Page 37 of Just Another Meet Cute
Linh hopped onto the center of the couch with the bowl of popcorn and a giant bag of peanut butter M&M’s. A couple of kernels fell onto her lap, and she swept them into her mouth. “I call dibs on the couch.”
“You can’t call dibs after you jumped on. You’re supposed to call it before ,” I complained, sitting on the love seat across from her. I snuggled into the thick comforter on my lap.
“Before or after. Either way, it’s mine.” She grinned and popped another handful of popcorn in her mouth.
I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t really put up a fight.
Honestly, I didn’t really care where I sat.
I was just glad that we were finally having our movie night again.
Plus, the love seat fit me fine since I was shorter than everyone else.
All I had to do was curl my legs up a bit, and it was perfectly comfortable and cozy.
Mom and Aunt Sarah came into the living room. Their arms were full of snacks and drinks that they piled onto the ottoman.
“I found two movies. Do you want to watch The Christmas Mix-Up or The Mistaken Bride ?” Mom asked as she pulled out her phone to stream on the TV.
“The Christmas Mix-Up,” Aunt Sarah and I both said at the same time. She gave me a surprised look since everyone knew I hated the holiday movies like black olives—something I was very vocal about growing up.
I shrugged lightly. “For some reason, I’m in the Christmas spirit tonight.”
“Yeah, despite the fact that it’s 92 degrees outside right now,” Linh said with a grin. “And the sun’s already been down for twenty minutes.”
“That’s why we’re inside and not outside.”
“It is nice for us to finally be together. Just us for once.” Aunt Sarah looked around the room. “I can finally relax again.”
I glanced at Mom, but she didn’t say anything or even look up at the subtle snub at Dad. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that she heard her.
A lack of response didn’t stop Aunt Sarah though. It never did. And it didn’t matter to her that nobody was listening or that Dad wasn’t even here to defend himself. After all, she’s done this a ton of times before. With or without him.
Like Mom, I usually ignored her until she ran out of steam. Sometimes it only took a few minutes. Other times it took much longer.
“Mom would have been so mad if she knew I let him stay here with us this summer.” Aunt Sarah perched on the arm of the couch and sighed. Linh scooted over to get out of her way. “If you didn’t beg me, Beth, I wouldn’t have agreed.”
This time I knew Mom heard her. Her mouth tightened a bit, but she didn’t say anything.
“Is the movie ready, Mom?” I asked loudly, hoping to change the subject.
“It’s taking a little while to load.”
With a sympathetic glance in my direction, Linh grabbed a can of soy milk and pressed it into her mom’s hands. “You look thirsty.”
“Thank you, con.”
But Aunt Sarah didn’t take a drink. Not when she wasn’t done.
If anything, she was only just beginning.
“I don’t know why you bother with him though.
Once a cheater, always a cheater. Even if the person he was cheating with was you .
Lord knows why you got together with him in the first place.
But you should be even more worried since you know what he’s really like.
Only a foolish person lets themselves get abandoned again. ”
Even though she wasn’t saying anything that I hadn’t secretly thought about Dad before, I hated the fact that she used him to make backhand insults at Mom. Although it wasn’t even backhanded tonight, that was a full-frontal insult to the face.
Thank God, the movie was finally starting.
“In fact, if it were me, I would have—”
“God, shut up,” I muttered under my breath.
Or at least I thought it was under my breath.
Even though the first scene of the movie was a loud Christmas party, everyone in the room turned to look at me. Linh’s mouth dropped in shock as Aunt Sarah’s eyes narrowed into fierce slits.
“What did you say?”
Crap, I guess I wasn’t quiet enough.
I could have backed down. Just shook my head and apologize.
But I was so tired of overthinking everything and having all my emotions bottled up in a jumbled mess that I just exploded.
“It’s just … could we watch the movie instead of talking about my dad?
Everyone knows you hate him, so you don’t need to say it again. ”
I didn’t think it was possible, but Linh’s jaw dropped so low that it looked painful for her face to stretch that much.
I couldn’t blame her though. I could barely believe the words that were coming out of my mouth.
No one ever talked back to Aunt Sarah. Occasionally Dad would fight with her, but even then, he always backed down.
The only person who could make Aunt Sarah speechless was B á .
