The shout of her name from the other side of the bathroom door made her jump and squeak, her arms folding over her chest as she bit her lip, like she’d been caught doing something wrong. It was just her mom, and there was no way she would know what Camila was doing. Really, this was the only downfall to still living with her mom—relationships were complicated, and so was lust.
“Y-yeah!” she called back, rinsing herself off quickly. “Did you need something? I’m in the shower!”
“I can hear that! Just wanted to let you know you should hurry up and come get breakfast before it grows cold!”
“Okay,” she called back.
She must have gotten up pretty late if her mom beat her waking up, she even had breakfast made already. She hurried the shower and stepped out in another minute, pulling a towel around her body and grabbing her sleep clothes, then she hurried back to her room to get changed. Another five minutes, and she was leaving her room, dressed in track pants, a t-shirt and hoodie, with slippers on her feet, dressed all casual since she’d be home working all day.
“Hey, Mom,” she said airily as she served herself some coffee. “Sorry for taking so long.”
“It’s not a bother,” her mom answered dismissively. “And it’s your own fault if you eat cold food for breakfast, anyway.”
Her mom was already seated, with plates served, one of them covered, and she imagined that was hers. Camila sat across from her mom and uncovered her plate, then picked up the toast, a butter knife, and the bottle of jelly to apply on the toast.
“Did you get all your work done already?”
Camila shrugged, taking a bite of her toast. “Well, if you mean the interview with that one guy, that’s over and done with already. The post should be up on the blog by next week, as long as their side doesn’t have a problem with it, so for now we’re just waiting. In the meantime, I’m researching some other projects I’ll be taking on.”
“Hopefully something safer,” she muttered.
Camila rolled her eyes. “Like this one is dangerous?”
Her mom just gave her a look, then asked, drily, “How did your date go?”
Camila bit down on her lip. She’d debated not telling her mom about it, but in the end decided there was no point in keeping it a secret. Plus, it wasn’t like she could have hidden it well with how giddy she’d been acting over it, her mom guessed something was up and Camila ended up telling her just so she would let her leave the house yesterday.
“So, you might have been right,” she admitted after a short silence, letting out a sigh, then taking a sip of her coffee. “Turns out, one of the siblings Samuel mentioned was a twin brother.”
Her mom’s eyebrows shot up. “Identical, or…”
“They’re so identical it’s jarring. I couldn’t even tell them apart at first. But there’s definitely some differences. We ended up sitting together for a while and I realized that Samuel’s kind of a jerk. I don’t know if he just doesn’t like his brother or what, or if he had something against him. Oh, but the brother was totally charming.”
Camila could have added that he also asked her out to dinner, but she decided not to in the end. It wasn’t a detail her mom needed to know, anyway, and it would only stress her out.
“No matter how charming, do not get taken in,” her mom said. “Try not to get involved with either of them, okay? The fact that there’s two of them now actually worries me more than anything else does at the moment.”
Camila sighed. Her mom was acting wary, but that was nothing new, because her mother was always wary.
“Whatever you say, Mom,” she said distractedly, taking another bite of her toast.