No Vacancy by Stephanie Rose

Author:Stephanie Rose [Rose, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

20

Caterina

“I am happy you’re finally on a vacation. I’ve been so worried about you.” My mother sighed into the phone. “You’re going to burn yourself out.”

“I’m okay, Mom. It’s nice here—nice being with the girls.”

“What else is nice?” She laughed. “Usually nice means borderline okay.”

I kept saying nice to avoid the real highlight of my vacation: the gorgeous restaurant owner who I was about to spend the night with for the third time in five days after I met him five days ago. Mom wanted me to have fun, but not that much fun.

Joe pushed me out of the kitchen and insisted on cleaning up, and I took the opportunity to check in with my mother. Some of my friends spoke to their parents once a week, but that would never fly with her, and I wouldn’t want it to. I checked up on her as much as she checked up on me.

“It’s good, Mom. I promise. How is it there?”

“I ran into Trent on the street this afternoon.” I could picture her mouth flattening into a hard line. One thing my mother did not have was a poker face. “He asked me when you were coming home. I thought you broke up?”

“We did. I told him to get out, but I had his name added to the lease, so he’s not moving. I’d hate to leave the apartment and give him what he wants, but I don’t know how to get him out.”

“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?”

If I told my mother exactly what happened, an uncle or cousin would be at my place in less than twenty-four hours to drag him out by his feet. As awesome as that would be, I needed to handle this myself.

“Just know he did something awful enough to end us for good.”

“I told you not to put his name on the lease if you weren’t married.”

“You did,” I agreed while rubbing at my temple. “I didn’t listen, and I’m learning my lesson.”

“I always thought you deserved better, and I hope you’re smarter when the next one comes along.” She clicked her tongue against her teeth.

I didn’t have the heart to tell my mother I was even stupider this time. There was no way I could explain what was going on with Joe and me, especially since I didn’t totally understand it myself. All I knew was in between all the amazing conversation and incredible sex, I’d caught real feelings for Joe. The whole thing was ridiculous even in my own head, much less explaining it to someone else. Megan and Claire thought we were just having fun, but it was more. From the beginning, it had been so much more. Explaining to my mother how I may be falling for a man I’d known for a week was in line with telling her I met Santa Claus at the shore. I’d receive the same “are you high?” reaction. But I guessed I was high because all I did was dread the inevitable low.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.