Chapter Fifteen
Daniel
It was no surprise to me that once I told my mom that I wanted to bring a girl over to meet her, she immediately canceled all her plans and started planning for our arrival. My mom has always taken a healthy interest in my love life. I think it had something to do with wanting grandchildren one day.
Ariana was still nervous about meeting her, but luckily had recovered from her incident the day before. The stitches I put in looked great, and once she parted her hair across them, they were completely invisible. I watched her as she dusted bronze powder onto her cheeks to give her a little more color and gooped flesh colored liquid under her eyes to hide the dark circles.
“You look healthy,” I noted after she finished getting ready. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a blouse once she was finished with her hair and makeup.
“I’ve gotten good at hiding my illness,” she said casually. “What do I need to know about your mom before I meet her?”
“Not a lot. Her name is Agnes and she’s a nice lady. She’s kind, but can be serious. She’s one tough cookie and is super smart. She’s going to love you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I smiled. “Because she loves me more than anything. If she knows I’m into you and she doesn’t have any reason not to trust you, then she’ll latch onto you right away.”
I failed to mention that my mom was occasionally a harsh judge when it came to girlfriends. I hadn’t brought a lot of girls home to meet her since most of my encounters didn’t last longer than one night, but the ones I had introduced to her were interrogated on the spot.
But, I think my mom was right to judge them so harshly—none were a great fit for me. Sure, they were smoking hot, but they seemed to be more interested in dating a doctor than dating me. Deep down, I probably knew it right away but didn’t care. I had been younger then, and there was less pressure from my biological clock to settle down. My mom always thought about these things, though, and always had something to say after I left her house with a girl.
That’s why I knew she would like Ariana. Ariana was a smart, independent woman with a good head on her shoulders. She was kind and caring. There was nothing not to love.
I made a point not to introduce girls to my dad. The divorce must have triggered a midlife crisis and suddenly it was normal for him to try to date women half his age. I didn’t want him to be creepy around any girl that I liked. My suspicions were confirmed when he accidentally met Ariana.
On the drive over, I held onto Ariana’s restless hand. As we made our way down the highway, I told her stories from my childhood to calm her nerves.
“I know you won’t believe it, but my mom only ever yelled at me one time that I can remember,” I said. “That’s how calm she is. She’ll give you the scariest disappointed look that will set you straight. I think that’s even worse than yelling. She always tried to reason with us instead of arguing. I think that helped me in my education.”
“What did you do that one time?” she asked.
“My mom was supposed to host a baby shower for a friend. She cares a lot about appearances and making her home look neat and tidy. She had just spent the entire day cleaning the house and baking for this thing. That was why she sent my brother and me outside—so we wouldn’t mess anything up. While we were wandering around out in the front yard, we found a stray dog. This thing was filthy, just absolutely covered in mud.”
I had to stop my story to laugh. I had forgotten all about that moment. When my parents split up, a lot of my childhood memories were tainted.
“Go on,” Ariana said, looking at me like I was crazy.
“Okay, so, this thing probably had fleas, but we loved it. We took it to the house to show Mom. When we opened the front door to call out to her, the dog darted inside, tracking mud on every surface. It got so startled it peed on the couch. We ran in to chase it, but it managed to find and take a big bite out of the fancy cake my mom had spent all morning baking and decorating. This was five minutes before guests were supposed to arrive.”
“That’s awful!” she laughed. “I imagine she yelled at you for days to come.”
“Not really,” I chuckled. “She must have been so overwhelmed that she screamed her head off for about a minute. Then, she sent me on my bike to the store to get a replacement cake and handed my brother a scrub brush. She hosted her party like nothing happened.”
“So, what happened to the dog?”
“Snuggles? We gave her a bath and kept her. You’ll see pictures of her inside the house.”
Ariana squeezed my hand. “I think I like your mom already.”
I pulled into her driveway, more excited than I was nervous. I hadn’t seen my mom in a while and I was eager to get her approval of Ariana. I was worried that bringing up my dad’s misdeeds would upset her but hoped that she would be willing to give us some advice. If she couldn’t, I don’t know anyone else who could.
“Here we are,” I said, leading her toward the front door. I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door so quickly, she must have been waiting for us.
