Page 1 of Courageous Demands

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ALEC

Several months ago…

“MAAAAA?! WHAT GIVES?”

Alec screamed in dismay and horror as his mother barged right into his small apartment at the back of her property. His childhood home had always been perfect for the two of them after his father had passed away unexpectedly when he was a boy. Now, as an adult, he wanted to be close to his mother, but there were some lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

Like – oh, I don’t know – entering uninvited when he was taking a long, steamy shower while daydreaming about being surrounded by girls on a secluded paradise island in the middle of nowhere. Living in the mother-in-law suite was supposed to be a compromise to keep him from moving out, giving him privacy while being close.

Boundaries were obviously hard.

“Don’t you ‘Ma’ me, young man. I’ve washed, wiped, doctored, clipped, poked, and prodded just about every surface of that naked body for the first ten years of your life, and trust me – you have nothing that I’ve not seen before, young man.”

“Ma, I’m trying to get a shower.”

“Wash behind your ears, sweetie…”

“Can you get out so I can finish?”

“Do you have a hot date or something?”

Alec closed his eyes in frustration, hearing the hopeful tone of her voice and shaking his head. Yeah, his imaginary island, those sun-tanned bikini bodies he had been picturing, were gone… and there was no retrieving that moment. His mother was moving around his apartment, and he didn’t know why. Shutting off the water, he yanked the towel off the bar and quickly wrapped it around his hips, nearly slipping in an effort to find out what she was doing back here— again.

Snooping, he thought. Sure enough, his mother was picking up things around his little apartment and literally fluffing the cushions on his loveseat.

Fluffing. The. Cushions.

“Ma, what is going on?”

His mother looked up at him and rolled her eyes, spotting the Maltese cross he had tattooed on his arm, muttering something under her breath. She looked away, hesitated, and then looked back at him.

“You need to lay off the donuts, young man. You are getting a pooch, and you are too young for that.”

Alec’s mouth dropped open in horror as he looked down at his stomach. He didn’t see a pooch, but that was low – especially coming from his own mother.

“Well, if you weren’t creeping in my place, you wouldn’t have seen my pooch or anything else.”

“It’s not creeping when I own the property.”

“Look, let’s not go into that again. You wanted me to stay home. I wanted to move. We came to an arrangement that normally works for both of us, so what gives? Why are you fluffing the pillows – again – on my loveseat?”

“You keep this place a mess.”

“We both know that’s not true – and you are avoiding the question.”

“Are you going to stand there all day in a towel, young man?”

“Nope. I’m about ready to jerk it right off just to run you out of here.”

“You think that little twig will make me run away? Please, child…”

“MAAAA?!? What the heck,” he whimpered, reaching over and snatching the crocheted throw off the arm of the couch, wrapping it around his body defensively in an effort to keep from getting brutally criticized about anything else. He wasn’t exactly shy, but somehow, some way, his mother had a tongue sharper than his own. “It’s a log, not a twig – and quit looking!”

“There, there, sweetie. As long as I am bouncing grandbabies on my knee one of these days, I don’t really care what you deem it to be – and why do you insist on marking your body with a tattoo? You know I don’t like them and…”

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