Page 91 of Just Enough

My heart dropped to the floor. I felt sick to my stomach. She must have recognized him. Why else would she leave when she had just gotten her food? “Faith…”

Then she sighed abruptly, placing her fork down rather roughly. She met my eyes. “Do you want me to talk to him?”

“What?” Then my eyes widened. She must have been eavesdropping on my conversation. “NO,” I said quickly, raising both my hands in the air. “I’ll just ignore him.”

“Looks like ignoring him isn’t going to work,” she muttered, turning her head around completely once again so that she could scowl at Roger, then it landed on me again. “Just what do you do to these men?”

“Umm… I don’t know what you mean,” I told her honestly.

She shook her head. “Never mind.” She huffed. “Bring the check and remember Ben’s party.”

“O-okay,” I managed to say, slightly confused and shaken.

I couldn’t tell if she was upset with me, or Roger who came here for me.

_______

Benjamin

“I’m serious, Benny.” Mom huffed through the phone, clearly frustrated. I knew the feeling. She had me teetering toward a Freddy episode as she spoke. “He won’t stop. I could see the look he was giving her… With the way she looked, I’d say he’s been trying to get back with her for a while. Her body language screamed uncomfortable… I had to leave before I went over there and smacked the boy upside the head.”

I would have laughed if this had been about anything else because this was my mother for you. She was overprotective when it came to me… But this didn’t feel like it was entirely about me, which I knew part of it was. She didn’t like anyone messing with my happiness, but the way she wasn’t upset with Emily about it…

“I’m your mother and I shouldn’t tell you this, but you should probably do something. She thinks ignoring him is going to make him stop.”

I gripped my cell phone. “Don’t worry. He works at the hospital. I can pay him a visit,” I muttered, already planning a trip over there when I got off work in another hour.

“He had scrubs on, now that you said that… But don’t do anything stupid,” she warned me. “Just… Maybe scare him a bit or tell him to leave Emily alone nicely.”

“We saw him over the weekend. He’s asking for trouble.”

She sighed. “I’m so angry!”

I smiled a bit. “It sounds like you might have affections for Emily.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” she said quickly.

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled with an even bigger smile. “Was he still there when you left Crash’s?” I asked her.

“He was, and she was going out of her way to avoid his table. It was a disaster.”

That was what pissed me off. The simple fact that he was disrupting her workday and making her feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, I hated that she thought she had to avoid him because of me.

“She should just go ahead and quit. If everything works out, y’all won’t stay around here anyway,” Mom said softly.

Her words confused me. “What are you talking about?”

She was quiet. “Your dad hasn’t spoken to you yet?”

I had a weird feeling. It almost felt like a bad one because I had no idea what they had planned behind my back. “No. What is it?”

“Let him tell you.” Now she was rushing off the phone. “Make sure you deal with that Roger guy but don’t do anything stupid. Okay? Just let it be known that Emily’s your girlfriend, and you don’t want him going to her workplace making her uncomfortable. He had to know she was uncomfortable! It was easy to see.”

“You are aware that I’m a grown man, and I can handle Emily’s ex on my own, right?”

“Right.” She laughed. “I’ll talk to you later, Benny. Love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

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