Page 2 of Dana
“Hey, Eden.” I turn around to find my mom standing behind me. She puts her hand on my arm and smiles. “Don’t you look nice!”
“Thanks, mom.”
I give her a quick hug. She smells extra nice today. Like freshly cut grass and a beautiful flower bed, all rolled into one.
Her plain, but elegant blue dress hugs her slender, sleek physique to perfection.
She looks like a million bucks.
Not for the first time, I wish I’d inherited more of her genes than my father's.
She’s so glamorous.
So gorgeous.
She’s the kind of woman who can really make heads turn.
Whereas, I look like I spend half the day scoffing cookies and eating ice cream.
No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to lose any weight or get in shape. It’s like I have a cursed metabolism. Forever destined to be a big and curvy woman. Someone men look at as a friend, and not a partner.
“Mom,” I say, “I have a real problem.”
She tilts her head to the side. Her face assumes a look of perfect understanding and sympathy. “Don’t I know it,” she says, “Whoever picked that dress must have been out of their mind. Those colors don’t suit you at all.”
“It’s not that,” I say, trying to ignore her harsh words of criticism. “It’s Kate...”
“Honey, I know,” she says, “it must be hard watching your friend marry such a nice, handsome young man. You must be tearing yourself apart inside. When was the last time you even had a boyfriend? Or went on a date? At this rate, you’ll be living alone in a house full of cats. You already have three.”
I take a step back and breath deeply. It’s my best friend's wedding day. This is not the time or place to get into an argument with my mother.
“They’re siblings,” I say, for the millionth time, “what was I supposed to do? Separate them at birth? Do you think I’m a monster?”
“Still, it would be nice to have some grandkids. All my friends have them. I feel like I’m the only one out. It’s embarrassing.”
“That’s nice.” I give her one more hug and force a smile onto my face. I could ask her to help me find the wedding items for Kate, but then I’d have to deal with more of her horrible opinions. And that might very well end in a matricide. “I’ll speak to you later.”
Before she can keep on talking, I turn around and walk along the side of the building, pretending like I have somewhere very important to be.
Which I guess is true.
Except, I still don’t know where I am going to find these items, or who I am going to enlist to help me.
“Shit,” I say. “Shit, shit, shit, shit.”
An ominous itch crawls up my back. It’s like I can feel my mother’s eyes boring into my flesh even from a distance.
I look back over my shoulder, but she isn’t there.
Turning back around, I walk straight into what feels like a brick wall.
Except, the brick wall is dressed in a dashing tuxedo, and talks in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Woah,” he says, “where are you going in such a hurry?”
I look up into his glistening green eyes. He must be nearly seven feet tall. An honest to god giant. As handsome as he is big.
Just looking at him makes my lady parts giddy.
