Love Letter

Ian:

She needed time, and I was pressing her from all sides faster than I had told myself that I would do. But she was sitting there looking so hopeless when I told her it had been 153 days since the last time we had kissed. Now it was six hours since the last time we had kissed, and she ran out of here like Bambi searching for her mother. I had sent her running and probably right into Luke's arms since he was still staying there with her. I promised myself that I would behave better the next day with her. It would help if she didn't wear dresses like she had today, but I knew if she came in with sweat pants, it would be hard to contain what had happened today. She was looking up at me with her big blue eyes pleading with me to kiss her.

Amanda: Mom is coming to the city...

Ian: When?

Amanda: Tonight. She is staying with you. She should be calling you soon.

Ian: Thanks.

I could be distracted when I was around Amanda, but I would have to try to keep what was going on with Lynne a secret with my mom coming to stay. I didn't need my mother scaring her more than I already had. She had met a select few of my previous girlfriends, but none of them mattered to me like Lynne does. But out of the girlfriends that met her, none of them hated her. My mother, on the other hand, who was usually the nicest person I knew, had asked, "couldn't you do better?" The ones she had asked this on actually fell in love with her. If they really knew what my mother was thinking... My mother was a tender soul and couldn't hurt anyone even if she tried to. And how she and my dad ended up together was a mystery to me. When I had asked her when I was younger, she always told me that dad needed as much love if not more than the next person. I used to see my mother as weak when she said this, but as I grew, I saw that she was strong, able to put up with my dad and put him in his place like no one else could. I was happy, however, that she would be a distraction for me when I was at home at night. Hopefully, it would keep me from thinking of Lynne constantly and wondering if Wonder Boy Luke had his arms wrapped around her like I should be able to do right now.

She needs her space, and I will give it to her. "Hello, mother," I say, opening the door for her.

"Ian, it is so good to see you," she says, pulling me into a hug. "We are going to have supper with Amanda tonight if that is okay with you?"

"Sounds wonderful," I say, clicking my phone to silence and stuffing it into my back pocket. The night goes quicker than I thought it would. Amanda and my mother talk mostly throughout the meal, and it does not go unnoticed by my mother.

"Are you okay?" she asks me on our way back to my apartment.

"Couldn't be better," I say even though she and I know I lie. I was an open book, and she knew exactly how to read my moods.

"Well, when you are ready to talk, I am always ready to listen," she says, placing her hand on my knee giving me a reassuring pat. I wish I could tell her everything, but she would see me worse than Lynne does. I don't even know if my mother would talk to me for a while with how mad she would be at me for this. When I started the fake Cannon River name, This was her most significant concern. Jimmy and I both reassured nothing like this would happen. When I was twenty, she told me that I would see that it was terrible. My mother, always the hopeless romantic, was dead right. I hated it.

Going into work the next day, I am happy to get away from my mother's prying eye. Breakfast seemed like it went forever. She let me know she would be shopping all day and have lunch with an old friend and not worry about her.

Even though it was eight o'clock when I came into work today, Lynne was already at Jimmy's desk writing feverishly at the bound of paper in front of her. When I step in, her eyes land on mine, and I can tell she is upset.