Page 80 of Be Your Anything
“Is there a particular reason you shut the world out for a few days?” she asks, still barely looking at me.
I grind my molars together, trying to come up with a response that might satisfy her.
“Don’t grind your teeth.”
I hold back my groan.
The woman has never been able to just let me exist in her presence without critiquing me in some way. It drives me absolutely crazy.
“So? Why was your phone off?”
“I was avoiding a boy,” I say, deciding to be truthful. The hardest thing to do is keep your lies straight. The easier path is to be as honest as possible.
“The Pearson boy?”
I swallow, not having realized she was aware of the fact that Lucas and I have been spending time together.
“Yes.”
“I’ve always liked him,” she says, surprising me. “He was a fun little friend for you when you were younger, always coming by the house and inviting you over to play.”
She replaces the cap on her pen then rises from her desk and walks across the office, handing me the stack of documents I gave her to sign.
When I reach to take them from her, she holds them firm, though, and my eyes fly up to find her assessing me in that very Lenora way.
“Friends have their place in our lives. An important one.” She pauses, her eyes burrowing holes into mine. “But it can become a problem if that place requires a closed door.”
My eyes widen, just a fraction, and I nearly drop the papers when my mother releases them and wanders back to her desk, returning her attention to her computer and dismissing me without saying a word.
I stand there, frozen, before I spin on my heel and flee back to my office, feeling like a scolded child even though my mother didn’t actually reprimand me for anything.
That’s how amazing she is at being a Roth. Even when she catches me in something sneaky, she doesn’t have to address it directly yet still makes me feel like I’ve done something horribly wrong.
I drop down into my chair and grab my phone, dialing up Paige and leaving a frantic message.
Thank God for best friends.
“So what are you going to do?”
“About my mom? Or about my dad?” I ask, taking a bite of the stuffed eggplant lasagna on my plate. “Because I can promise you I don’t want to do anything about either of them.”
Paige giggles. “Well, your mom is your mom. She might have an opinion on what’s going on with you and Lucas, but so do I, and you’ve never listened to me before, so why start now?”
I glare at her, though there’s no heat behind it, mostly just exasperation.
“I mean your dad. When was the last time you saw him?”
I think back, trying to remember. I know we’ve talked a few times over the past year, since hisassistant—aka his wife, aka the mayor’s daughter—always reminds him of my birthday, but the last time I saw him? In person?
“He visited me at Brown during the first week of my sophomore year,” I answer.
“It’s been four years?” she asks, her brows drawn and her mouth gaping, the shock clear. “How did I not realize it has been that fucking long?”
I lift a shoulder. “Because I never talk about him.”
She nods. “That’ll do it.” She nibbles on a piece of mushroom for a second before asking the million-dollar question. “So are you going to see him when he comes out here?”
I purse my lips. “Maybe. It just depends on what he wants.”
