Page 42 of Love Unavoidable
“You talked to your mom about me?”
“I was here all day by myself!”
“I thought you guys didn’t really talk? Didn’t get along?”
“We don’t.”
“Yet, you talked about me?”
“You’re a man. You wouldn’t understand. A woman’s relationship with her mother is complicated. And weird. And—”
“Preposterous?” It slips out before I can stop myself. Why did I say that?
“That’s a big word for such a slutty guy.”
“What? Slutty guys can’t be smart?”
“If your litmus for smart is knowing the word preposterous, you got bigger problems than I thought.” She sneers.
“Wow. Okay. It’s good to know where I stand now, instead of later.”
“I don’t see what difference that would make.”
“I wouldn’t waste any more time investing into this relationship knowing that’s how you feel.”
“Somehow I don’t think your time was gonna be spent idle anyway, given the number of items in that box.”
“Over ten years!” I can’t believe she is so upset about this.
“Why on earth have you kept these things for that long?”
“I don’t know. I guess it became a game after a while. Something funny to keep track of.”
“You have no respect for women.”
“What? I have complete and total respect for women,” I say.
“Not for the women in that box.”
“That’s not fair. Not every single woman I’ve been with has left something at my house. And I’m sure that some were truly accidents. But some definitely were not, those women were attempting to manipulate me into calling them or seeing them again, or something I didn’t want to do. So to say that my actions in response to that are disrespectful is damn aggravating.”
“Okay,” she says. “I see your point.”
“Thank you.”
“But only that one tiny point. I see no other points. Anywhere.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.” She stands there looking at me, as though she wants to say more. Then she does. “You don’t have anything else to say? “
“My feelings are hurt, Sadie. And I’m pissed off. I don’t know what else I could say right now. I’m gonna need time to cool off.”
She makes a wide gesture with her arms. “Free country. I ain’t stopping you.”
“That’s ‘cause it’s MY house!”
She raises her nose in the air at me. Literally.
That’s it.
I need to take a walk to rein in my temper. When I exit out the front door, I take extra care to slam it especially loud.
