Page 20 of Caffeine & Chaos

“Oh, ahem, yes.” Nadia laughed nervously. “Mom this is Travis, Travis this is my mother, Valentina.”

Travis made his way around the table to greet Valentina. Nadia observed as her mother remained seated, extending her hand with the palm facing downward. Travis awkwardly clasped it, shaking it as if sealing a business deal. Travis had failed the first test her mother had given him. Well, technically the second, the first test was his chronological age.

Valentina smiled at Travis without mirth. “Pleased to meet you, Travis.”

“Yeah, it’s awesome to finally meet you as well.” Travis ran his hand through his hair and gave Valentina his boy-next-door smile, unaware of how impervious her mother would be to any attempts he might make to charm her.

“Oh, did you hear that, Nadia? It’s awesome to meet me. What a delightful young man you have here.”

Travis looked over at Nadia beaming, missing the sarcasm in her mother’s tone.

“Please Travis, have a seat. Your timing is perfect, we haven’t ordered our entrées yet.” Robert gestured toward the chair on the far side of the table.

Just as Travis was about to settle in, Nadia’s brain came back online, and she found herself seething. What the hell was he doing there?

“Umm, Travis, darling, I’m having an issue with the tag in this dress, can you come give me a hand with it?” Nadia motioned towards the door leading off the patio with her head. “Please excuse us for just a moment.” Nadia snatched her clutch off the table and strode towards the door with Travis hurriedly trailing her.

Once they were safely inside, away from the expansive windows framing the terrace and bay view, Nadia swung her arm around and delivered a sharp smack to Travis’s shoulder with her clutch. “What on earth possessed you to show up here? I mean, seriously, what were you thinking?”

Travis ran his hand through his hair again and looked down at his feet sheepishly, “hey, look, I’m sorry, I was only-”

Nadia interjected, “this is beyond weird Travis. I barely know you, and you show up uninvited to a family function posing as my boyfriend? What the hell is wrong with you?” Nadia said, fighting to keep her composure.

“Nadia, honestly, I don’t know what came over me. I just heard you on the phone with your mother and I thought I could help.”

“How exactly are you helping by showing up here in a borrowed suit, looking like a child playing dress-up?” Nadia’s words sliced through the air, her anger blinding her to the subtle twitch on Travis’s face at her barb. “Travis let’s be clear. We’re not an item. We had a one-time thing, and it’s something that won’t happen again.” Aware of the curious glances from the wait staff, she took a sharp breath and lowered her voice. “You showing up here? It’s beyond creepy.”

Travis reached out and gently touched one of her crossed arms. “Nadia, I’m seriously sorry and totally not a creep,” he said, crooking his head to the side trying to catch her eye. “I know we’re not together, I just heard you talking on the phone, and it sounded like your mother was putting pressure on you about a boyfriend. I heard you say you were seeing someone, and I figured that was a lie to shut her up, so I thought maybe she would lay off you if you came with a man.”

Nadia’s gaze remained fixed on the wall, her jaw clenched tightly, and her lips pressed into a thin line. Maybe Travis meant well, but between him and her stepfather’s ‘help’ she’d be lucky to leave the restaurant with her skin intact. When she finally glanced at Travis, she found him looking especially pitiful.

Nadia sighed heavily and relaxed. “Okay Travis, you were trying to help, fine. This is seriously an idiotic way to go about helping, but fine.”

Travis cracked a small grin and shuffled a little closer to her. “So, what do you want me to do? I can just go if you think that’s best.”

“Ha! And have my mother think we got into a fight and you took off on me? Not on your life. We are going to go back in there and be the happiest damn couple she has ever seen. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Nadia flashed him a smile and extended her arm, a glint of mischief in her eyes. She was going to enjoy rubbing her mother’s nose in their unapproved love for one another, no matter how phony it might be. Travis slipped his arm beneath hers and leaned in as they strolled toward the glass doors leading to the patio.

“She absolutely hates you, just so you know,” Nadia said in a hushed tone while continuing to smile and look forward as she spoke. “Any compliment she gives you, look for the insult. It’s always there.”

“How can she hate me? I’m adorable.” Travis pushed against Nadia playfully.

This was a mistake. He was flirting with her. She could have let him go when he suggested it, but instead she kept him on the line for the sole purpose of irritating her mother. That familiar Travis-related pang of guilt clawed at her stomach.

On second thought, she had made herself clear, and the idiot had inserted himself into this situation without invitation. If he ended up heartbroken it was his own damn fault. “Oh, she hates you, believe me. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that you aren’t rich, powerful, or well-known.”

“Yet.” Travis winked at her.

“Can you just promise me that you will kill her with kindness and act like you are crazily in love with me?”

“I can absolutely do that.” He slid his arms around her waist and nuzzled at her neck as they stepped back out onto the patio, earning a disapproving look from Valentina for such a brazen public display of affection.

Perhaps Travis showing up wasn’t such a disaster after all. They could play the part of a loving couple and her mother could silently boil at the other end of the table. But when Nadia glanced over her shoulder, she found Travis looking at her with heavy lidded eyes. She prayed he was just playing the part.

Halfway through dinner, Nadia’s phone buzzed in her clutch, a perfect distraction courtesy of what she presumed was Mandy’s impeccable timing. She breathed a silent sigh of relief. Watching her mother squirm wasn’t as fun as she’d imagined. Travis was playing the devoted boyfriend role a little too well, and Nadia was growing increasingly worried about having to cut him loose afterwards.

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