Adult Responsibilities

Chapter 28

After his birthday party, Andrew slept the entire weekend away. Kate had work at the hospital, so he figured he'd take the opportunity to sleep off the crazy weekend he'd had celebrating his 28th year with about as much fanfare as he ever had before. He was completely relaxed as he slept soundly at his quiet apartment, and he was jarred awake by his phone ringing. He reached up, rubbing his eyes and looking around with a confused expression, his mop of red waves flopping everywhere, and he audibly groaned when he saw it was his mom.

Andrew was an only child, and his mom and dad, Sharon and Alan Siwicki, pretty much lived for their only son. The two still lived in Andrew's hometown of Algonquin, Illinois, but Sharon missed her sweet red-headed boy so much, always trying to convince him to come home and visit or to let her and his dad come to L.A. Andrew was close with his parents, always getting along well with him, but like many 20-something bachelors, he didn't necessarily give them as much information about his life as they would have liked.

"Andrew! Happy Birthday sweetie!" Sharon's melodic voice called out over the line, and Andrew groaned quietly to himself, trying not to sound too annoyed. "Hey Mom," he said softly, his morning voice low and raspy, and he could hear his mom sigh. "Andrew, did you just wake up? It's 2 pm," she said with a laugh, and Andrew rolled his eyes. "Well, to be fair, you're on Central Time, this is Pacific so..." he said with a smirk, and he could almost picture Sharon's exasperated face. "I had a long weekend, Shane and Ryland had a birthday party for me and that was a late night, and I've just been doing, like... other birthday stuff," he said vaguely.

Sharon paused for a second, and then she took a breath. "That's so sweet about the party. Shane told me about the car," she said, and Andrew groaned again. "He texted you about that?" Andrew asked, rolling his eyes, and Sharon laughed. "You know he keeps me informed on most of the details going on in your life, dear," she said with a grin. "But he seems to have left something important out," Sharon added, and Andrew scrunched his eyes together.

"What do you mean?" the red head asked, and Sharon cleared her throat. "Andrew, are you... are you dating someone new?" his mom asked, and Andrew squinted a little. He hadn't told his mom about Kate, mostly because he didn't know what she'd think about Lila, and also because he didn't want her to ask him a million questions or try to come out and visit so she could meet her. He wondered how his mom had found out that he was dating someone.

"Um, well, yeah... I have been seeing someone," he said slowly, and Sharon smiled. "Seriously, or just... you know, like... well, is it someone I should take the time to remember, or..." Sharon ventured, and Andrew rolled his eyes a little. His mom had heard bits and pieces of his date-filled last year, and from what Andrew could tell, she was not at all pleased that her son had become such a serial dater. Andrew's parents had raised him to be a gentleman and to respect women, and while he certainly hadn't disrespected any, both Sharon and Alan hoped he'd at least try to take dating a bit more seriously as he got closer to 30. Andrew felt a little bad that he hadn't even mentioned Kate, given the fact that she was infinitely more important to him than any of the random girls he'd seen the past year, and he started to feel dumb for not mentioning her sooner.

"Um, it's... well, it's serious, yeah. We're exclusive," he said, and then he frowned. "Wait, how do you know about this anyway?" he asked incredulously, and Sharon laughed. "Morgan took a picture of you holding a beautiful golden-haired girl around her shoulders and posted it on Instagram. You're both laughing and it's a really cute picture, but I felt out of the loop since it has about a billion comments," his mom said pointedly, and Andrew sighed. He hadn't looked at socials at all since the party, but his mom followed Morgan and all the Squad members. Kate wasn't on Instagram, so he never thought much about it, and he had never mentioned her or posted a photo with her before. Since she didn't care about social media, she hadn't ever asked if they were "Insta exclusive," but now Andrew worried that his mom would be annoyed.