Where Would I Be Without You - By CJ Hawk Page 0,27

to call back since Sunday night's fiasco. It seemed so long ago as Mason had been filling my every moment with thoughts of could he be and what ifs and oh my, I shouldn't be thinking of doing that at a time like this.

Her voice jumped an octave cheerier, if that was possible, as I had yet to respond to her standing here in my office. "Oh my! What lovely flowers. Who's Mason?" She had to question because not reading the card of whom the flowers were from was not an option for my mother. Oh good jest, this was going to be one heck of a lunch.

"Mom?" I finally found my voice. "What a lovely surprise. I wasn't expecting you." I did not answer if I could go to lunch because I was racking my brain for something, anything, to come up with as an excuse.

"Darling. You haven't called me back since everything that happened on Sunday." She whispered the words as soon as she got to the word 'since', as if everything that happened on Sunday should be a huge secret. Which it was. Except for those that were there and Mason getting the short edited version.

"About that, mom." I cleared my throat as it felt as if it was restricted and my eyes felt crossed. With the way my mom was patiently waiting for me to say something next, they probably were. "The thing is..." Just as I was about to babble out more than three dozen words of nonsense, Bethany rounded the corner in a navy blue power suit.

"Good. You're here. I was hoping I would catch you two. Mom called me last night to tell me she was going to surprise you for lunch. I wanted to beat her here, but I had a meeting." She looked powerful in her suit and professional brown hair cut with her two-inch sensible heels. Are those? They can't be; they'd set her back at least $600 for the pair. Those are some seriously cute professional heels. The navy leather looks like butter. I wonder if she got them wholesale and if she'll let me wear them sometime.

My mother's voice interrupted my thoughts that had diverted to Bethany's adorable professional heels away from everything else. "Darling. Why would you want to beat me here? I told you I wanted to have a private lunch with just your sister." Ok, so now I am just Bethany's sister, not my mother's daughter. And why private? Unless that is, she was going to ruin my birthday by berating me about college and dating a married man. That, I was sure was her plan. I owed Bethany HUGE, since I knew she had a busy schedule with her new position and the last thing she needed to deal with was my mama drama, even if it is her mom too.

Before I could say anything, my inner office phone intercom beeped with my boss's voice. "Amber? Can you come in here real quick?" I picked up the phone so that his voice was not echoing out over the office.

"Sup?" My boss was four years younger than me, with a business management degree, and wore baggie jeans, large graphic tee shirts, baseball hats sideways with stickers still on them, and large gold chains. He was part of the reason that I joked around playing like a gangster sometimes. Over my shoulder, I could hear my mother chiming in about the improper way I answered the phone. If she only knew, but explaining it would only take too much energy.

I hung up the phone with a smile on my face and a shrug to my shoulders in the direction of my mom and sister. "He needs to see me in his office before I can run out to lunch with you two. Be right back."

Bethany was already on her phone punching in something or other while my mom was talking to her about why she did not hear her correctly about wanting a private lunch versus asking my sister to join her. Bethany held her ground but never looked her in the eyes. As I walked towards my boss's office just thirty feet down the cubical hallway, I heard Bethany reply. "Are you sure mom? Because I distinctly remember you asking me to come, otherwise why would I? I am super busy at work."

Then I stopped in my tracks on the way to my boss's office and hide two cubicles down just to hear my mom's