
I propped an elbow on the island and rubbed my brow. “He wanted to fly me out to where he lives so I could go through her things before they’re removed from his house. Do you think it’s weird for him to be getting rid of her stuff so soon?”
“Not at all,” she replied. “No one wants a constant reminder of the dead.”
“Good point,” I mumbled around another bite of cereal. I wasn’t sure how long Meg and Alaric had been married, but I couldn’t begin to imagine what losing a spouse felt like.
“When do you leave?”
“Leave? You know I’m not going.”
The line went so quiet I thought she hung up again. I tapped the screen to wake it, seeing the timer for our call was still going.
“Mom?”
“I’m here. I was just thinking maybe you should.”
“Since when have you thought me going anywhere other than by your side was a good idea? And to meet some man I don’t know. Are you feeling okay?”
She made a sound of protest, then laughed softly. “He isn’t a total stranger Catalina. He’s just a family member you haven’t met. You spend weeks cooped inside your house like a vampire that can’t be touched by sunlight. Eating junk food and watching trashy reality television. This would do you some good. Consider it a vacation.”
“Calling this a vacation is morbid and wrong.”
I mentally ran down a checklist of what it would take for me to take this man up on his offer. Every task seemed daunting and otherwise impossible.
For most people, it would have been a breeze to book hotel accommodations, pack a bag, and hop on whatever plane Alaric bought a ticket for.
I wasn’t most people.
“Kitten--.”
“We don’t know anything about him. He could be like, a serial killer or something.”
She scoffed. “He isn’t. The man is in an extremely well-paying field and highly respected amongst his colleagues.”
And there it was.
That was her reason for taking such an extreme interest in my sister’s widow of all people. She’d obviously done her research on him. He was probably grey at the edges and desperately trying to cling to the physique he’d had back in his college days.
Most men my mother was interested in on my behalf were always wealthy and twice my age, making them perfect candidates to be my stepfather or my sugar daddy. Both options were repulsive in equal measures and I never saw how they would benefit me.
What did I need to be rich for? There wasn’t anything appealing about living in a bigger house. That would only make me feel more alone than I already did. I didn’t have a desire to be social or dress in designer fashion, I hated wearing clothes as it was.
If I wasn’t so damn socially inept being able to travel would be nice, but I could do that now if I truly wanted to. My father hadn’t been anything but a donor of sperm and cash my entire life. I wasn’t fabulously wealthy, but I was able to get by just fine.
A few simple trips wouldn’t have put me on the streets. Stressing any of this to Mom would be a moot point. Never mind my sister had died, she was focused on something else entirely.
“Even if I miraculously did want to go, I wouldn’t know where to begin with setting all that up.”
“That’s what you have me for. I can have everything sorted in a couple of hours if you give me his number.”
“Ha. Yeah, that’s not happening. Nice try.”
“Don’t underestimate the lengths I’ll go to for your happiness Catalina.”
“My happiness? Mom, you sound crazy. Meg is dead. This man is her husband which makes him my brother-in-law. He isn’t a potential catch for me or some pawn to be used in your schemes. Leave it alone.”
“My schemes?” she scoffed. “I’ve never schemed.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“I’ve got to go, alright? I’ll call you later so try to be near the phone.”
My cell beeped twice, signaling she’d just ended the conversation, taking my appetite with it. I stared at the screen with furrowed brows, hoping to high hell she wasn’t serious. While her response wasn’t out of the ordinary, the reaction is what troubled me.
And frustrated me.
I needed to speak to someone levelheaded so naturally I sent a text to Chloe, the only friend I had.
As I waited for her to reply, I took a good look around the square-shaped room that made up majority of my home. Everything looked the same as it had for the past three years, much to my mother’s dismay.