Parallel (Travelers Series Book 1)

Parallel (Chapter 20)

Chapter Twenty
Spring Fling

After the incident with Alex, I decide to give him a call to make amends. I offer up some sorry excuse why Cooper was over and Alex accepts my lame apology. He’s more forgiving than I originally gave him credit for and more forgiving than I actually deserve. I even manage to smooth things over even further by inviting him and Jaime over for Sunday dinner. No one turns away a dinner prepared by my Aunt Maggie—even if her niece is a major jerk.

Of course, it thrills her to no end to have a full house for dinner. She prepares linguini with clam sauce and I swear it’s now my favorite meal. Perhaps I overestimated my apology to Alex earlier. He, along with everyone else at the table, eats in silence. I can tell my aunt is disappointed because everyone’s just picking at their food. Alex is throwing doubtful glances at me due to this morning’s incident. And I don’t even know why Jaime is so silent. Maybe she thinks I don’t deserve Alex. Who knows?

Alex clears the tension with an announcement. “Uh, my mom is having a fundraiser Tuesday night. I was kind of hoping you could come.”

“Really?” This catches me off guard. Maybe he’s not mad at me anymore. “As in a date? What kind of a fundraiser?” I immediately picture boring old politicians wearing suits and eating off of cocktail napkins. It doesn’t sound like my idea of a fun date, but after what happened this morning, I’m willing to do anything Alex suggests—well, not anything.

“It’s actually a black tie kind of event.”

Scratch business suits and make it appetizers and tuxes. There’s no way I’m going to get out of going and besides, I owe him one. “Sure. I’d love to go.” After all, it isn’t everyday you get invited to a party hosted by a senator. Come to think of it, I might just get a chance to ask his mom about my dad. Alex did mention them knowing each other.

Alex beams. “Great! I’ll call you with the details tonight when I get home.”

It’s as if the slow motion button switches to real time. Now that Alex and I have officially “made up”, everyone, including Jaime, stops fiddling with their meal and digs into the amazing linguini. I’m not even going to imagine how things would have played out if he’d actually shown up a minute later and witnessed the kiss Cooper and I shared.

My excitement is genuine, however, from the outside, it looks like I’m happy to be going to his mom’s fundraiser, but on the inside I know it’s for all the wrong reasons. I fully intend to use this event to my advantage—get Alex’s mom alone to ask questions.

Maggie begins to clear the table after everyone excuses themselves for the evening.

“There are some formal gowns in your closet,” she says as I hand her empty plates.

“Thanks.”

“We can always go shopping if you’d like. I know it can’t be easy wearing clothes that someone else picked out.”

“No thanks. I’d rather go pick up some more jeans if that’s okay with you. There’s really no point in spending money on a dress I’ll probably only wear once.

“Of course.” She hugs me, plates and all. “We’ll make some time next weekend. Make it a girl’s day out.”

“Aunt Maggie?”

“Yes dear?”

“One of these days you’re going to have to put a lock on the front door.”

My aunt chuckles. “Yes, I suppose one of these days I will.”

⚛

March 19