Page 75 of Just Another Meet Cute
Mom lifted her chin. “Then I’ll deal with it. It’s not like you’re the queen of perfect marriages either. At least my David’s here with us now.”
Ouch. Even I knew that was a low blow. Mom’s eyes blinked rapidly like even she couldn’t believe what she had said. Her hand halfway reached up toward Aunt Sarah before dropping again.
For the second time that night, Aunt Sarah was speechless as she stared at Mom.
As much as I loved my aunt—she was basically like another mom to me—everyone knew that she was a bit of a bully. But kind of in that aggravating way that you knew she still meant well and had good intentions, so you couldn’t gettoomad at her. It felt good to finally see someone stand up to her. And for that someone to be Mom, well, that was icing on the cake.
While a bunch of emotions crossed my mom’s face—guilt, doubt, and nervousness—Aunt Sarah’s face was strangely blank. “Then don’t expect me to wait around and pick up the pieces for you again,” she said in a low voice.
Mom immediately looked away, and I thought she was going to back down like I did. Instead, she squared her shoulders and nodded. “That’s fine. I don’t need you to help me, because it’s my decision. And if you can’t deal with it—without your snarky comments—then I don’t think we should stay here anymore.”
With that said, she turned and glided out of the room like she was a queen dismissing her servants.
Despite the fact that a giant feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach like a heavy weight, I knew I had never been more proud of her.
After we packed our clothes, I expected Mom to go to the nearest hotel. Instead, she drove straight downtown toward the Waldorf Luxury Hotel. It was super fancy, but that was expected, since the wordluxurywas right there in the name.
The lobby itself was as huge as my school’s cafeteria. And there were fancy water bottles lined up on the counter. Not the cheap ones that you got at the corner stores, but the expensive kind that came in mini glass bottles. Probably flown in from a secret magical spring halfway around the world. And they were set up on a shiny gold tray next to a plate of freshly baked cookies the size of my hand.
This hotel was the kind of place that housed celebrities on vacation and rich heirs who were in town for multimillion-dollar business deals. Not for a semi-successful Realtor and her teenage daughter to escape to after a family fight.
But Mom strolled in as though she owned the place and booked a room like she did this every day. All I could do was wordlessly follow her. But not before I grabbed a couple of bottles of water and the whole plate of cookies to shove in my purse. And a few mints from the jar on the side.
The receptionist glanced over at me but didn’t bat an eye. The celebrities who came in here were probably on diets anyway. They didn’t need warm, heavenly smelling cookies in their lives. My mouth watered at the sweet and luscious scent.
After a couple of wrong turns—one that took us to the pet spa (yes, a pet spa)—we finally got to our room. When the door closed, Mom collapsed on the bed with a loud groan. Her face was fully pressed against the fluffy white pillow.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe I did that.”
Or at least that’s what I assumed she said. It was sort of hard to tell with her voice all muffled.
Finally looking a lot more like the mom I knew, I handed over one of the still-warm chocolate chip cookies. She shoved nearly half of it into her mouth and let out a heavy sigh.
Kicking off my shoes, I climbed into bed next to her. I propped up a couple of pillows behind my back and popped a mint in my mouth. It instantly melted into liquid spice on my tongue. “I think you were great. Aunt Sarah’s probably still sitting in the living room in shock. Actually, I know she is. Linh texted me.”
For a brief second, Mom stopped chewing and smiled. “I know I should feel guilty for making her so mad, but man, that kind of felt good. Really good. And it was so long overdue. But I know I’ll regret it tomorrow. Like eating that last piece of double fudge cake last night.”
For once, I felt like the parent as I patted Mom’s arm. “It’s okay. We’ll deal with it later. Let her be pissed for the night, and we’ll go back home to grovel tomorrow.”
“But I don’t want to grovel.” The leftover cookie crumbled in Mom’s clenched hand. “She’s the one who was wrong. Sarah shouldn’t have talked about your dad that way. And especially in front of us. Ihadto say something.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help asking. “I mean, why now? Aunt Sarah’s beencrapping on Dad for years. It’s her thing. But it never seemed to bother you before.”
Instead of answering me, she set the broken cookie pieces on the nightstand and brushed off her hands. “And you? Why did you say something first?”
I didn’t have an answer to that, so I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I just didn’t feel like hearing all that tonight.”
“Me neither. It bothered me. Always has. But I figured it was easier to stay quiet than start a fight.” Mom leaned back against the headboard beside me. “But when you stood up to your aunt today … I don’t know. It made me feel like Ihadto say something, too. Like I owed it to you, to myself, and to your dadnotto stay quiet anymore. Especially when everyone’s been so wrong about him.”
“What do you mean?” I turned to my side so that I would be facing her. The bed sunk with each of my movements like we were on a fluffy cloud. “And what did you mean earlier when you said that he didn’t do anything to you? That you did something to him?”
With a heavy sigh like all the air was collapsing out of her, Mom turned her head away. Her cheeks were stained pink. “You know how your dad and I were … together, even though he was married. It just happened. I’m not proud of it, but I didn’t end it either. And when I got pregnant, I was scared and …”
She didn’t seem like she could continue, so I finished her sentence for her. “And you moved back to Austin with Báand Aunt Sarah, because Dad couldn’t leave his other family. I know.” We all knew this story. I didn’t know why she was telling me this again though.
Her voice was so low that I almost didn’t hear her at first. “He didn’t know.”
“What?”
