I explained the whole dilemma with Klara to him. He listened quietly, then hummed.
“Hey, no worries. I’ll help you figure it out. But in exchange, don’t play invisible when people try to contact you, all right? And look at the group chat every once in a while. Everyone’s been going ahead since after college, but you’ve been quite the most.”
Right then, I felt a bit uncomfortable, because I couldn’t say that I’d pretty much put a lot of what happened before behind me.
“Sure. We can meet up whenever you want before I head back home, I just need to deal with this first.”
“Give me some time. I won't need that much, and I’ll call you back to let you know.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Klara
I got home just before lunchtime. I’d already known by the texts she’d kept sending yesterday, but she was pissed.
The moment I walked inside, it was to find her in the living room with Ben in her arms. She sent me a cold look, then got up and walked to the kitchen without a word to me. I sighed but didn’t immediately follow her. The house was quiet, and I wondered where everyone had gone. It was a Saturday, but they might all have their stuff to do.
I ran upstairs to put away my clothes. I wasn’t in the same outfit I’d worn yesterday, and I doubted she’d missed it. She would want to talk to me, and I wanted to see my baby boy before I went back to meet Jake again, so I went down to talk to Mom.
My heart trembled a little. A good part of why I was always such a behaved girl, besides being introverted, was because Mom could be scary when she was angry. At least I knew, while she was holding Ben, or as long as he was in the room, she wouldn’t start shouting at me.
“Hello, Mom,” I called tentatively, standing at the doorway to the kitchen. “Are you busy?”
She didn’t say a word to me. She’d put on some water to warm, and from the stuff on the counter, I figured she was making something for the kid. I winced because when she started giving me the silent treatment, she would keep at it until her temper cooled off, and that could take days. I hated it when she did that.
“If you’ve got something to say, I wish you’d just say it, Mom.”
She shot me a dark look over her shoulder. She left her post in front of the stove. I watched as she walked to where Ben’s rolling chair was and set him inside it so he could play safely. She stuck close to the doorway where we could watch him closely, then turned to me.
“Because you asked for it, then fine. Klara, what the heck do you think you’re doing?”
I frowned. “I fail to see how I’ve done anything wrong, Mom. I’m going out, doing stuff I want to do—”
“You’re free to do that, but who you’re doing it with is the problem. If it was just a friend, you’d have told me.”
I bit my lip guiltily. I’d spent more time away from home, and even a few nights, this week than I had in a while. I knew she was suspicious, but I couldn’t just tell her I was with a friend, either. There was no point in the lie since I planned to introduce Jake to my family at some point. I just hadn't found the right time or the right way to bring it up.
“I knew it,” she confirmed, my expression and silence answering something for her. “Seriously, Klara, you’re older now, and I never had to worry about you much to begin with, but why are you doing this? Is it because you’re so comfortable that you’re taking advantage now?”
“Mom—”
“You’ve been going out to meet some man, Klara,” she said, interrupting me. She was doing her best to keep her voice down, but her scowl was enough to let me know she wasn’t happy with me. “I let the last time slide because I can't even imagine what it must be like to think you’re going to die soon. I know how I felt when I heard the news myself. But you already have one son, and you’re still working your way through college. Do you want to get pregnant again and make your life even more complicated?”
I didn’t need her to tell me that. Because I was careless, I got pregnant with a stranger I had no way of contacting. I couldn’t support myself, and I’d stopped in the middle of college to treat my illness, then give birth and look after the baby. I depended on my parents even though I had my son, now. I was well aware of my circumstances.
This was different, though.
“No, Mom,” I said. “It’s not just some man. The man I’ve been meeting is Ben’s Dad. And don’t worry, I have no intention of getting pregnant again right now, not by some mistake like before.”
That was enough to get her to calm down. She went from angry to surprised very quickly. Then, the boiling pot she had on the stove startled the both of us, and she rushed over to turn it off. She came to me and took me by the arm, tugging me over to the couch. She picked Ben up, and pulled me to sit down with her as she held him. Ben was looking up at me with the same eyes like his dad, probably wondering why these women were involving him in their problems.
“Well?” Mom prompted, impatient to hear details.
I smiled. “The man that I met that time in Vegas, he was there at school on the day of the speech. And…we got to talking, and we’ve been spending time together.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Does he know?”
I looked away guiltily, my eyes landing back on Ben. He looked content to lean back in his grandmother’s arms, sucking on his thumb. I reached down to pull it from his mouth. He’d done that a lot when he was younger, but he’d been growing out of it. He only still did it when he was hungry.