by CJ Hawk
Sophia finally joined in, and it was as if the negative comments had never filtered the air in a sour note. I scooted my chair back and excused myself to use the restroom. This time all the men stood up in a formality, and I was shocked. I had never had that before.
As I walked back through the beautiful garden towards the kitchen, my heart ached for Mason. This was his life, just like mine, a parent who made him feel less than adequate was prominent in the picture. I was not helping his situation, unlike how he had helped mine tremendously. Just this morning, my mom had left a beaming message about how happy she was that I was finally growing up, taking college courses, and dating a man whom I should not let slip away as he was extremely prominent in this city. No mention of 'hi dear, are you happy?' Just like Mark Anthony berated his own son for not properly addressing my birthday, or so he thought, or for dating a woman of better stature.
As I stepped inside his parents' house, I looked around at the beautiful gallery kitchen and dreamed how wonderful it would feel if it was Mason's and mine. I turned as I heard a noise and saw Mason looking down at two bottles of wine. When he looked up, our eyes met, his was sad and mine were worried. I walked over and kissed him softly.
"I need to use the ladies room. I'll be out in a bit. Hang tough. You are the most perfect man I have ever met. Where would I be without you?" I teased with the last sentence as my fingers trailed down his chest.
A small smile escaped his misery, and he returned a kiss to my forehead. Then what he said next made me worried. "Probably better off if you think like my dad. Listen, I sent a text into a tenant for a favor. We will have to rush out of here in about fifteen minutes for a broken pipe."
"Sounds wonderful. That is, if you let me show you my appreciation later." I teased as I patted his ass.
"I'm counting on a little uplifting. Mind if we watch the Rockies game later. I could use a little sports to take my mind off my dad." He sounded relieved just thinking about where he will be later versus where we are right now.
"Sounds great." I walked away to leave him to his own demise with his father. I'm sure by the time he made it back out there, conversations had taken place and everyone will be just fine by the time I make it back out from the bathroom.
Boy was I wrong. Here is where everything just took a turn for the worse. I had never heard a family shouting at each other the way this one was. I heard Mason and Mark Anthony practically screaming at each other as I started out of the kitchen into the garden, still out of view from where the family was sitting.
I overheard in a strong voice from Mason's father that he was not to get himself involved any further with a woman like me. I had to wonder what he thought of me. Then I heard Mason yelling at him to mind his own business. Then a female voice from one of the two older sisters yelled out. "For heaven's sake, Mason. Do you really think she is the type of woman you want to marry? She hasn't even gone to college, and her credit rating is as poor as the maid who cleans this house."
Just then, I realized that I had been walking in slow motion towards the commotion, and rounded the corner to see everyone stop yelling and staring at me. The baby who was sleeping in the playpen was now crying profusely. Sophia grabbed her and started to calm her down by rocking her in a standing position, as I stood there looking like a zombie to these people. They did not want to, nor would they probably ever, welcome me into their family. It would be just like Marion has to deal with, and I know at times she confided in me that it was not worth it. That she should have married a man more of her nature not Carl's status. Did I want to try to make the same mistake even though I felt I was in love with Mason? Could our love be strong enough to defy the expectations of his family?
When he did not answer or defend me, I spoke as if my voice was about to crack into full-blown tears at any moment. "Sophia, thank you for the lovely brunch. I must go now. Mason, if you would not mind, please drive me home. Thank you all so very much for the lovely meal." The last word was teary, and I turned just as tears fell down my face.
I thought I heard a few 'we're sorry' as I started to walk back towards the kitchen. I felt Mason's hand grab mine and practically drag me out of his parents' home. I felt so devastated that I could not say a word the whole way back to our apartment. Mason said very few, but he seemed so full of rage that I think he was retreating to the far recesses of his mind, thinking how dating a woman like me would only make his life more miserable.
