Midnight Serenade

Chapter 2

"What'll you ladies have?" the waitress asked, standing over our table with a notepad and pencil.

"How about two salads?" my mom said, giving me a pointed look.

I stared back at her, unaffected. "How about one salad and one burger?" I looked at the waitress. "Medium rare, please."

The waitress looked questioningly at my mom who sighed and nodded.

"You shouldn't have so much red meat, Riley," she said, after the waitress had gone. "It's not healthy."

"Salad is a side dish, Mom. There's nothing wrong with red meat."

"Sometimes," she allowed. "But if it was up to you, you'd have it at every meal."

I shrugged. She wasn't wrong. I'm not sure why, but lately, I'd been craving meat. A lot.

With another sigh, she sat back and gave up. After a second, she began examining her fingernails - we'd gotten manicures also.

"She missed a spot..." she muttered, glaring at her finger.

"Mom, I'm going to need my birth certificate soon," I said, derailing any further nail discussions. I'd had quite enough of those for the year, thank you very much.

"Huh?" She blinked and focused on me.

"My birth certificate?" I repeated. "I'll need it to get my license."

"Oh, right." She nodded. "I'll talk to your father about it later."

"Can't you just give it to me?"

"I suppose... Your father handles all the important papers though. I don't want to mess up his system."

She was stalling and I had no idea why. It shouldn't be a big deal.

"Then tell me where it is and I'll get it. I'll be careful. And I'll put everything back the way it was. I promise. He'll never even know anything was moved."

My mom bit her lip, thinking. "Yes, that could work...I guess..." But I knew she didn't intend to tell me anything. She was just trying to come up with a plausible excuse to distract me.

"Mom, why don't you want to give me my birth certificate?"

She looked a little startled at having been called out.

"It's not that I don't want to give it to you," she said slowly. "I don't have it."

"You lost it?" My previous anger returned. "How could you do that?" I knew she was irresponsible, but I thought she might have taken care of something as important as that! "How am I supposed to-"

"I didn't lose it, Riley." She shook her head. "I never had it."

Okay, that wasn't what I was expecting. Confused, I watched her for a second before I said, "how is that possible?"

"Well..." She was clearly very uncomfortable all of a sudden. She was having a hard time holding my gaze and she was fidgeting with her napkin, tearing it into little shreds. "It's just that your dad and I... I mean, he wanted to tell you himself when the time was right... We just... He..."

"Spit it out!" I said impatiently, starting to get very freaked out. Why was she acting like this? Was I actually adopted?

Dropping her napkin, she shoved her hands in her lap and met my eyes. Taking a deep breath, she nodded as if to ready herself. "Your dad wanted to tell you when the time was right, but I think you have a right to know. And I honestly thought he'd tell you by now, so here goes... Your dad and I met after you were born."