Page 20 of The Holy Grail
“Well, maybeI’veforgotten abouther, Mom.”
“You just told me you remembered her. And I’m not buying that ‘vaguely’ nonsense.”
Shit.
“Look,” Beverly continued, “I understand why you might be angry, because fifteen months is a long time—”
“Yes, it is. It’s more than ayear—”
“—but maybe finding out what those personal things were she had to work through would diminish some of your anger.”
He didn’t even know if that was possible. “Did she tell you what those personal things were?”
“Yes.”
For a split second, he contemplated asking what they were, but decided he wasn’t interested in finding out what had kept Jules from calling for fifteen months, and instead turned his attention back to the reason his mom had called to begin with. “So, tell me about this very nice conversation you had with Jules,” he repeated.
For the next few minutes, he listened as Beverly filled him in on the conversation with great detail, starting with the recounting of the meet and greet (thankfully the part about not wearing glasses during ‘sex and whatnot’ had been left out, because that would have been a nightmare) and he could tell by the tone of his mother’s voice she’d enjoyed the phone call.
A lot.
When she was finished, including the cringe-worthy character reference she’d given him, Malcom realized he’d gotten to his feet and was pacing around his living room. Forcing himself to sit down, he asked, “Why didn’t you just encourage her to rip up my card and go on her merry way?”
“Because I really liked her.”
He rubbed at his eyes. “How can you like her? You don’t even know her. Hell,Idon’t even know her.”
“You liked her enough to give her your card, instructing her to ask me for a character reference. I thought that was really cute, by the way.”
“Mom.”
“What?”
“You should have told her to rip up my card, instead of telling her to call me. It’s been fifteen months.”
“I don’t care how long it’s been.I wasn’t going to make that decision for you, because whether or not you want to go out with her isyourdecision to make, not mine. I honestly didn’t know what you would want to do, so when she said she was going to call you, I did warn her you might be a little upset with her—”
“A little?”
“—but I thought she might be able to get you to change your mind.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. “Now she has hope.”
“I do, too. I told you, I really liked her.”
“I liked her, too, but that was fifteen months ago, Mom.”
Beverly ignored his frustrated response. “You’ve thought about her, though, haven’t you?”
“It doesn’t matter if I have—”
“Of course it matters.”
“No, it doesn’t. That ship has sailed.”
“I don’t believe that. And I don’t think you really do, either. You obviously haven’t forgotten her, and she hasn’t forgotten you, so … maybe the ship is still in the harbor.”
He made a sound in his throat of aggravation—aggravation with his mom and also with Jules, because …fifteen fucking months.It felt like a lifetime ago.
