Maximum Commitment (Sin City #13) - Tricia Owens
Chapter One
Ethan picked up the phone on the second ring. “Ethan Winter, speaking. How may I help you?”
“Ethan, honey, it’s me!”
He set down the pen he was using and leaned back in his chair, a smile on his face. “Hey, Mom. What’s going on?”
“Look! Can you see me?”
Bemused, he reflexively turned to the window of his office, but of course his mother wasn’t standing outside in the hallway.
“How...how can I see you, Mom?”
“I’m waving at you. You can’t—? Hmm, I’m not sure this thing is working.”
Ethan frowned in confusion and then sat forward when he remembered that today was when the technician Max had hired was going to be installing a special video phone at his parents’ house.
“Are you trying to use the video phone, Mom?”
“It’s not showing anything. I can see me, but where are you?”
He tried to picture the device in his mind, but he’d seen it only briefly when Max had showed it to him on the internet.
“The video will only work if you’re calling someone who also has a video phone,” he told her. “You can also use it for Skype calls with me. Did the tech show you how to do that?”
“Oh, dear. No, he—well, I may have told him that your father and I have a handle on it and that we’d figure out the rest on our own. I felt embarrassed admitting how little we know, Ethan. We’re just a couple of old fuddy-duddies, I’m sorry to say. So...you really can’t see me?”
“I’m afraid not. We won’t be getting our own video phone until later.” He felt badly for her. It was Ethan who’d brought up the idea of the phones since he figured his parents wouldn’t be able to figure out how to use video calling via cellphone or computer. The special phones with their tablet-sized screens were meant for people like his parents who weren’t technically savvy and struggled with social media.
“I suppose we’ll have to call the young man back,” his mom said, with a sigh. “I just didn’t want to waste his time...”
Ethan laughed gently. “It’s okay, Mom. He’s being paid to help you. In fact, the longer he needs to help you, the more he gets paid, so for him, it’s better if you take it slow. Feed him some pie or something.”
“Oh. Well, I'm relieved to hear that.” She sighed again. “I’m so sorry, Ethan. Your father and I should have made a better attempt to keep up with the times. But everything began moving so quickly and without a computer...we were left behind.”
“You’re not the only ones who were, so don’t worry about it. We’ll have the tech come back and show you everything you need to know. And if you end up feeling uncomfortable using the phones, we can ditch them. I just thought they’d be fun for you to use with Max’s parents.”
“Oh, I certainly want to see them,” she rushed to say, making Ethan hold back more laughter.
His parents were dying to learn more about Philip and Marcela. When Ethan and Max had returned from Spain, the first social call he’d received had been from his mother, asking how the trip had gone, what Max’s parents were like, and what it was like to eat in a foreign country. He’d had an Iberian ham leg mailed to his parents’ home in Indiana and when it had arrived, his mother called him in a panic, asking him what to do with it since the specially cured meat was so firm. She’d thought the meat had gone bad.
Now, the prospect of a wedding was on the table, and Ethan’s parents—well, his mother—was consumed with the planning of it and was even more eager to interact with Marcela to collaborate. The video phones would hopefully help with that, assuming they were up and running.
“They’re eager to meet you, too,” Ethan said, which might be an exaggeration, but was true in spirit. The Pooles were too reserved to be called ‘eager’, though they had certainly transformed into different people by the time he and Max left the country. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that their true selves had finally come out. Marcela had even given Ethan the traditional European double kiss, and on his cheeks, no less. That practically made Ethan a favored son, or so he’d teased Max.
“I’ll call them and let them know you’ll get in touch with them next week,” he told his mother. “That should give the technician time to come