Page 54 of Caden's Situationship

I finally chanced a glance at Caden who was standing behind me with his arms crossed. He was so frustrated and although I knew it wasn’t at me, I still hated to see him upset at something my family had done. I could see the anger mixed with disbelief in his eyes.

Mother shook her head. “This was not a joke, but a test. I have been to several funerals this year and each one had a person stand up and share something about the deceased individual that was very demeaning to their character. It made me realize that I needed to know exactly what people would say when I died. Would they cry when they got the call? Would they weep fake tears if I knew they never liked me when I was alive? Or would they say something to discredit me?”

Dragging my fingers down my face, I tried my best to come to terms with the fact that my mom had fabricated her entire death. “Mother, do you have any idea how upset I’ve been since Patricia called?”

My mom had the nerve to look guilty. “I’m sorry, dear. I thought you received Patricia’s group text.”

“I didn’t,” I voiced. “And the fact you even included me in your charades proves how little you care about my feelings.”

“I care about you Cordelia, you know that.”

I shook my head, my voice breaking. "You don't, mother. If you did, you would have known that losing you and not even knowing how you died would completely break me. I don’t think I could ever get rid of this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach and from now on, every call I get for a while is going to make me stand on edge. My heart broke with that call last night. And I’ve spent the past twelve hours trying to figure out how I would overcome the guilt over words I never expressed to you or important talks we never put in effort to have. Auntie was a mother figure to me and losing her nearly destroyed me. Yet, you are so disconnected from your daughter that you didn’t think twice about how your actions would affect me.”

I refused to cry in front of all these mannequins, but I was close to breaking down, grateful that Caden was behind me, rubbing the stress from my shoulders.

Had I not been standing so close to my mother, I wouldn’t have heard her whisper, “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m so sorry I did this to you, sweetie.” She grabbed my hands in hers. “I’m sure you want to run out of here right now and you don’t have to accept my apology, but I would love it if you stayed. We can talk after everything is over.”

For the first time in years, I saw my mother express real emotion. There was nothing fake about the tears rimming her eyes. Nothing artificial about how tight she hugged me. We were far from good, but this? This was a pretty big step for her.

“I’m only staying because I need to get some things off my chest.”

She nodded. “I understand. How about you take a seat in front with me and—.” She blinked a few times, like she finally noticed Caden. She upturned her nose, making me realize how far along I’d come to being the Cordelia I always was deep down inside. My facial features were a lot like hers, so it felt like a flashback of how I looked at Caden that day in the parking lot.

“Um, who is this?” she asked.

So this was how she wanted to play this out? Fine. “What was that mother?”

She waved her hand up and down. “I asked you who is this underdressed man you brought to my funeral?”

“Oh him?” Pulling Caden closer to me, I grabbed the back of his neck and kissed himlongand hard, putting all my frustration into that kiss. When his hands went to cup my butt, I moaned loudly not caring who heard me.

“This here is Caden,” I announced. “The man I’m currently fucking.”

I’d expected to catch others off guard and the gasps heard around the church proved that I did. Yet, I hadn’t expected Caden to go into a coughing fit before he reminded me that, “You just cursed in church.”

I slapped his butt before stepping closer to my mom. “And I almost forgot,” I whispered. “I also danced in a strip club in Vegas and I must say, swaying your naked breasts to the beat of some sexy music is very liberating.”

One hand flew to her mouth as the other clutched her pearls. “Oh my heavens, my daughter is a heathen!” She slightly stumbled before she started panting. And just like that, she fainted.

CADEN

I’d seena lot of shit in my day and some of that shit was hard to forget. When I was thirteen, I’d broken my arm and when I was at the hospital, I saw a man and woman who had gotten stuck while having sex.Never like to think about that one.I watched a street dancer fuck up a move and break almost every bone in his body and survive.Still can’t believe that one.Once, I watched a man get pulled from a cow’s ass.Don’t want to even think about how that happened.

But never — and I do mean no way under any circumstance — did I ever think I’d attend a funeral for a woman who was still living and insisted on sitting in the first pew of her mock ceremony.

“I gotta say Cordy. Today was bat shit crazy,” I muttered, dropping our bags onto the floor of the hotel room.

“Which part?” she asked. “The part where we found out my mother cares so much about what people think, she planned a mock funeral for herself? Or the fact that I told her we’re sleeping together and she fainted, only to wake up minutes later and insist we continue with her ceremony?”

I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so fucked up. “All of the above.”

She took off her sandals and fell back onto the king-sized bed. “I’m sorry I dragged you into all this mess.”

“Don’t be. I’m not owed an apology, but I’m glad your mom apologized.” After the ceremony, Cordelia and her mom had that private conversation that was years overdue. She briefed me on it in the car, but honestly, I could tell today was still weighing heavily on her.

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