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As expected, Audrey dismissed Megan’s concern with a wave of her hand.

“It’ll be fine, darling. In six months, this will all be a memory to laugh at.”

Megan shrugged and dropped it. There was a time when she would have pressed her point, but she’d long ago learned her lesson about the futility of such actions. If her mother and Molly wanted to keep planning a wedding during a pandemic, they could knock themselves out as far as Megan was concerned. And when Molly got her wedding photos back and they all showed a bunch of people who looked like they were about to rob a stagecoach, maybe then Molly would question her decision.

They talked about other things for a while as they ate; or, rather, Audrey talked and Megan listened; at least, she pretended to listen. She actually spent most of Audrey’s monologue thinking about Vanessa and about how she had wished Vanessa had spent the night last night.

It was silly, of course. Their arrangement, or whatever it was, certainly did not mandate going to sleep and waking up together. Nonetheless, when Vanessa had told Megan yesterday afternoon that she was leaving, Megan had been disappointed. But she certainly wouldn’t have admitted that to Abby when Abby had called.

I’m just lonely, that’s all.

It made sense. The last woman Megan woke up with was Cindy, and they had been split up since January.

Still though…as she lay in bed last night before finally succumbing to sleep, Megan had imagined how nice it would have been to have Vanessa there next to her. Not having sex, just there.

Megan realized her mother had stopped talking and she forced her mind back to the here and now to find Audrey shaking her head in that disapproving way of hers and staring at something over Megan’s shoulder.

“Such a shame,” Audrey murmured with a cluck of her tongue.

Confused, Megan turned to look behind her.

Considering how nice the weather was, the park was surprisingly empty. The only thing Megan could see was two young women about her age walking hand in hand, their heads close together as they talked. The taller of the two, a redhead, said something which made her companion laugh.

Other than that, there was nothing that Megan could see that would—

She felt her cheeks flush with anger as she turned back around to look at her mother. Sure enough, it was those two women that Audrey was focused on.

“What’s a shame, Mom?”

In a whisper, even though there was no one close enough to eavesdrop, Audrey said, “You saw. Those two girls. Such a shame they can’t find men to spend the afternoon with.”

Is she for real?

But, of course, Megan knew she was for real. This was typical Audrey Baldwin.

“For goodness sakes, Mom. It’s obvious they’re gay. They’re not looking for men to spend the afternoon with.”

Audrey waved that off as if it was the most ridiculous thing Megan had ever said.

“They’re just not trying hard enough to be with men,” Audrey stated as if, to her, it was the same as saying the sky is blue.

“And I suppose Black people just aren’t trying hard enough to be white, right?” Megan snapped.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous! It’s not the same thing.”

“It is too the same thing!” Megan, with a dry and humorless chuckle, said. She subtly indicated the two lesbians with a tilt of her head in their direction. “You’re expecting them to somehow change into something they’re not!”

“I’m expecting them to accept that the natural order of things is for a woman to be with a man. Otherwise, we all wouldn’t be here, would we?”

Not too long ago, Megan would have allowed this argument to continue, both her and her mother growing more and more exasperated and heated as it did; but Megan had finally learned that it was useless and not worth the aggravation. So, she just sighed, threw her hands up and set about packing up the detritus of their lunch.

“Are we leaving?” Audrey asked.

“Well, I am,” Megan said, standing. “I have a meeting soon.” Her meeting was still more than ninety minutes away but Megan forgave herself the little lie. “Sorry, I should have mentioned it earlier; hopefully you don’t feel like you drove up here for nothing.”

“Don’t be silly,” Audrey said, also standing and picking up her purse. “Seeing my oldest daughter is never a waste of time. Of course, if said oldest daughter would come visit her parents in La Jolla more often, that would be nice also.”

Of course, if the parents of said oldest daughter weren’t homophobic throwbacks to the 1950s, said oldest daughter might visit La Jolla more often.