I wondered if I had just found me another Steve. That I was just his playmate until he could find a quality-educated woman that suited his father's request. It was devastating to my confidence to know that I was not up to par in any person's eyes let alone the fact that my mother constantly let me feel that way. I did not need a future Father In-Law to make me feel that way as well.
On the car ride back to my apartment, Mason said very little, and what I did have to say in my defense was spoken in short contrite responses in a very defensive manner. There was truth to the credit part. I had gotten in over my head a few times with credit cards and bills but my dad usually bailed me out. I had worked hard the last two years to be productive but some of those things on my credit would be around for a while. How his sister already knew caused another quick outburst of mean remarks that only brought on more silence from Mason.
Mason tried to kiss me and stay at my place, but I told him to go. The day was young, and I had a full steam of piss and vinegar that was going to force me to log on and start my online college courses today. I think I wanted Mason to think long and hard about if he wanted to keep me as his girlfriend. For both of us, it might be best if we just gave it a rest.
Shortly after he left, I did something completely insane. I texted, not called, but texted him that we needed a break. I turned my cell phone off and unplugged my apartment telephone. I wanted to be unreachable until I could figure this all out. Turning thirty had not turned out to be the grand turning point I had hoped for.
Chapter Ten
Walking back and forth in my apartment, with a glance towards Mason's bedroom every five seconds, was not helping my cause. My head ached with the constant barrage of questions I was asking myself, ones that only Mason could answer, but he couldn't, because I had no intention of talking to him. At least not until I cooled down, not tonight, I needed my space.
Internally, I could hear my mother blaming me on screwing this one up. My dad would offer to take me out for a drink. My aunt Heather would tell me that there are plenty of fish in the sea, which she should know because at her age, she still has not settled down with one man in her life, just married three for a short-term commitment. Bethany would tell me to focus on my now I am thirty plans. I let her read it. She actually liked it and told me she was proud. Coming from a younger sister who is so high on my mother's pedestal, it helped. At this point, the only person that could help was Marion, and I knew she was out shopping with her mother in-law, registering for baby gifts at places Marion did not want to register. So perhaps I would be doing us both a favor.
I shot out an SOS text and told her to bring 'anything' from the bakery. A half-hour later, she was walking in my apartment with her own key, bakery bag in hand, and a sly smile on her face. "Hey thanks for rescuing me by the way. However, please tell me this is not a real SOS, but an 'I was just stupid and this first argument with Mason will pass' SOS."
"Oh I don't know about it passing. It wasn't just Mason. It was his family, and I figured if anyone understood and would not judge me for all the stupid things I did, it would be you." I grabbed the bag out of her hand. "What did you get any ways?"
"Vanilla cupcakes, with cream cheese frosting, and raspberry filling. I think the babies really like those." She teased.
"Uh huh. I see. So they already have preferences at the bakery. You know I want to be their first to buy them their special choice there. You know, when they are old enough to pick one out. How old do you think that will be? Two?"
She let out a little laughter and set her pur
se on the table just inside my front door. "If they are anything like me, it will be early. I have got to pass on eating mine. I had brunch with my MIL earlier, and I am still full, so you eat mine and don't give me grief that I am eating for two because these ten pounds just snuck up these few weeks of being too tired to do anything."
We both sat down on my couch, but I still gave Mason's bedroom one last sorrowful glance. Marion caught it and sat facing the window, so I would have to sit facing her, away from his window. "That bad?" She questioned.
As I spoke the first words out of my mouth, I stood up to pace back and forth, all while holding an uneaten cupcake. What I had to say was this serious that eating my cupcake could wait. "Well, yes and no. I mean when I tell you, as I replay it all in my head several times, I think I took what happened so personably when really this has to do with Mason and his father's relationship. Either way, I don't see there being a successful we in this thing. It wasn't like he whipped out a sword and defended my honor against his father. If anything, he looked beat, confused, almost like he was questioning his own decision in this. That perhaps we are good together, you know in that way, because believe you me, we are good. However, as far as long-term marriage material, I think he might be thinking his dad is right. Which, while I say this and think it, it is kind of like the reason my mom would love me to marry him is similar to why his father does not want me to marry him. My mom doesn't care if I love him, or if he were good to me, just that he is rich and successful. His dad doesn't care if we are good together, or that I am a nice person, I just don't fit the mold of a woman he has plans for his son to marry so that he can pass off his company to him. I don't know. Am I over thinking this?" I collapsed on the couch facing her after I finished my babble. I was good at that.
