My mother glances at me and likely sees the hard look I’m giving her, the “don’t be a bitch” look.
“You work for CC?” Audra asks.
“Yes, I relocated just over a week ago.”
“And you’re already sleeping with my son?”
“Audra,” I snap. “Carly’s my girlfriend. You ever get me to your dinner table again, she’ll be there with me, so be v
ery fucking careful right now.”
Her eyebrows fly up. Pretty sure my mother didn’t think the word girlfriend was still in my vocabulary.
“My apologies, Carly,” she says without any sincerity whatsoever.
Carly says nothing. She looks a little shell-shocked. A big fuckin’ switch for the way Carly’s mother was with me, that’s for certain.
“How’d you get here, Mother? Hope you didn’t drive. Your license is revoked, I’m assuming.”
She gives me a narrow-eyed look. “I have a driver.”
“Yet you drove to the Greer residence the other day in your housekeeper’s car.”
My mother’s eyes bulge.
She swallows. I give her a wide smile.
Nothing is said the rest of the elevator ride up, but the tension is thick.
We get to the apartment and Carly immediately announces, “I’ll go get unpacked. Um, nice to meet you, Mrs. Carmichael.” She rushes off towards the bedrooms with her luggage, shutting the hallway doors on her way, to give us privacy.
I put my laptop bag on the breakfast bar.
“What do you want, Audra?”
“Go ahead,” she says. “Hit me with your hate. Tell me, Aiden. All of what you’ve dug up on me. I want it all so there won’t be any blindsiding.”
She has tears in her eyes. Tears. I’m a bit thrown for a second. Her demeanor has completely altered since the elevator.
“You’re fucking Roger Greer.”
She looks at the floor.
“I knew about the fucking around, Audra, but Roger?”
She shakes her head. “That’s… I won’t get into this with my son.”
“I don’t fuckin’ understand you.”
She brushes her dyed blonde hair away from her eyes. “Anything I say to you right now is pointless, because you already hate me, so there’s nothing I can say to you, because I know you’ll use it to hurt me.”
“You obviously don’t want a relationship with me, lady, because otherwise, you’d take a leap of faith.”
“If I want one, will I get one, Aiden?”
I stare.
She folds her arms and taps her toe.