“You haveplans? What am I going to do then?” She made a face and looked over her shoulder into the kitchen, where I assumed my mom was getting started on dinner. “Don’t tell me I have to stay here with Grandma!”
“You love it here!”
“I used to. When I was a baby.”
I scoffed and took a seat next to her on the couch. “First of all,” I said. “I hope to God you don’t talk this way in front of your grandmother, because it would break her heart to hear you say these things. You know that right?”
“I know,” she grumbled.
“And second of all, tell me, what would you rather be doing tonight? Celebrating the fact that you won a writing competition?”
“How did you know about that?” She looked utterly horrified.
“The school called.”
She shimmied down further on the couch and grumbled something about not having any privacy. I laughed and reached out to give her a hug. “For the record, I’m very proud of you,” I said.
“So proud of me that you’ll let me go hang out with my friends tonight?” She looked at me with cautious excitement. “Because my friend Grace from school is having some girls over to watch a scary movie. She wants us to watch one every weekend from now until Halloween. Everyone is sleeping over too.”
“Honey, you know how you are with scary movies,” I said.
“I’m not like that anymore! I’m older now, I don’t get scared by those sorts of things. Please Dad, can I go? Pleeeeease. You know Grace, you’ve met her mom, and I’ll text you her home phone number so you can call if you get worried.”
She was looking at me with puppy dog eyes, and I didn’t have the heart to say no.
“Alright,” I said. “But just know, I’m not staying up with you all night when you get freaked out by the movie.”
“I won’t, I swear!” She threw her arms around my shoulders. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re the best!”
My mom, Jillian, came into the room a moment later, untying her apron in the process. I got up to give her a hug. “I thought I heard your voice,” she said. “I was wondering what time you would be coming around. I have cookies baking in the oven, but I can have dinner ready shortly if you’re hungry.”
I smiled, guiltily. “Actually, Mom, I have plans. Sorry.”
“That’s alright,” she said. She reached out and pinched one of Vic’s cheeks. “It’ll just be me and my favorite girl tonight then.”
Now it was Vic’s turn to look guilty. She avoided eye contact with her grandmother and looked down at her feet instead. “Dad said I could go to a friend’s house to sleepover.”
I watched the smile fall from my mother’s face and immediately felt like the worst son in the world. “I can cancel my plans,” I said quickly. “I was going to grab dinner with—er, someone—and then go see my friend’s show at a bar, but I can push dinner to next week.”
“No, don’t push your date,” she said.
“How did you know it—”
“Please.” She folded her arms. “You’ve been going on first dates every weekend night for months. That friend of yours, what’s his name, Sean? He’s got you running all over the city with a new girl each week.”
I felt my cheeks get flushed and I desperately wished we could talk aboutanythingelse.
“But according to your daughter, you never call these women back for a second date.” She wagged a disapproving finger in the air. “You be careful, Jonah. You don’t want to gain yourself a reputation for beingthatsort of guy. Boston may seem like a big city, but trust me, I know what the dating scene is like and let’s just say, people talk.”
My mom had been trying to find love ever since my dad left her for a younger woman fifteen years ago. She’d gone on more first dates than anyone I knew, but unlike me, she did call the guys back. Still, things just never worked out. But she kept putting herself out there, nonetheless. She wanted to find her soulmate, someone she could grow old with, whereas I was just…
What am I doing?
I shook my head and with it, sent that question on its way, to be dealt with another time. “Mom, it’s honestly fine. I wasn’t looking forward to this date anyway. I bet whatever you were going to make will be much better than the stupid new ‘small plates’ restaurant we were supposed to go to.”
She sighed. “No really, you two should go. I may have… over embellished a little when I said I could have dinner on the table in no time. I actually haven’t been to the grocery store in a bit, so our options are very limited. When I thought it was just going to be Vic and I, I was going to suggest we order a pizza.”
“I like pizza,” I said.