Page 30 of The Power Play

“Oh, um, hi. I’m Audrey,” I stretch my hand out toward her, but she waves me off pulling me in for a hug instead.

“Sorry, we are a family of huggers,” she pulls back, beaming at me. Something tells me Charlie isn’t a participant in the “hugging family”, but I don’t say anything, except I give her a tight smile as she leads us back inside.

Charlie comes around the corner, “Did you forget some–” his words are cut off when he sees the two of us. His eyes widen and I’m sure I look like a deer in headlights. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

“I came by to see my one and only son. I’m sorry I didn’t call, I didn’t think you would have company,” I hear the innuendo in her tone. I turn to correct her assumption, but Charlie beats me to it.

“Audrey is just a friend; she needed a place to stay while some work gets done at her house.”

“Right,” Martha winks and Charlie lets out a sigh.

“It’s true, Mrs. Mann, we are just friends, so I’m going to head out.” I try to avoid any more awkwardness, but it’s not working.

“Oh nonsense, please call me Martha. Mrs. Mann is my mother-in-law and I don’t need any reminders of her.”

“Okay, it was nice to meet you, Martha.” I try to leave once again, but she continues to involve me.

“Are you coming to the game tomorrow?” she asks.

“Uh, I’m not sure, I was thinking about it, but I haven’t decided yet.”

“Are you?” Charlie asks his mom. He doesn’t sound upset, but a little shocked.

“I am,” she answers excitedly, “your dad and I haven’t been to one of your games yet this season, so we decided to go. Plus, remember I ran into Tabitha? She wanted to join us, isn’t that sweet?”

I look over at Charlie to see his face pale at the mention of that Tabitha person. It hits methatmust be the ex. The way Charlie looks more and more like he’s about to pass out all but confirms it. The longer I look at him I worry about possibly having to catch him if he does, in fact, pass out. He’s too big there’s no way I could catch him. He will end up crushing me, but maybe I could help him not hit his head or something.

“Why would you let her?” he finally speaks, pulling me from my thoughts of figuring out the best way to catch him.

“Oh, sweetie, you should have heard her, she just wants to see you again. Probably make amends, be friends. Especially if you’re interested in someone else,” she sends a wink in my direction.

“Oh no, that’s not–” I start to say, but Charlie cuts me off.

“Tell her not to come. I don’t want to see her, and I won’t talk to her.”

“Charlie, don’t be rude. She can come to a game if she wants, you can’t control every single person in that arena,” she dismisses him and I’m struggling with how to help Charlie rightnow because it’s clear he does not want her there. I’m not sure why his mom can’t see that.

“I won’t talk to her. You don’t understand, Mom, but we are done. It was over when we broke up four years ago and it will never happen again, okay?”

“I’m going to head out,” I say a little louder than I intended, but I’m getting more and more uncomfortable the longer I stand here.

“I hope we will see you at the game tomorrow, it was so nice to meet you,” Martha pulls me in for another hug. She sounds genuine, and I can’t decide if she’s a really good actress pretending to be nice to me, extremely oblivious or in denial about her son’s discomfort.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” I decide, looking directly at Charlie when I say that. His shoulders seem to relax the slightest bit. I give him a small smile before rushing out.

Once I step off the elevator at the bottom level I get a text, I’m sure it’s going to be Chandler asking where I am since I am now officially late, but it’s not.

Charlie: You don’t have to come tomorrow, don’t feel like you are obligated it’ll be okay.

Audrey: I’m going, and if you want, I can make it very clear to your ex that she should leave you alone if you want.

Charlie: …Do I even want to know how you would do that?

Audrey: You don’t have to know. Just trust me she won’t bother you again. *smile emoji*

Charlie: That’s not scary at all…

Audrey: Tell me what happened between you two and I’ll make her disappear.

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