"Well. What I think is, that anybody else, would not have been able to follow what you just over processed in your brain. It's the first week of dating. You had sex too soon. You obviously both have got the hots for each other. You like each other as friends. Other than that, it is too soon to talk marriage and family. Perhaps, it was too soon for you to meet his family." Then I watched her take a small piece of the uneaten cupcake in my hand and plop it into her mouth. "Mm, goodness, there is always room for that. Give me that other cupcake or die, woman!"
I couldn't help but to start to laugh so hard as I handed her the cupcake out of my hand, I put my hands in the air like I was under arrest, and then I joked. "Please tell me you will not be one of the crazy pregnant women who steals food out of other people's hands or plates. You are above that Marion Stohls."
"I am." She replied. "But right now, I made a little room for this cupcake. It's a good thing we don't live so close to this bakery. I don't know how you manage."
"I guess I have self-control." Then I raised my eyebrows in question and said the next thing with some serious laughter before taking the other cupcake out of the bag and eating it in one fair swoop. "Well, sometimes I have self-control."
The room fell silent as we smiled at each other and devoured our cupcakes in one sitting. Picking any crumbs that might have fallen onto our laps up and putting them in our mouths. We were not wasteful when it came to bakery cupcakes.
When we were both done, we headed to the kitchen for a tall glass of skim milk. Not that drinking the skim milk would lower the calorie intake we just digested on the cupcakes, it's because that is the only type of milk I buy. This was not the first boyfriend caper cupcake cure in our lives and for me; it might not be the last. Marion found her prince. I thought I found mine. In the silence of gulping milk to wash down the sugar, I mulled that over.
Marion finished first and let me in on a bit of information that filled the gap between how Carl and Mason knew each other. "So, Carl's company has done business with Montahue Properties in the past, and they have a big project coming up at the airport. Carl and Mason met because in six months, Mason will be one of many project managers, and he will have to interact with Carl. Pretty cool stuff, huh? Carl says that Mason mentioned to him what his father was making him do. It is some type of punishment for some stupid woman fiasco, oops sorry. Carl did not want me to mention that. Just forget it has to do with a crazy ex. Maybe now is not a good time to mention that Carl heard Mason has a reputation for dating some seriously whacked-out women. Perhaps that is why his dad is so overprotective about who he dates."
I raised my eyebrows in question as I set my empty milk glass in the sink. "Nope. Quite all right. We all know how senseless I can be. Why make me out to be something I am not? I suppose Mark Anthony, that's Mason's dad, is just trying to keep his son from doing something really stupid again, like falling for someone like me."
Marion walked over and put her hand on my shoulder. "Don't be so daft darling." She said it in an English accent. I knew she had been caught up in her English soap opera Downton Abby. I didn't blame her. I was a season behind and just waiting for her to lend me her iPad again, loaded with the next season, for a long day of nothing but English proper drama.
