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“So, sweetheart, how has school been going?”

The question catches me off guard. Of all the things to take about, school was not one I had planned on.

“It’s good. The semester is coming to a close, and I am passing all of my classes. They have given me extra time for almost everything, given the rough semester I had.”

My parents nod together, feeling pleased with my response. Sergio emerges with a bottle of wine and begins filling our glasses. The room stays silent as he then sets our filled plates neatly in front of us.

My father begins eating, and the rest of us follow suit.

“So, Dante, what is it that you do for work?” My mother’s question is laced with a knowing tone.

“I work for myself. I’m more of a freelance kind of guy.” He squeezes my thigh under the table. I give my mother a polite smile.

My father peers up at him with a cold, steely gaze.

“Please elaborate, Dante.” My father’s words are bathed in sarcasm.

“People hire me for individual contracts. Typical stuff. Things other people don’t want to do themselves.”

My dad places his fork down and leans back in his chair. Dante maintains his calm demeanor as he continues eating.

“Oh, come on now, honey, don’t be rude to our guest.” My mother hates conflict and will do everything in her power to resolve it. That’s something I love about her. She is always the peacemaker.

My father sits up in his chair and continues eating dinner. The rest of the dinner is relatively silent, except for my parents asking me a few more questions about unimportant things. We stand to head into the main living area.

“Mom, I am going to grab a few more things from my room. If you want to join me?”

She smiles brightly at me, as if I had just solved world hunger.

“Of course, you boys behave yourselves now!”

Dante gives her a charming smile, and my father rolls his eyes in her direction. Something tells me Dante is going to harass my father now. They spoke briefly in the hospital, but the conversation still seemed stiff.

I don’t let that stop me, though. I head off toward the stairs as my mother follows me to my childhood bedroom—the bedroom where I tried to end it all. My footsteps feel heavy as I reach the door.

The door has been replaced, and the inside is… clean. As if it never happened. Relief washes over me as I take a breath.

“Can I ask you something?”

I sit on my bed, as she stares at my photos displayed on the wall.

“Anything, sugar, what’s up?”

“How did you know that Dad was the only one for you?”

She pauses a moment, looking up at the ceiling, as if she is thinking back to the time she fell in love with my father. She turns to me and plops down next to me on the bed.

“You know… your father was a bit of a ladies’ man back in the day. He was notorious for lying with whoever he wanted. He was never a faithful man. One day, your father approached me, and I told him I wanted nothing to do with him. He became very persistent after that. Always sending me flowers, attending any events I was going to, and he really made his presence known. It wasn’t until one of my friends told me he hadn’t been seen with a woman in six months that I put two and two together,” she smiles to herself as she continues, “I realized he stopped seeing other women the moment he saw me. It was an unspoken commitment. I agreed to a date, and well, the rest is history,honey. Sometimes you love the person that you thought you never would. Do you love him?”

Tears fall from my eyes softly, but not out of sadness or pain. The fall of love. I love that my mother understands what it is like to love someone who has a bad reputation. Granted, Dante’s reputation is a bit worse than Father’s; she gets it.

“I love him, Mom. He makes me feel… alive.”

She brings me in for a hug, and she strokes my hair.

“Then love him, sweetie. I can see the way he looks at you. He loves you, too.”

“I told him I loved him and he didn’t say it back,” I admit to her reluctantly.