“Are you serious?” I said, staring at my mother with wide eyes. “You picked up a guy at Dad’s funeral? Like, before they even sealed the grave?”
Mom lightly swatted at my hand with her cloth napkin. “Kinsey! Don’t talk so loudly! The people at the table next to us heard all of that.” She paused and darted her eyes toward the left. “God, they probably think I’m some sort of sociopath now.”
“Sorry. Just teasing,” I said. “Anyway, keep going.”
Mom licked her lips with the tip of her tongue and slowly shook her head. “I can’t even remember where I was up to now.”
“You were telling me about the new guy in your life. How you met, specifically.”
She took a sip of wine and nodded. “Right. So, like I was saying, it started at your father’s funeral last year,” she said. “Your father who I’ve been divorced from since you were two,” she added very loudly, casting another look at the neighboring table.
I leaned forward, waiting for her to get on with it. She’d always been a big storyteller. Loved dragging things out and making them seem far more dramatic than they actually were. I didn’t begrudge her this latest dramatic story, though. I was elated that she’d finally met someone.
She’d been single ever since she broke up with my dad fifteen years ago. No time for men, she claimed. Truthfully, she was a little broken from the marriage. Dad was great when they first met, but he had demons. Those demons eventually turned into a raging addiction to booze and benzos, and their relationship didn’t survive. By the time he died in a car accident last year, she hadn’t even spoken to him for a decade. She only attended the funeral to support me.
She turned back to face me. “I’m not sure if you’ll remember this, because you probably spoke to fifty different people that day, but do you remember the man who gave you his umbrella when it started raining?”
I frowned, casting my mind back to the funeral. Then I straightened my shoulders and nodded. “Oh, yeah. I talked to him for a while. He said he was an old schoolfriend of Dad’s.”
“Yes. You actually introduced him to me that day.”
“That’s right. George something, right?”
She nodded. “George Kingsley. Anyway, I didn’t ‘pick him up before the grave was sealed’ as you so eloquently stated before,” she said, putting the phrase in air quotes. Her eyes were twinkling, so I knew she wasn’t mad. Just teasing me the same way I teased her. “We chatted for a while at the wake. Shared some memories of your father. I thought he was nice, but I wasn’t really thinking about anything romantic because it was such a depressing day.”
“Fair enough.”
“A week or so after that, he sent me a friend request on Facebook. We started chatting there, just in a friendly way. Then we started playing Words With Friends, and every time we played, we talked the whole time.”
A grin spread across my face. “Oh my god, you flirted on Words With Friends? That’s such a Boomer thing to do.”
Mom pretended to swat me with the napkin again. “Kinsey! I’m not a Boomer. And even if I was, that’s still rude!”
I lifted my palms in mock defeat. “Okay. Sorry. Please continue telling me how you bagged a guy on a game of online Scrabble like a totally normal person.”
“That’s it. You’re losing your birthday cake.” Mom returned my mischievous grin, quirked a brow, and waved a hand to summon a waiter. “Excuse me, sir, it seems my daughter has decided she no longer wants—”
“I said sorry!” I said, palms still raised. “Just tell the story!”
“Fine. But no more interruptions.” She lifted a brow and waggled a finger at me. “So, we chatted online for several months. Got to know each other quite well. He’s the same age as me. Divorced for a decade. He’s also kind, successful, and generous.”
“He sounds great.”
Twin spots of color appeared on Mom’s cheeks. “He is. Anyway, we decided to meet up at the six month mark. We went on some great dates in the months after that. We even spent a couple of weekends together while you were on vacation with Jess and her family.”
“Ah. Now I know why you were so happy when Jess’s parents invited me along,” I said, grinning again.
Mom’s smile suddenly faded. She shifted in her seat, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “So… I know this is your birthday dinner, but I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we added something else to celebrate.”
“Duh, of course! I’m glad you met someone, Mom. It’s amazing.”
“That’s not it. Not exactly, anyway,” she said. She leaned forward and clasped her hands on the table. “The thing is, our relationship has progressed quite a lot, and we’ve decided to move in together.”
I sat back, brows rising. “Oh. Right. Well, that’s still good news.”
“I know I should’ve taken you to see him and get to know him before I made such a big decision, but he’s a very busy man, and you’ve had a lot going on too.”
“That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be able to adjust.” I paused to take a quick sip of my mineral water. “Is he going to move in with us, or are we moving in with him?”