“Oh my,” Mom breathed.
“Can I call you later?”
“He going to let you?” she asked but she sounded like she was laughing.
“Mom, please.”
“Okay, but call at a good time. I want all the dirt.”
“All right.”
“Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you too.”
“Neenee?” she called as I was about to take the phone from my ear.
“Yes?”
“You okay about the Niles thing?”
“Yes, Momma,” I said softly.
“You happy about this Max thing?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Another pause then, “We’ll talk later.”
“Thanks.”
“Bye, sweetie.”
“Bye, Mom.”
I took the phone from my ear, hit the button at the top to shut down the display, took in a deep breath then twisted around to Max and let him have it.
“I cannot believe you!” I hissed.
“Honey,” he muttered but he sounded amused.
Amused!
“Don’t ‘honey’ me,” I snapped and then tossed my phone around him toward the nightstand, it bounced off and fell to the floor. I didn’t care because I was focused on giving him my full attention. “What was that all about?”
“I wanted to hear what you had to say.”
“Does it matter that I wanted to have a private conversation with my mother?”
“You can have a private conversation with her later, after I go down and sort out Mindy’s apartment.”
“But I wanted to have it now,” I told him angrily.
“Yeah, but later it won’t be interesting. Now, it was interesting.”
“Why did you answer the phone at all?” I clipped.
“She’s called three times, Duchess, I didn’t want her to get worried.”