And now me. Someone should give me an award or something.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t scared to death though. My palms were clammy and tingling. Especially when Aunt Sarah started tapping her foot against the sofa. She usually did that right before she was about to start shouting.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—” I quickly stood up and moved across the room. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Hopefully I could hide in there until the movie distracted her enough. Or maybe I’d camp out in there all night. That felt like the better option. The tub could be cozy.
When I passed Mom, her hand swept out to grab my arm, stopping me from my escape. Surprised, I looked up at her. She gave me a hard stare for a minute or so, like she was seeing me for the first time. Or maybe she was seeing something in me for the first time.
“You don’t have to apologize.” Finally, Mom looked over at Aunt Sarah and scowled. “Your aunt should be apologizing to you. To both of us.”
Holy. Crap.
I don’t know who was more shocked at her outburst—Aunt Sarah or me. Although Linh would have been a close second, too. With Mom and Aunt Sarah on either side of her, she looked like she wanted to melt into the cushions and disappear.
I bet she was really regretting calling dibs on the couch right now.
Straightening her shoulders, Mom marched right over to her sister and stared down at her.
I hadn’t noticed until now that she was taller than Aunt Sarah.
A lot taller. At least three inches. I always thought that Aunt Sarah was the taller one, but maybe it was because Mom’s never stood up straight around her before.
Now her back was straighter than a ruler.
“And I would appreciate it if you would stop insulting David—Nina’s dad and my future husband—in front of us. In fact, stop talking about him. Period.”
Aunt Sarah blinked at her with wide eyes. “But after what he did to you … what he did to us …”
“He didn’t do anything to me. I did it to him. And he still came back to us. If we can accept him—” Mom stopped and gave me a quick glance. Her voice wavered a bit. “If I can accept him, then you have no choice but to accept him, too. At least if you want us to be a family again.”
Even though she was talking to Aunt Sarah, I felt her words hit me, too. Like an arrow right at the target.
“But we’re your family,” Aunt Sarah cut in just as Mom held up a hand.
“If you were really my family, then you would want us to be happy. And trust that I know what I’m doing. That I’m making the right decision.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Aunt Sarah scowled. “And it’s the wrong decision? What happens if he leaves you again?”
Mom lifted her chin. “Then I’ll deal with it. It’s not like you’re the queen of perfect marriages either. At least my David’s here with us now.”
Ouch. Even I knew that was a low blow. Mom’s eyes blinked rapidly like even she couldn’t believe what she had said. Her hand halfway reached up toward Aunt Sarah before dropping again.
For the second time that night, Aunt Sarah was speechless as she stared at Mom.
As much as I loved my aunt—she was basically like another mom to me—everyone knew that she was a bit of a bully.
But kind of in that aggravating way that you knew she still meant well and had good intentions, so you couldn’t get too mad at her.
It felt good to finally see someone stand up to her.
And for that someone to be Mom, well, that was icing on the cake.
While a bunch of emotions crossed my mom’s face—guilt, doubt, and nervousness—Aunt Sarah’s face was strangely blank. “Then don’t expect me to wait around and pick up the pieces for you again,” she said in a low voice.
Mom immediately looked away, and I thought she was going to back down like I did.
Instead, she squared her shoulders and nodded.
“That’s fine. I don’t need you to help me, because it’s my decision.
And if you can’t deal with it—without your snarky comments—then I don’t think we should stay here anymore. ”
With that said, she turned and glided out of the room like she was a queen dismissing her servants.
Despite the fact that a giant feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach like a heavy weight, I knew I had never been more proud of her.
After we packed our clothes, I expected Mom to go to the nearest hotel. Instead, she drove straight downtown toward the Waldorf Luxury Hotel. It was super fancy, but that was expected, since the word luxury was right there in the name.
The lobby itself was as huge as my school’s cafeteria.
And there were fancy water bottles lined up on the counter.
Not the cheap ones that you got at the corner stores, but the expensive kind that came in mini glass bottles.
Probably flown in from a secret magical spring halfway around the world.
And they were set up on a shiny gold tray next to a plate of freshly baked cookies the size of my hand.
This hotel was the kind of place that housed celebrities on vacation and rich heirs who were in town for multimillion-dollar business deals. Not for a semi-successful Realtor and her teenage daughter to escape to after a family fight.