Awkward Meet Normal

Chapter Forty-Seven:

Annabelle:

I must have loved Dash because I found myself sitting at a swanky restaurant. One of my parents has probably dined a hundred times.

I was going to get a salad, and that was it. My pocketbook did not like the prices, and I didn't care how good they said the filet that probably came out looking like two ounces was. I was not paying for it.

Fuck no.

Patricia and Patrick, Dash's mom and sister, arrived ten minutes late.

I stood when they got there. Patricia hugged me and did two fake air kisses on each cheek.

Lovely, she was a duplicate of my mother.

My mother was one of my less favorite people. However, my father and I seemed to be turning a new chapter in our relationship. His hospital visit had done a number on him. I wish it had happened sooner, and so did he. He had said it multiple times to me.

My brother Benny had called a couple of weeks back inquiring about him.

"He is retiring." That is all he said.

"I know," I said to Benny. My father had asked me to come over for lunch. He made us food. He was now living in his apartment. It was not a penthouse; it was a standard apartment, big enough for one person.

A throat clearing pulls me out of my thoughts. I knew that throat clearing. It was my mother's. I was going to murder Dash. I had so many ideas swirling in my head about how to get back at him.

"Annabelle," my mother said and did the two fake air kisses on my cheek. I wanted to groan, but I refrained. However, Patrick caught my eyes rolling when I sat back down. Patrick chuckled, and I knew that I liked her.

"Mother," I said, already seated.

The drink orders were taken first. And I was ticking down the seconds until I could leave. It was one thing to have to get to know Dash's family; it was another to have to do it with my mother there.

"Annabelle, how is work going?" Was the first question my mother asked.

"I was fired" I smiled at her. She blanched and then turned to Patrick, but apparently, Dash's mother thought she needed to come to my rescue.

"You are starting your own marketing firm, isn't that correct?" Patricia asked me and then took a sip of the dirty martini she had ordered.

"That's correct."

Patrick perked up a little bit. "What is it called?"

"MarketingGirl" I said.

And I was bracing myself for my mother's disapproval.

"That is wonderful news," my mother smiled at me. "What a catchy name too. I should have seen this coming from you."

Coming from me? I was the biggest disappointment ever. I knew this because my mother used to tell me this weekly until I moved out of the house. Then I went to college, and I would get corresponding texts on the side about how much of a disappointment I was. It was easier to mute the texts, at least.

I could not look at her. I sipped on the water I ordered. There was no way I was paying fifteen dollars for a simple martini.

My mother must have caught on. "You know what the tab is on me tonight. In celebration of Annabelle's new firm."

The count was at number two for the number of eye rolls I was at with my mother.

The next time the waiter walked over, my mother ordered a dirty martini for me as well. So there we were, two old ladies and two young ladies, drinking dirty martinis on a Thursday evening.

On the second one, I finally looked at my mother and asked, "How is father doing?"

"Oh yes," Gasped Patricia. "I heard that he was in the hospital."

"Was," my mother smiled at her, straightening up in her seat. "He is doing much better now. Thanks for asking Annabelle."

So that was how she was going to play it. She was always an actress, always playing the perfect life.

"Excuse me," I said, grabbing my purse and walking back, hoping the restroom was back that way.

I texted Dash.

Annabelle: I am going to murder you.
Dash: It cannot be that bad.
Annabelle: My mother was invited.
Dash: Oh.
Annabelle: Yeah. Oh.
Dash: I'll restock the fruit bowl

And I was mad at myself because Dash got me to laugh.

Annabelle: You are the worse.
Dash: I know how to make you smile.

I was smiling at my phone when Patrick stepped in behind me.

"Gosh, you must love my brother." She said, looking at me.

I clicked my phone off and stuffed it into my purse.

"I'm an idiot."

She had that simple shrug down to a T as Dash did. "Eh, you have to fall in love at less once."

I was hoping that this was it for me. I don't even want to think what I would be like if Dash and I soured out.

"Oh great. Now you are looking mopey when mere seconds before, my stupid brother had you smiling."

Now was my turn to shrug. "I cannot make it through this dinner with my mother."

"Your relationship is that bad?"

I nod. "You could say that." I was used to hiding it growing up at dinner events and social functions. But instead, I want to be real with Patrick. "Everything out there right now is a show. She and my father are separated at the moment. He went through a come to Jesus meeting and is nice again. I don't know that woman out there; I never have."

And the last thing I expect to hear is Patrick laugh.

She hunches over and clutches her sides as the laughter rolls out of her.

I give her a couple more laughing attacks before I clear my throat. She straightens and dabs at her eyes; there are tears coming out of them.

"I'm sorry. I needed that." She lets out one more shaky laugh. "You described my life to a t." And then her voice changes and sounds so much like her mother's. "Patricia, don't slouch when we are out. Patricia smile. Patricia, do not pick at her finger beds; you are destroying them."

I was not alone.

"I'm sorry," I said to her.

"I'm sorry to you as well." She looks back at the mirror and then at me. "Let's ditch them. They can eat their overly expensive dinner, and you and I can go have fun."

"Ditch them?" I raised my eyebrows. "I thought I was the only one to ditch out on these events."

"Hardly. Did you leave anything at the table?"

I shake my head no.

"Good girl. We will go out the back."

And that was how we found ourselves ditching out on dinner with our mothers.

Patrick was amazing.