Suddenly, the sound of my phone buzzing interrupts my thoughts. I grimace, recognizing the ringtone because it’s my mother. I debate ignoring Angela’s incoming video call, but all that will do is make her continue to dial me nonstop.
Taking a steadying breath, I press the ‘answer’ button and my mother’s face pops onto the screen.
“Chrissy,” Angela says sharply, her voice raspy from her pack-a-day habit. “I called you three times yesterday. Why didn’t you answer?”
Because I didn’t want to talk? I think wryly. But common sense gets the best of me, and I bite my tongue.
“Oh, I was at work,” I reply, hoping my mother doesn’t probe further. “I didn’t get home until late, and I didn’t want to wake you up.”
“Fine,” my mom harrumphs grumpily. “By the way, where are you now? I don’t recognize your location,” she says, eyeing an eggshell-colored statuette behind me with suspicion.
“I’m at a friend’s place,” I lie with almost too much ease. After all, I can’t tell Angela who I’m sleeping with. She would go absolutely berserk, seeing that she used to be married to Rick and Ryder’s dad. “Why, what’s going on, Mom? Why are you calling?”
The older woman flips her blonde hair over one shoulder, like an aging beauty queen. But that’s the problem: my mom’s age. When you’re young and pretty, you can get away with a lot. But Angela crossed the hump into middle age a while ago, and she’s got crow’s feet, as well as pucker lines around her thinning lips. Even so, she still acts like a beauty queen and flies into a rage when the world doesn’t kowtow at her feet.
With a sigh, I ask again. “What’s up, Mom? What can I help you with?”
Angela immediately launches into a rant about her lack of money, and how she’s scraping to get by. There’s some truth to her words because she got a nice chunk of change from Fred Walsh as part of her divorce settlement. But of course, she blew through it within a year on frivolous items like overpriced lipstick and an acid-green Ferrari. That car was the ugliest thing, but Angela called it “the Viper” and loved speeding through the streets of Sheridan while showing off her new toy.
But of course, my mom wasn’t done with men by a long shot. Within a year of leaving Fred, she married the pool boy who was the cause of their divorce, but of course, a pool boy doesn’t make much. Under severe economic strain, they also got divorced after a couple years and then, I think Angela got married again, although I’m not sure. With so many marriages and break-ups, even I, her daughter, can’t keep up.
As if on cue, my mom whines.
“I’m poor, Chrissy,” Angela speaks in a shrill voice. “It’s not right that things are this way.”
“You’re not poor, Mom,” I remind her for the hundredth time.
“I am, I have nothing.” Her eyes glisten with crocodile tears even as she waves a perfectly-manicured hand about.
“You have a nice house, and you still have some alimony, right?” I say in a neutral tone. “Didn’t Randolph, your latest husband, consent to alimony payments for at least five years?”
Angela’s face shrivels up, prune-like.
“My house is shitty and you know the alimony ended last year,” she hisses. “I should be living in a mansion, and instead, I’m living in this salt-box piece of crap that should be razed.”
I bite my bottom lip because Buddy the Pool Boy spent his life savings buying that salt box piece of crap for Angela, and Randolph the personal trainer probably works his ass off to meet his alimony obligations. But this is all lost on Angela because she can’t get over herself. Again, my mom still sees herself as a stunning beauty queen who deserves a rich man and a glamorous life.
Thank god I’ve never told her about my relationship with Rick and Ryder because I’m sure she’d be trying to milk them for spare cash. Everyone knows the twins are rich, and my mom would come sniffing like a bloodhound on a trail. The thought makes shivers go down my spine. How awful. I’d be humiliated, and it’s better to protect the twins from her rapacious ways. I could never forgive myself for subjecting them to the horror that is my mother.
OMG, I’ve fallen in love with Rick and Ryder, I think suddenly. That’s why I want to shield them from Angela.
Is it true? Nearly gasping aloud, I toy with this admission as my mom goes on and on about her bills and horrible life. But internally, a warm feeling spreads over my chest, and I know that the emotion is real. Rick and Ryder are fantastic lovers, but more importantly, they’re powerful, intelligent and caring men. The brothers are different, yet similar, and I’ve fallen for them both with equal passion. Ryder is stoic and calm, my port in a storm. Rick is lighthearted and kind, always able to brighten my day. Together, they make for a powerful combination, and I’m the lucky girl who gets to enjoy their attentions.