Page 26 of Close Match
His bleak eyes meet mine over her shoulder. Ev’s silently telling me he doesn’t hold out much hope, but he’s willing to do anything to give it to my mother.
“You got it, Mom. Not just one star. I’ll pray on all of them.”
Ev’s face twists in agony before he lays his cheek against the top of my mother’s head. The ice in my drink clinks against the heavy crystal as I shake it to find the dredges. Setting my glass on the counter, I’m just about to make my excuses to leave them alone when my mother speaks up.
“I know. Why don’t we drop this off at the post office and head down to the Rail Stop for dinner tonight?” Ev quickly masks his despair with one of mild amusement. “Let’s just go enjoy each other out for a change.”
I’d do anything for my mother in this instant, even slip on a sport coat. That still doesn’t mean I won’t give her lip about it. “Fine. I guess I can pull on a clean T-shirt…”
“Monty, you will put on a jacket, so help me God…” she threatens.
I walk around and ruffle her hair. “Just kidding, Mom. Listen, for their veal, I’ll even clean the manure from the pasture off my boots.”
Ev smirks while my mother makes a gagging noise. “Go get ready. And stop talking about shit!”
As I stroll toward the stairs, I call over my shoulder, “It’s better than talking shit!”
Both of them laugh, which was my intent. But as I turn to climb the back staircase to reach the second door, I catch my mother burrowing into Ev’s chest and sobbing.
Crap.
Even if I were kidding with her before—which I wasn’t—I sure as hell would be wishing on all the stars now.
Even the ones I don’t know could be out there.
* * *
After dinner,I drop Ev and Mom back at the house before I head to Bar Louie in Gainesville to grab a drink to clear my mind. I’m not immune to the women circling me like hungry prey looking for their chance to get a bite, but I couldn’t be throwing off more of a “stay away” vibe if I tried as I nurse the manhattan in front of me.
What are we going to do if we lose Ev?
My piece-of-shit father bailed on my mother almost the minute the sperm hit the egg. Her family wasn’t much better. If it weren’t for some pretty amazing neighbors where we lived in Rosedale, in a tiny one-room apartment in Queens, there’d have been no way we’d have ever survived.
Until I hit my early teens, Mom and I shared a room. At first, it was easy; I was a baby. But as I grew into a toddler, and throughout elementary school, we slept in a bunk bed. Any expectation of privacy got worse for her as time went on. She was determined I would grow up with “good people” in a “safe community.” And if she eventually had to sacrifice her bedroom to her son to do that, she would.
And then she met Ev when he came to stay at the high-end hotel she worked at.
Mom would still describe their first meeting as clumsy and sweet, with him being both. She claims she took one look at his green eyes behind the wire-framed glasses he wore and he knocked over an entire vase of flowers onto the check-in desk. The water splattered all over and dripped onto the floor, but she didn’t care.
As Ev tells it, all he cared about was making sure the hazel-eyed, Italian beauty who was too busy mopping up his mess would accept his phone number for something other than his dry-cleaning bill.
It took three days, and his ripping up flowers from the urns flanking the doorway of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, for her to realize he was into her.
It took me convincing her at night that if he asked her out again to say yes.
On their first night out, Ev took her to a hidden gem of a Mexican restaurant he heard about. Amid chilaquiles soaked in cheese and sauce, Mom told him she appreciated his flattery, but this could be their only date. As a single mother, she didn’t have much time outside of her son.
Ev got quiet before calling for the check, much to my Mom’s disappointment. When they were in a town car—presumably to head back to his hotel—he asked if I had any allergies. Confused, she replied, “No. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Great. Driver, can you stop at the light up ahead?” Mom was shocked when he jumped out of the car at Magnolia Bakery, waited in line with the touristy lunatics, and then jumped back into the car fifteen minutes later with a dozen cupcakes. “Now, let’s go have dessert with your son.”
I don’t know who fell for Ev first that night—Mom or me.
It was Ev who said, “You don’t need a college education right away, Monty. You have time. Find your passion before you invest your heart.” And so I did. I joined the Navy with his full support and Mom’s worry. I had an aptitude toward law enforcement. Soon, I was transferred to San Antonio to train to become a master-at-arms. I received specialized training before I was deployed to ships all over the world to help keep law and order at sea. During my tours of duty, I went from being a wet-behind-the-ears rookie just out of A school to helping to detain and interrogate suspects as part of the Navy’s force protection duties. It made my transition to NCIS’s Special Agent Basic Training Program almost seem like a master’s education when I applied for and was offered the position.
Fortunately, I didn’t waste my time at sea, otherwise, NCIS would never have been possible. I took online courses to earn my degree. I must be the only graduate alive who has a video of his mother in a rented cap and gown gliding down the grand staircase at his family home to celebrate obtaining his college degree at the ripe old age of twenty-eight while I was in the middle of the Indian Ocean on maneuvers.
Still, while Mom made me laugh while she wore a crimson and gold mortarboard and giving the chop of my new alma mater, Florida State, it was Ev’s words of “I knew you’d find your dream and make it come true” that made me wish I was able to walk across that stage for them.
