Page 120 of Surprise! I'm Engaged To My Boss
“Janet hasn't arrived yet?”
“No,” I replied, distressed. “And she's not answering her damn cell phone, she must be driving.”
“Amn...” Alice repeated. She was in the phase of learning new words, but she didn't always focus on the most important ones.
“Michael!” Camila scolded me. “Stop saying bad words in front of her. See? She learns!”
“'Damn' is not a 'bad word',” I replied.
“Amn!” Alice spoke again, seeming excited about the contribution to her vocabulary.
“Of course it is!” She looked back at Alice. “You can't say that again, okay, my love?”
Camila kissed Alice again and also placed a kiss on my lips, running back to take the bookmarks to the gift counter.
I walked over to the table where my mother was, sitting next to Leon, her new boyfriend.
The courthouse security guard.
It was only after the hearing that I discovered how Camila had managed to get into the room. Apparently, my mother had distracted the security guard by pretending to have sprained her ankle and asking him for help.
And also 'using her charm', as she herself stated.
“Sebastian isn't coming?” I asked, missing my brother.
“Oh, honey, he was coming. But he said Bonnie woke up feeling unwell today.” Again, I hoped it was just an excuse not to go, although that was becoming more and more common. “Oh, but Logan assured me he'd come.”
“Oh, sure...” I said ironically. I could bet any high amount that he wouldn't.
I hoped that at least my middle brother would do the favor of attending my wedding. I had found it incredible that he had managed to clear his surgery schedule to attend the courthouse on the day of Alice's custody hearing.
That was the last time I saw him, in fact.
“Oh, honey, listen to this!” my mother said, catching my attention. “You know Leon has a motorcycle, right? He and I decided that we're going to take a trip across the country.”
“On a motorcycle?” I asked, wondering if I had heard wrong.
“Yes, isn’t it wonderful?” Ignoring my look of disbelief, she reached out her arms to pick Alice up from my lap. “Did you hear that, my little love? Your uncles are going to travel across the country on their motorcycles. When you’re older, we’ll do it again and take you with us.”
“You're not taking my daughter on a motorcycle trip,” I replied, being duly ignored by her, who continued making plans.
“My late husband would never have agreed to that kind of thing,” she said. “He was an old man!” My father was only two years older than her. “That’s why it’s good to associate with people who are similar in age to you.”
Leon was forty-five years old. Fifteen years younger than her.
But I wouldn't remind her of that.
While she kept talking, poor Leon could barely open his mouth. Alice looked at her intently, as if interested in everything that was being said. Until she spoke, finally managing to make my mother shut up:
“Nana!”
My mom's mouth fell open in surprise, and I had to fight back a laugh at the irony of it. She had insisted over and over that she wanted Alice to call her “auntie,” but that word just hadn’t made it into my little girl’s vocabulary yet. Alice already said “dadda” and “mamma,” and even said “Gigi” when referring to her great-grandmother — not because anyone taught her, but simply because it was easier to say than ‘great-grandma’. Plus she’d learned to say “Affle” and “Popolo” for her furry friends Waffle and Apollo. My mom was always complaining that her turn never came — and when it finally did, it wasn’t in the way she had imagined.
However, after a few seconds of astonishment, the expression that dominated her face was one of joy.
“My love, you called me grandma! How beautiful! Say it again:grandma!”
“Nana!”
