The Deep Dark Web | lrh

09

I thought everything was going great until one day, Luke told me that his ex-wife was coming to visit. The news was made even worse when he invited me to meet her.

Naturally, I was nervous as hell. This was the mother of my boyfriend's kids, the 'uptight', 'stubborn', 'stiff' and 'unmoving' woman (from what I'd heard) that was never around. She sounded pretty freaking hard to impress if you ask me.

And that was all I really wanted to do, in all honesty. I wanted to please her. I don't know why, but the mete thought of her disliking an ounce my character made me feel nothing but queasy.

So I took my time getting ready. I put on a little more make up than what I was used to, ditched the mom jeans for a sensible maroon dress with buttons that had the potential to both expose and cover my chest. I chose the latter, of course; like I said, a good impression was important to me.

I wore plain black doll shoes and knee high socks, attempting to go for the trustworthy young woman who took care of her kids because she couldn't. I hoped it would work.

"You look great," my best friend, Ashley, had said, sticking her two thumbs up at me as a cheesey grin stretched across her face. "A little nervous, but great!"

"I feel like I'm gonna be sick," I said truthfully, taking a brisk seat on the couch opposite her and inhaling a deep breath. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Oh, please. You're overthinking this way too much. Just relax- if she doesn't like you, what have you seriously got to lose?"

"Um, everything," I sighed, raking a hand down my face, "She could absolutely hate me. And then the kids would hate me, and Luke would, too-"

"Trust me, the worst thing that can happen tonight is one of the buttons on your dress popping and landing in her wine glass, or something. Something as little as that. Chill, okay? You've got this."

I nodded, somewhat believing her words.

I never thought that Ashley Fitzgerald- the one person in my life who'd always given me the best advice and had an amazing foundation of trust for me to lean on- could ever be wrong.

But this one time, she was.

Oh, she really was.