Make It Or Break It

Past (The Unexpected Meet up)

I woke up mid morning the next day seedy and tired as fuck. I smiled to myself. So worth it.

Mom was in the kitchen reading a magazine when I walked in. She lifted her head when she heard me come in.

"Raymond, already gave me my allowance."

"I know. Just checking up on you. Also, I wanted to remind you about your sister's birthday dinner and she wanted you there." She said casually.

I just nodded.

"Late night?" She asked, a knowing smirk on her face.

"Yeah, you could say that." I opened the fridge, and then closed it again. Stupid habit.

"Has she left?"

I looked at her for a while. How could she even know about Lauren? She just got here.

"Raymond, told me she was pretty."

Of course. Raymond.

"Yeah." I cleared my throat. "I took her home last night, or this morning actually."

She nodded once, not taking her eyes off me. "Do we need to talk about protection?"

"No!" I said quickly. Then calmed myself down. "No. I'm good with that-trust me. But that's not-I mean, we didn't last night."

Her eyes went wide; she misunderstood.

"No, that's not what I meant, I mean, we didn't...do that. We didn't have sex." I clarified.

She exhaled, relieved, and then went back to reading her magazine

I watched her.

She's always been quiet, never really wanting to get too involved in my business.

She got that sometimes I just needed to do things my way--one of her reasons why she let me live here alone.

I understood it was hard for her, without a man around, to deal with certain things. She really made an effort to be both for me, but I got that it can be awkward for her. That's why when she decided to get married again, I didn't say a word. She deserves to be happy.

"I really like her. Lauren, that's her name," I told her. I wanted to tell someone.

She looked up with a smile on her face. She closed the magazine and put it aside, then leaned forward on her elbows, giving me her full attention.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Yeah, she's something else. I'm actually going to meet her at work on her break today. Do you think it's too soon? I mean last night was our first date."

"Date?" She said, eyebrows raised.

I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, date. It's strange, huh? Me going on a date."

"It's not strange, Michael. It's just about time. And no, I don't think it's too soon. If you both want to see each other then it doesn't matter, right?"

"I guess." I shrugged. "I feel like I need to do something, to tell her, or show her, that I liked being with her, you know?"

"Well, what does she like?"

I thought for a while. "Red Gummy Bears, and red m&ms."

"Well, there you go." She smiled as she stood up and left the room.

*****

I finally picked out two bags with the most red gummy bears and started walking to the checkout.