Page 78 of The Fake Dating Plan

She raised her hands in mock surrender. “I don’t have time for this. Whatever it is, you need to apologize to her. We can’t have another breakdown again.”

“Once again, it wasn’t a breakdown.”

“I don’t know what else to call not working for days, drinking, and gambling.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t happen again. I have responsibilities nowadays.”

“Not sleeping.”

“It won’t happen again.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Don’t give me that look.”

“What look?”

“That one. The judgy kind. The one that says you don’t believe a word I say.”

“Oh, honey.” She closed the space between us and gave me a big hug. Her strong perfume enveloped me as she squished me against her. “I don’t want you to disappear into yourself, that’s all. I love you and the threat of you going through that again is heartbreaking.”

“I’m not as fragile as I used to be,” I said into her neck. I said it more to me than to her. As if uttering out the words will make them real.

She broke off the hug and patted my cheeks twice. “I know, honey. Now,” she made her way towards the kitchen, “do you want me to make you some coffee.”

“Mom, I’m fine.”

“If you tell me you’re fine for the umpteenth time, I’ll wring your neck. And I’m allowed to do that. I’m your mother. Let mommy make you some coffee.”

I followed her to the kitchen, sat down on the stool, and watched her as she made the beverage exactly how I liked it. Most people didn’t know how particular I was about it, but she did, and one other person did. I wiped her face out of my memory. It was going to take longer not to see that two-timing cheat as someone was about to fall in love with, dangerously so.

She pushed a cup of steaming black coffee towards me and took another one for herself. She immediately took out her phone and began furiously typing. Occasionally, she would throw surreptitious glances at me that made me suspicious. “I hope you’re not gossiping about me to your friends.”

“Of course not! Why would I do that!”

Yep. She was. A moment later, my phone buzzed. I took it out and a message in the family chat was on the screen.

Mom:SOS: Axmelia broke up!

“You’re telling everyone in the group chat!”

“You can see it?”

I shoved my phone in her face. She grabbed it. “Oh no! I posted it in the wrong chat!”

“What do you mean, the wrong chat?” The guilty look on her face said it all. “I can’t believe this. There’s a chat specifically about me and Emilia, isn’t there?”

“Don’t tell them I told you.”

“That’s it. I’m divorcing from this family.”

She pouted. “Don’t say that.”

I snatched her phone from her clutches. And sure enough, there was a group chat titledThe Axmelia Files. That fucking moniker again. I was sure one of them had leaked that to the press. It was an off-shoot of the family group chat that excluded me and was about me and Emilia. Mostly they shared gossip blog posts, random social media posts, and a ton of speculations. Mom and dad fueled the chat with their rampant speculations and random gifs, but that didn’t mean Tiago and Francie were passive participants. They brought their own gossip to the chat.

I gave her back her phone. At least she had the decency to look ashamed. “I thought you were all grownups with jobs and responsibilities and yet here you are gossiping like teenagers.”

“Oh, come on. How did you expect us to behave like nothing was happening when you and Em had gone back together? And to see that you were serious too. But you gave us nothing, so we had to speculate. We wouldn’t do this,” she waved her phone, “if you were forthcoming.”

---