Page 82 of Synced to Us

I lift my head, staring at popcorn ceiling. “Ma, Dee isn’t real.”

“What are you talking about? Of course she is. I’m an alcoholic, not senile.”

“I mean our relationship isn’t real.”

There’s a pause on the other line. “Come again?”

“Dee agreed to act like my girlfriend in order to appease your stress about me and… uh, get you off my back.”

“Excuse me?”

“You were relentless, Ma! I had to do something to make you stop worrying. It seemed simple. I wanted you to think I was fine, and secure, and ready to take the next step into adulthood.”

Another pause. Then she says, “What is it with your generation? Is swiping your thumb across a face on a screen not enough for you kids? Now you have to deceive your parents by pretending to connect in real life?”

“I wasn’t trying to—”

“Never mind that. You may have faked a relationship in front of your poor mother, but anybody with a brain in their head can see you love the girl.”

Now it’s my turn. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Winston Rothlessberger. You treated Dee unlike any woman you’ve ever brought home—and there have been none of those. You even let her hold your axe.”

“Because she threatened to kick me in the balls if I didn’t.”

“That, too. Her personality is so at odds with yours; it’s almost perfect. She’s strong, opinionated, exceptional. As soon as Lucy laid eyes on her, she at last saw the truth.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I love you, son, but you can be dumb as bricks. Lucy has a special place in her heart for you—always has. I doubt she’d ever pursue it since she’s loyal to a fault to Brad, but she never got over your fling in high school.”

“How do you know about that?”

“I know all. Dee is the first woman who woke Lucy up to the fact you wouldn’t always be available, if she ever got up the nerve to end it with Brad.”

“You—you’re talking about your other son, you realize.”

“Yes. He has issues of his own to deal with, but I’ve never supported how he’s treated my Lucy. I truly believe part of her wished you’d come whisk her away.”

“That’s…that’s…” My argument turns to sludge. “But I live on a couch.”

“You’re so much more than a piece of furniture, darling. You’re sweet, loyal, and stubborn, and strong. You’re my son and you’ve sacrificed so much for us. Why don’t you do something for yourself for a change and go make yourself whole. If it takes your mother to tell you reclaiming your fame and fortune is not your ending, then so be it. Your happiness lies in your love for that girl. Have you not figured that out yet?”

“I—” have.

“Mm-hmm,” Ma says knowingly. “And as for me and Lucy, we are two women currently in the depths of our hardest battles, but we are strong and can get through it. My fall was enough of a scare to open my eyes, same as your behavior with Dee opened Lucy’s. We don’t always need a hero.”

I push off the wall. “I gotta go, Ma. There’s someone I need to see.”

Ma’s next words transmit her answering smile. “I’m starting to think it’s a good thing I called.”

30

Dee

“Dee? You home?”

I raise my head and push back from the computer. “In here.”

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