two at a beach. That is a really cute picture. It looked like you two had a great time together.”
“Ohmigod.” I say feeling the tears begin to well up in my eyes. If I am going to tell anyone anything, it is going to be my mother.
“Are you at work?” she asks with panic in her voice, clearly detecting I am on the verge of tears.
“No” I sob, bringing on the waterworks.
“Are you at home?”
“Yes.”
“I am coming over right now.”
“No mom, I’m fine – “
“This isn’t debatable. I will be there in an hour.”
Exactly an hour and five minutes later, my mom is in my condo making us a fresh pot of coffee. I sit on the stool surrounding the island in the kitchen, when I start to spill the beans to my mother. I start off by telling her how I met Ben for dinner the night before we left for the wedding. I even confess I had too much to drink and that we came back to my condo afterwards. My mother’s eyes widen and she clenches the countertop. I watch her knuckles turn white in anticipation of what I am about to tell her. I think she might pass out, so I ask her if she is okay. She nods and a smile forms on her lips, “You know how much I love Ben.”
I roll my eyes and almost decide to stop my story. My mother loves Ben like her own son, so hearing how this ends is surely going to devastate her.
Last year, at the last minute, when Marco told me he couldn’t come to my cousin Tiffany’s wedding; my mother suggested I bring Ben as my date. So when he showed up on my arm, she was overjoyed and squeezed his cheeks like she always did whenever she saw him. All through dinner, she constantly told him how handsome he looked and of course he basked in the attention. Then while Ben fetched the ladies at our table another round of drinks, I scolded my mother and told her to stop enhancing his already oversized ego. My mother became angry with me and insisted he was a catch. She said she couldn’t understand why we weren’t already together. I told her to drop it and made it perfectly clear that it would never happen. She rolled her eyes and said I was missing out on something that could be great. I told her I wasn’t interested in him like that, and that was the last we ever spoke of Ben and I as more than friends.
“I know you love Ben. That is why this is hard for me to tell you.” I confess.
“Did something happen to him? Is he okay?” My mother shouts.
“No mom, he’s fine. Just let me finish alright?” I say and shift on the stool “This isn’t easy for me to talk to you about this.”
“Okay Megan, I’m sorry.” She says and pours us each a cup of coffee. She slides my mug across the gleaming granite and props up her elbows.
“Okay” I say and clear my throat, realizing maybe talking to my mother about my sex life really isn’t a good idea, but I continue, “Ben and I were secretly seeing each other.”
My mother gasps and squeals all at the same time. Her eyes light up and she clamps her hand over her mouth.
“Mom, we were seeing each other. It doesn’t end well.” I confess, only to see her smile fade.
“Well what happened?” she shouts, “How could you ruin such a thing?”
I roll my eyes at her blatant accusation that I was the one to screw everything up, “It’s a long story.”
“Well I suggest you start telling it.” My mother scolds placing her hands on her hips.
“After that first night in my condo, the next morning I woke up and told him it was a mistake, because I was worried about ruining our friendship.”
My mother pulls up a stool and sits down, which I am guessing is to keep from fainting.
“So when we finally got to Costa Rica, Jessica was all gung-ho to set me up with her cousin Steven, which she did, and he was so nice mom, you would have loved him.”
“I’m sure.” She unconvincingly says.
“Then things started happening between me and Ben again.”
“Oh God Megan-“ She groans.
“No mom!” I shout crossing my hands in front of my chest, “It’s not my fault everything was ruined. I found out he had been with Stephanie too.”
“He what? Not Ben.” My