She grabbed my hand, led me over to my couch and told me to sit. When she finally sat next to me, she let out a huge sigh and smiled brightly as if to cheer me up. "Here's the deal. So Carl and Mason went out for a few drinks after the meeting. Carl sensed the poor chap needed it, which he did. When Carl found out that Mason had to do maintenance on a building for six months, he knew you lived in a building owned by Montahue Properties. So, Carl showed him a picture of you and me that he took on his phone. Remember that brunch we all attended, and you looked smashing. That one. Well, Mason wanted to know all about you. Carl made you out to be one hell of a woman. I'm not sure if it was coincidence that put your two apartments across from each other, it could be Mason did a little check ahead if you get my drift. Carl mentioned you might be single. I guess, just by what I said about Steve and your dates, Carl already figured the guy had a wife or girlfriend. Sorry. I thought of mentioning it the day Carl thought it aloud, but the next day was your family party, and you know. I guess I wanted to meet the guy first. Get my own opinion formed. By the way, I planned on grilling the son of a bitch with several questions, nicely of course. Anyway, back to Mason. It was just a coincidence with the whole you drunk naked dancing and passing out due to the birthday family dinner fiasco. However, it's a really cute story you can tell your kids one day."
I sat in silence for a second mulling all of that over, then I crossed my arms and pouted. "I doubt we will be creating any offspring. Not to mention the fact that I eluded the fact that Steve is married part by substituting in crazy mad wife for crazy mad girlfriend. I didn't want it to look like I am such a blithering idiot, which obviously, I am."
"Stop." Marion put her hand up in a stop motion and frowned. "Stop making yourself out to be so bad. You're not. Your awesome, besides your pouty look doesn't work for me. I'm team Amber, remember."
"I know." I paused as I took in a huge breath. "It's just I was already planning the wedding. Is that so weird?"
"Yes... and no. I was that way with Carl. Think about it. Just a week ago today, you were hopeful that Steve and you might just take it up a notch to commitment, and look what happened. This time, you know a lot more about Mason. You both seem to really like each other. Heck, he took you to meet his family, although a bit too soon if you ask me. What I gathered from Carl, Mason gets a bit too excited easily. This little disaster probably had him thinking, just like it got you thinking."
"Yeah. I think I should slow it down. I almost feel pressured now to work on my growing up plan before stepping back out to the world and announcing 'hey, look at me'. You know. Maybe get going on the whole management online course. Get in a few charitable hours at an elder home or dog shelter. Deliver meals on wheels. Something. Then maybe I wouldn't look like such a disaster to his dad."
"Stop. Who cares what his dad thinks? Ok. I know you do, but slowing it down might not be a bad idea. By all means, let's keep the family dinners for like, month four of serious dating. It was a fluke that he got t
o meet your mom and sister already. Meeting family does not include going out for drinks with Carl and I, by the way. Once you two have ironed it out, we would like to go out as a couple. Carl says they got along great. No pressure by the way. And I really like him, because he really likes you."
I let that mull over in my mind, and then I reached over and hugged her. "You're right. Like always. Hey. How was the baby shopping?"
A loud 'ugh' echoed out through my apartment. I got the impression she was about to unleash the MIL shopping stories on me. I did not mind. I needed something to take my mind off Mason.
By the time Marion left, it was past dinnertime and no Mason. I had turned my phone back on, and I did not see a text or message. So I did what any 'grown-up' woman would do, I logged on and completed some information on my on-line management course. I charted a calendar set with dates and times specific to when I was to study and be on-line. Kind of like a job. I patted myself on the back for doing that. Then I did a search engine wording for volunteer work and there were more choices than I could possibly imagine. I finally settled on reading to the elderly at a senior center close by on Sunday mornings. I figured if I did not like getting up early enough to go to church, I would at least give back to my community by getting to the Senior Center by ten for a few hours of reading. Besides, I had a great theatrical voice that I mastered in high school drama, this was going to be fun.
Somewhere in all my efficiency, was Mason, lingering in between decisions, thoughts, and fingers clicking on the keyboard. I had my doubts about how things were going to go forward. I had wished he had said something on the ride back to my apartment that reassured me of what he wanted, that being me. I even thought of how nice it would have been if the rest of his family wasn't so quiet when his father spoke up. I guess they are one of those families that doesn't speak out against the head of the household. It's not like I can expect everyone to be as outspoken as I am. Lord knows; it has gotten me into more trouble than I would want to admit to. I don't think me sticking up for Mason helped the matter any.
