Page 90 of Fierce-Hyde

It’s not that Tori didn’t respond at all, she normally did. Or asked how everything was going only to get more negativity.

The fact her mother felt like there was something happy in her life should have been shared too.

That way she would have been prepared to deal with the breakup like she always had to do.

“Mom,” she said. “I ask you all the time how you’re doing. You never ask me, but I always do to you. Don’t give me that.”

“I don’t need a lecture,” her mother said, sniffling. “How can you be so unfeeling?”

Her teeth were ready to crack with the resistance to not snap. “You’ve dated this man for a month,” she said calmly. “Dan, right?”

“Yes,” her mother said. “And I thought everything was going so well and then last night he told me I was rushing and we needed to take a few steps back.”

Nothing new there with her mother. Maybe that was why Tori was so slow with all her relationships.

“That doesn’t sound like he’s breaking up with you, but just slowing down.”

“But he changed his status on the online site where I met him. After a few days with me, he said he was taken and took his profile down. But last night I checked and it was active again and he said he was single. That’s breaking up with me.”

In a nice passive-aggressive style.

Her mother sure knew how to pick and find a man.

“That’s where you met?” she asked. “Online?”

“Yes,” her mother said. “It’s hard to meet anyone in person around here. They are all younger than me in the bars.”

“Good point. Do you know why he wanted to slow down? What happened or what did you do he thought was rushing?”

Even though she was positive she knew the answer to this.

“I asked if I could move in with him,” her mother said. “I don’t like my place and the new neighbors are really loud. He even commented on it himself when he was here one night.”

“You thought after a month of dating that it was okay to move in with him?” she asked.

“You don’t understand,” her mother snapped. “If you ever dated anyone you’d know that. When you find someone you like you want to be with them all the time.”

She rolled her eyes.

That wasn’t true for her.

She’d never want to be with someone all the time like her mother was.

People need their space and privacy for all sorts of reasons in life.

Crowding was never a good thing.

“This isn’t about me,” she said. “It’s about you. It’s not the first time this has happened to you. You get attached too soon. Or you move too fast and scare people away.”

“He was helping me,” her mother whined. “Last week he put gas in my car for me because I was short on funds. He takes me out and we have a good time.”

“Have you done anything for him?” she asked. Her mother always needed someone to step up and care for her and not the other way around.

“I’ve cooked for him a few times,” her mother said. “He likes home-cooked meals. He said he really liked me, but now I think he was lying. Maybe it was his age.”

She put her head back on her chair and closed her eyes hissing out a breath. “How old was he, Mom?”

“Forty-five,” her mother said.

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