AMB~she~OUS

FORTY EIGHT [I]

The following two weeks were filled with family dinners and shopping courtesy of my mother who suddenly didn't want to leave. I knew why.

My mother had grown suspiciously fond of Nick and used the "he's the only one I don't know well" as an excuse to invite him everywhere and anywhere. I knew what she was trying to do, not that she was being discreet about it in the first place. I also was annoyed by Nick's inability to refuse my mother, he acted like he enjoyed her company so much when I could clearly see through the bull.

"I was afraid to say this in front of Alexandra in case she didn't know but I think Craig's son is in love with you." My mother said one Friday afternoon during one of her unnecessary lunch dates.

I had prepared myself adequately for this conversation. My best stance was to keep my face neutral and as uninterested in the topic as possible.

"You're delusional, this isn't the Bold and the Beautiful." I said taking a sip of my green tea, it was awful but recommended for pregnant women.

"That's what I thought at first. I thought I was being delusional and seeing things but no, I know what I saw." If my mother was adamant about something nothing would sway her. I knew the less I argued with her the sooner she would drop it.

"And what exactly did you see?"

"Katherine, that young man is completely enamored by you. The way his eyes follow you when you walk in or walk out of a room. He gravitates naturally around you like he can't help but want to be close to you. Remember that shopping trip to that new mall in L.A.?"

I nodded. The trip she forced down all of our throats, the only one absent was Craig.

For obvious reasons.

"Whenever you would walk slowly behind, he adjusted his pace to match yours. Each time you stopped to look at something, he would linger behind with you, and the way you could see his hands twitch whenever he was close to you. I got scared just watching him." She explained with her eyes as wide as that of a fish.

"Is that why you keep nagging him about having dinner together every night? So you could watch him?" I asked.

"Yes, I had to be sure about this sticky situation You're both in."

"Both?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, the both of you. It's clear you feel some type of way about him too. I saw how comfortable you are with him even when he is giving all the signs that he is in love with you. I mean if it was anyone they would be weirded out by the situation. They would be repulsed by the idea of even being close to him no matter how good-looking he is. But not you. You look so comfortable around him and you unintentionally gravitate toward him too."

I swear my mother had wasted her talents working in a bank. She should've become a detective or something because she was so good at reading between the lines. But she was apparently not good enough.

"Are you done sounding crazy now?" I mocked.

"I'm right and you know it. I also know that you're the taken woman he was referring to that night." She said passing me a satisfied smirk.

How annoying.

"You two aren't by any chance having an affair right?" My mother's face suddenly turned serious.

Were we? It felt like that on some days when he would bring me lunch or wait for me at the office till I finished work. I had been open with him on where we stood so no, I didn't think what we had counted as an affair.

"No." I said it as sternly as I could.

"You aren't lying to me are you?" Skepticism was dripping in her words.