“Elizabeth of course,” my mother admonished.
“I think your picker is off, mum. You lost the plot with this one,” I said, whispering as the Thomases took the stage. “But you wanted me to meet her and I have. I’m going home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve talked about this before. You aren’t picking my wife for me, mother. After consistent failure with your selections, I thought we’d be done with this by now.”
“What on earth are you talking about? Do you realize who these women are? Charles, they’re the most desirable women in the world and they’re yours for the picking.”
“Not interested.”
“Charles,” her voice lowered. She meant business now. She was calling on the last of her patience to deal with me. We were at an event held by one of her peers and she wanted, no, needed to make a good impression. In her mind, I had just rejected the woman of her dreams for me and she couldn’t even yell at me properly like she wanted to. I didn’t enjoy vexing her but I was done playing her games. I had Brenna back in my life and we were having a baby. As far as I was concerned, that was the life I wanted to build and I didn’t need her approval or permission to do it. She could stop now, I had done the work for her.
“Yes, mother?”
“You have a duty to your family. We need an heir. They’ll inherit the family’s entire estate. Their mother has to come from respectable stock,” she said. Respectable stock. It was like she was a breeder talking about dogs or cattle or something. Didn’t she hear how eugenics-ey it sounded? It was gross.
“I’m aware mother. Don’t worry. I’ll get around to it eventually, but the way I want to do it, not you.”
I walked away before she could say anything back. I got a cab back to the house since I sent Barry home after bringing me to the hotel. A current of anxiety was humming through my body. I didn’t like to challenge my mother. It was something I learned young. After dad died, I never wanted to make her upset or stress her out. I was all she had. She never remarried or had any other kids. I wanted to be the good son, which in a perverted way meant that the older I got, she never felt the need to take her foot off my neck. I was done living the kind of life that she would approve of. What she wanted was her business, not mine.
Hopefully, Brenna was still awake.
I let myself into the house and immediately ripped the tie off my neck. I fucking hated those things. I dropped it on the floor and walked through to the living room. I dropped my jacket and started on my shirt, popping a few buttons off in the process. I dropped it at the foot of the stairs. I kicked my shoes off before climbing up. My pants went next. I left them at the top of the stairs and stopped at Brenna’s room. I knocked.
Please be awake, I thought. I needed to see her. She was the only antidote for the farce that I just walked out of. I never should have left her in the first place. She was who I wanted in my life, not them.
I heard soft footsteps through the door and it opened. Brenna jerked back a little, surprised when she saw me. I was down to my vest and underwear, standing there after ditching her for a charity function for an endangered bird I didn’t even know the name of. Not to mention I had basically left with no real explanation, at the behest of my mother like I was still a thirteen-year-old kid being forced to go to church.
“You lost?” she asked. I stepped through the doorway and pulled her to me, hugging her. She stood there, letting me, arms limp at her sides.
“Charles?” she asked. I stifled a laugh. She never called me by my full name.
“Hm?”
“What are you doing?” she asked. I squeezed her, smelling her hair.
“I needed to feel you,” I said.
“Oh. Okay.”
We were silent for a second.
“Charlie?”
“What is it, babe?”
“What happened to your clothes?” she asked. I laughed.
“I wanted to be comfortable. I don’t feel like myself like that.”
“Like what?”
“Suited and booted like 007’s geeky cousin.”
She laughed a little. “No?” she asked. “I take it the charity auction didn’t go too well then?”
“It sucked.”