SugarCOAT

86. Watch & Learn 🎤

Dinner for breakfast was beef enchilada nachos. I could just squeeze Bridgette to pieces after I took my first bite. "Mmmhh..." The sound escaped my mouth as I sat outside on the patio, looking at the green, mystery maze before me. 

I took another bite. "It's gonna be hard not to go back for seconds."

"Tell me about it."

I quickly turned around to see Zeke's mother. I stood up to greet her. "Good morning, Mrs. Rivers."

"Cathy." She held a cup of coffee in her hand and took a sip. Afterwards, she pointed at me. "Either you really like this area or you've given up on avoiding me."

"No ma'am. I really do like this area."

Cathy smiled at me. "Although this is one of my favorite areas around the house, I wasn't born yesterday."

Before I could plead my case, she continued with "At the same time, I've been avoiding you, too. How else do you think you've been able to get rides from Maximo anytime you wanted? We do have more than one driver and several vehicles to choose from." She took a seat in the wicker chair adjacent to me. She pointed at my plate. "If I were you, I'd tell Bridgette to pack you some for lunch. Zell is still asleep."

I sat back down.

"I know about you and Zeke."

I tried to explain. "We should've told you--"

She interrupted me, "Jae or should I call you Jae A.B.?"

My eyes grew with surprise. 

"Of course Zell still hasn't figured it out. I was watching Zeke's show and you were on there. You sing well and your music is pretty good, too."

"Thank you," I spoke above a whisper.

Cathy sighed, "This conversation is to be kept between us. I'll talk to Zeke later."

"You knew we weren't really dating?" I asked her.

"The chemistry was not there," she informed me. "For anyone to believe that y'all were dating, they had to have been born yesterday."

I smirked. So much for being an actress.

Cathy took another sip of her coffee before placing it on the wicker table. "Zeke still hasn't forgiven his father and brother..." She looked up at the morning sky. "He blames them for ending his music career."

"He told me about what happened."

Cathy looked at me. "My sons are... something else. I love them to death, but they definitely didn't inherit their behaviors from me. Zack is so smart. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA, and received more scholarships than I could count on one hand. Sometimes, he's too smart for his own good. Oh, how he would tease his brother! He used to watch the ending of movies, just to ruin it for Zeke."

Now that's just evil.

"Zack would go around the house pranking everyone, but the first time he pranked me was the last time he pranked me," she lightly laughed. "On the other hand, Zeke is determined and talented. He can learn how to do just about anything and perfect it. He can sing, act, write, and play instruments. Yet... as much as they are different, they are similar. They both can be quite stubborn and sneaky or at least they think they're being sneaky. And they love music. They get that from their father," she finished.

I asked, "Why didn't Zeke just go back to singing?"

"He has, but it's hard to hide music around here. Some of the rooms in this house talk louder than me and you, right now. This house just isn't big enough, Jamie Sawyer."