Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
I shoved back my chair, gaping at her. “You have a date.”
She looked away, scratching the back of her neck before she grabbed more popcorn. “I do not.”
“You do too. You’re dressed up.”
“I am no—”
“You have makeup on!” I pointed at it. “And lipstick. You have lipstick on.”
“I—”
“You said it’s a movie night. Is this a group thing?”
“Yes. There will be a bunch of people there.”
“That means you like someone in the group. Who do you like?”
“Oh—stop it, Ava. Tell me what happened between you and Zeke—”
“Who is it?”
“Sweethear—”
“Tell me who it is, and I’ll tell you what happened with Zeke.”
She opened her mouth, gaping at me, before sighing and cursing under her breath. She reached for another sip of her beer. “Sophie.”
“Sophi—” I knew Sophie. She was a friend of one of the other ladies in the building. “Sophie’s a woman, Mom.”
She grunted. “I’m well aware, and I like her.” She was eyeing me. She was really eyeing me. “I like her a lot, Ava.”
I held her gaze, and I was quiet for a beat because this was something major. Like uber super-duper major. My mom had never expressed that she was attracted to a woman before. Then again, my mom had never expressed she was interested or attracted to anyone, not even my father now that I was thinking about it. Except Charlie Hunnam. We both shared our delight in him from Sons of Anarchy.
“Mom—” I started, going gentle.
She cursed, wheeling back and staring at me head on. “I like Sophie. That’s it. Since you showed up, I felt it was time to tell you. That’s all I want to say about it.”
“Okay, but—”
“Ava!”
“Mom.” I laid my hand over her arm because this was important. This was suddenly so extremely and very important and I needed her to hear me say my part.
She stilled but cursed and looked away.
She was two seconds away from letting a tear come out. I knew my mom. I knew the signs.
“I need you to hear me. Just in case you need to hear this. I will always love you—”
“Oh, good God. I know you’ll always love me.” But her voice was a little shaky, and she reached for my hand, entwining our fingers. “Thank you.” She squeezed my hand again. “Thank you.”
I sat there, and there was a whole burst of emotions going on in me.
I had no clue what to do here because this wasn’t about me. This was about her, so… well, screw it. I was going with what felt right to say.
“Mom.”
She groaned. “Ava. Stop. It’s—it’s fine. You can leave it alone.”
“I love you, Mom.”
She looked away but tipped her head up. That meant she was listening to me, listening to every word I was going to say.
“You’re my mother. I feel weird saying ‘’I still love you’ because that means that something might’ve happened where I might not love you and that’ll never happen. Ever. So instead, I’m going to say that I have always loved you. I have always needed you. I have always depended on you, and nothing will change that. Nothing. The main thing I care about right now is that I want to know how long you’ve liked her? Because if you’ve had a crush developing on her, I’m a little pissed that I didn’t figure it out before you told me.”
She was smiling and those tears were still there, but she shook her head. “How’d I luck out getting you as a daughter?”
“Lucked out? What are you talking about?” I asked softly right back, smiling tenderly. “You’re the one who raised me, Mama. I’m all you.”
She kept smiling and kept blinking her eyes at the same time. “Are you going to tell me what happened between you and Zeke?”
“I’d like to know more about you and Sophie.”
She barked out a laugh, before shaking her head. “I don’t know about me and Sophie. I know I like her. I know she makes me smile. I know I want to hold her hand, and I know I want to kiss her. That’s what I know. That’s all I know right now. Your turn. What’s going on with you and Zeke?”
Oh, boy.
I let out a soft sigh because in a way, it was the same. Except, “I’m in love with him.”
“Oh, honey.” She leaned in, cupping the side of my face. “Why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing?”
Because he blackmailed someone.
Because I knew he’d do worse if he needed to.
And because no matter what he was doing, I still loved him.
“Because my heart’s going to get ripped out by him one day.”
“How do you know?”
I held her gaze, her hand still holding the side of my face. “Because I’m like you. We don’t like unless we’re going to love, and we don’t love unless it’s forever.” I smiled at her, while I felt my heart being ripped apart. “And because the forever tends to never happen for us. That’s what I know.”