The Perfect Life (The Perfect Stranger #4) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,11
and have been dating for almost a month. I haven't met him yet, but I can tell that it's exciting by how she is acting.
She has always been someone who liked to comb her hair and apply makeup in front of the vanity, but now the preparations for her weekly AA meetings are taking a whole new approach.
It probably takes her an hour and a half to get ready. It's a good thing that she has been working in the mornings and afternoons and her boss has switched her from evenings.
She's making less money, but I’m making some now and together we’re getting by all right. Besides, I think she enjoys having a normal personal life that actually takes place at night.
His name is Benjamin Taliancich and he is a two-time divorced accountant with his own practice right next to the American Legion. According to Mom, he is not like anyone that she’s dated before, but that's exactly what she likes about him. He's quiet, polite, and likes to stay in at night to work on his stamp collection.
“I had no idea anyone had stamp collections anymore,” I say.
“I've seen it. It's really nice. He has a coin collection, too.”
“What a nerd.”
I make fun, but secretly I’m pleased. Mom was always a party girl and most men she dated were the ones who were popular in high school and then couldn’t hold down a job as adults.
This whole time I have been holding my breath about her going down the wrong path again and I thought that whoever she would start dating again would play a big part in that, but Benjamin seems different.
I tell her to invite him over for dinner and that I'll cook.
She gasps, shakes her head, and jokingly says, “Hell no. I'll invite him over, but there's no way you’re doing any of the cooking.”
Benjamin arrives a few days later and he is even nicer than I thought he would be.
He has a college degree, which is unusual for most of the men that my mom has dated, but he isn't arrogant about it. He owns a house in Aspinwall, one town over, which is walking distance from his business. We get to know each other a little bit and over dessert, they even hold hands.
He also expresses that he wants to learn how to ski this weekend.
“I've never been, but I've always wanted to go so I decided that this winter I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to take one of those classes and I hope that I'm not the only one there over the age of five.”
“You probably will be,” I say jokingly, but I'm secretly impressed with his openness to try new things.
“Nope, you won't,” Mom says. “I'll be right there with you.”
My mouth nearly drops open.
The few times that I had mentioned skiing growing up, Mom referred to it as a sport for elitist shitheads. She knew that at my high school there were rich kids who spent their winters skiing at Seven Springs, a nearby ski resort, and some of them even went up to Vermont and Colorado.
She rarely had anything positive to say about them, especially after she found out that I was friends with Tyler. I used to take offense to it, but now I know that it was just the self-defense mechanism.
It was her way of coping with all of the things that she couldn't offer me. She acted like there was something wrong with them and with what they did for recreation. Then she wouldn’t have to feel so bad that she couldn't give it to me.
“I didn't realize that you wanted to learn to ski,” I say, sitting back on the couch, nursing my fresh cup of cocoa that Benjamin had made for us. I watch a small marshmallow bounce up and down at the water line and then slowly melt into the cup.
“I didn't, but listening to him talk about it, it sounds really fun. Besides I'm at this point in my life when I'm trying to do new things.”
“I like that,” I say.
We talk some more and after that I am ready to be alone so I head to my room. I want to give them some space and I can tell that they appreciate it.
As I get into bed, I marvel at how different things are. There was a time when I could never imagine my mom doing anything like this and it makes me happy to see her embracing life.
For