Page 51 of Release Me

“Oh, that’s great news,” his mom gushes. “Tell her I said congratulations.”

“Tell her yourself, Mom, she’s right here and she can hear you.”

“Sebastian!” She admonishes. “What did I tell you about putting me on speaker phone without warning me first? You don’t know what could have come out of my mouth. I don’t want Nadia getting the wrong impression.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mrs. Adler. I’ve heard much worse from your son.”

“I’m sure you have.” She laughs, and even the sound of her amusement is laced with adoration for her child. “And call me Madeline, please, darling.”

“Madeline.” I can’t help but smile as the warmth that must surround her in person radiates through the phone. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“And you as well. I keep telling Sebastian to bring you out to the house. Everyone wants to meet you.”

“Mom!” Sebastian frowns his disapproval at his mom’s unwitting admission. “We have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Oh, okay. Goodbye, Nadia! I do hope I’ll be able to meet you in person soon.”

“I hope so too, Madeline. Bye.”

When the call disconnects, I look at Sebastian and find him shaking his head.

“Remind me never to trust her with any pertinent information.”

“She’s your mom, she already knows all your pertinent information, and mine too, apparently.”

He rolls his eyes. “I had to give her a reason for missing brunch today.”

“I get it. Moms want to know everything.”

My mom used to be the same way. She made it a mission to know every single friend I made and class I took. She knew what I was struggling with and where I was excelling. She knew when to push me to go harder and when to pull back. She was the best, and while I miss her every day, hearing Sebastian talk to his mom made me miss her a little bit more.

“We can talk about it if you want,” he offers, his piercing gaze seeing straight through to the jagged line running down my broken heart.

I pull away from him, letting palms still warm from his touch comes to a rest in my lap. “Talk about what?”

Sebastian pushes out a dry, disbelieving laugh. “Nadia.”

“Yes, Sebastian?”

“Look at me.” I do as he says and immediately regret it because I’m now face to face with his most serious, compassionate face. “You know you’re not as good at hiding as you think you are, right?”

I smooth a hand down the long line of my pants leg. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means there’s no point in playing coy because I already see you, I already know you.”

Truthfully, Sebastian knows more about me than anyone else in New Haven, but having more information than anyone else doesn’t make him some kind of expert on me even if he thinks it does.

“You don’t know me. Not really.”

My mind runs amok with all the things he doesn’t know about me. With all the things that would render him speechless and leave me without a friend or a job.

“Yes, I do,” he insists.

Irritation claws at my chest, and I blow out a harsh breath, turning in my seat to face him completely.

“Okay. If you think you know me so well, then tell me something about me that I haven’t told you yet.”

19

---