"A bicycle courier?" she said, surprised. "Was he at least good looking?"
"Very," I said and wagged my eyebrows. "Steph called him a real babe."
"She did?" my mother said with a laugh. "Well, Steph would know. So, does this bicycle courier have a name?"
"Keith," I said, using the name of the guy who worked for Josh. I made up a story on the fly about him wanting to buy a company and be an entrepreneur one day.
"That's nice dear," my mother said, but I could tell by the sound of her voice that she didn't approve. "I'm sure you'll meet someone suitable when you go to Columbia."
I frowned. "Mom, women don't go to college to meet men."
"Of course, they don't," my mother said, her voice sounding tired. "But that's where many people meet their future partners..."
"Don't tell Dad, whatever you do," I said. "He'll give me the third degree about him. We're just friendly right now so there's no reason to get him all interested, okay?"
She didn’t say anything, and I realized it was ridiculous to expect her to keep quiet about something as momentous as me having a new BF.
"At least promise me that you'll wait to tell him about Keith until you go back to Concord. Okay? I don't need him pestering me for information, considering that nothing may come of it."
"Your father will just want to make sure that you're okay, dear," my mother said. "But I'll wait if you really want me to."
I nodded. "I do, I do," I said, trying to drive home to her how much I did. "Please wait until you're on the flight back. At least then the most he can do is call me on the phone or text me."
She shook her head. "I don't know why you'd want to keep it from your poor father."
I sighed. There was no use arguing with her. Jerkface had a good pedigree and while he wasn't as wealthy as Josh, he had an inheritance. He went to an Ivy League school, worked for a top political law firm who did work for my father. My mother would be calculating how much less money someone like 'Keith' would make than Jerkface.
I knew it.
If she knew about Josh, she'd be ecstatic, but if my father knew about Josh, he'd be infuriated.
I was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place.
If anything more developed between us, I'd come clean about Josh but until then, I figured it was a better idea to keep them in the dark about my own Mr. Big.
No sense in creating a bunch of drama over nothing.
We met my father for dinner Sunday night and had a nice time, until the time came for my father to ask about my social life.
"She met a young man," my mother said, totally forgetting I had asked her to keep quiet about it.
"Mother!"
My father turned to me, his eyes widening.
Oh, oh...
"When were you going to tell me?" he asked, wiping his mouth and sitting back in his chair. "You met some new man? Who is it?"
He turned to my mother and she just shrugged. "I wasn't supposed to say anything. You'll have to ask your daughter."
He turned back to me. "Well?"
"Well, what?" I said, frustrated, giving my mother the stink eye.
"Tell me about this young man. What's his name? What do you know about his family?"
"He's a bicycle courier," my mother said, and then she covered her mouth like it just slipped out.