“Come on in!” she said cheerily. Like always, the house was spotless and I could smell something sweet in the air.
“Did you make something?” I asked, my stomach growling.
“Cinnamon rolls. Want one?”
We sat down in the living room, Ariana and me on one couch and my mom on the other. She sat up straight, her hands clasped together in front of her.
“You said on the phone that you had something serious you wanted to talk about,” she said. “I hate to assume, but are you two—“
I choked on the roll. “No!” I exclaimed. Ariana’s fingernails dug into her palm.
“Oh,” my mom said, a smile appearing on her face. “You know I want you to have kids, but it would be nice if you got married first.”
“Jeez, Mom,” I said. “We haven’t been together for that long. Things are serious, but not that serious.”
“Good,” she said. “Then what did you want to talk about?”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t know how to broach the subject. Luckily, Ariana helped me out.
“There’s been an incident regarding your ex-husband that we need some advice on how to deal with it. We wouldn’t bother you about it if we weren’t desperate. Unfortunately, we are.”
My mom spun her tennis bracelet around her thin wrist. “What did he do now?”
Ariana and I did our best to tell the whole story from the beginning, starting with how we ended up together in the first place. We edited the story to make sure it made no mention of our sexual relationship. Ariana even mentioned staying in the guest room for good measure. I wanted to hug her—she knew exactly what my mom wouldn’t want to hear.
“So that’s where we are now,” I said after we finished our saga. “I know it’s weird to talk about your marriage with your son, but is there anything you can tell us that will help us with our plan to break up their marriage?”
My mom tucked a strand of platinum blonde hair behind her ear. “You’re right, this is weird to talk about with you. And I feel so sorry for your poor mother,” she added to Ariana. “I’m willing to help out in any way that I can. I don’t want another woman to go through what I went through and I want the two of you to have peace. I can tell that you care about each other very much. So, what do you want to know?”
Ariana and I looked at each other.
“Let’s start with this—what would you want my mom to know about Terry?” Ariana asked timidly.
My mom nodded. “He wasn’t always so bad. At the beginning, he was very kind and courteous. I found him handsome and charming. He worked very hard to keep me happy. Then, after enough time had passed, he didn’t feel the need to try anymore. He got bored but stayed in the marriage because of the kids. Plus, it just seemed like the right thing to do.”
I squirmed in my seat. T
his was hard to hear.
“I guess I would tell your mom that he was not made to be in a monogamous relationship. I tried to keep him from sleeping around, and he resented me for it. I tried so hard to keep up the appearance of a happy marriage. I didn’t want to feel like a failure for getting a divorce. In the end, I realized that being happy was much more important than staying in a bad marriage because I didn’t want people to spread rumors.”
“You are happier now, aren’t you?” I asked.
She smiled. “Of course, I am. I only ever needed you and your brother. It’s such a relief to not have to deal with someone who I didn’t want to be with. Once he got bored with me, he got into gambling to keep himself entertained. I don’t doubt that he slept with other women at that point, too.”
“And drinking,” I added.
“That too. He just changed into someone who didn’t suit my needs anymore. I imagine that he’s reverted to his charming ways until he’s tired of playing games. My only regret is that I didn’t end things when they started to go downhill. I could have saved myself so much strife.”
“What was the final straw?” Ariana asked.
My mom raised her eyebrows at me. “You’re not going to like this. One day, I was on our computer. You and your brother were at baseball camp, so I know you weren’t using it. I looked in the history, just out of curiosity, and found something I didn’t want to see.”
I grimaced. “Porn?”
She nodded. “Not just any porn. It was weird, deviant, fetish stuff. He wasn’t just looking, either. He had downloaded it onto our family computer. I didn’t want that kind of filth in the house, not when I was raising two sons to be respectable adults. When he got home from the bar that night, I confronted him and kicked him out of the house. That was enough for me.”
“Ew,” Ariana said, scrunching up her nose. “My mom would be horrified. She can be a bit naïve when it comes to that stuff.”
“Then maybe that’s what she needs to discover,” my mom said. “If you’re finding it hard to present a convincing argument, then maybe you can point her in the way of some solid evidence. I guarantee, Terry hasn’t changed his stripes.”