Cheat [MxM] (Carter Brothers Book 1)

Chapter 5

JAE ▪︎ POV

I saw the newspaper swing and had time to duck out of the way before it smacked me around the head.

"Mom!"

I hadn't even been able to untie my shoes before she waddled down the hall and began attacking me. My shout seemed to rile her up even more and she swung again. I let this one hit me, her rolled up newspaper connecting with my chest. Smack!

It didn't hurt obviously, but I made a show of screaming dramatically, clutching my pecks and turning away from her as though I'd been struck with a bat and not flimsy paper. "Mom!"

"Don't you Mom me! A week Jaemin! I haven't seen you in a week!"

"I was busy! I had to work!"

And indulge in my secret affair with a married man. It had indeed been a week since Ezra visited me and we ate delicious corn cheese together. The day I agreed to whatever this was between us - which I still wasn't sure of by the way. I was calling it 'friends with benefits'. My guilty conscience was calling it a 'homewrecking love affair'.

Ezra and I had been together three times since then. We were both working on different schedules, him with a business to run and ridiculously long hours to keep up with and I was caught up in bartending. But the time we spend having sex and getting to know one another was amazing. Did I miss him when we weren't together? More than I wanted to admit. Was I still scared? Yep. Did I stop it? Noooo.

Smack!

"Bar tending?!-"

Mom hated the bar tending, I shouldn't have dared to utter my shameful profession. Internally, I cursed my slip up. Get it together Jae! This is mother dearest you're talking to, not your friend, dumbass!

"Don't mention it! Headache! I have a headache."

"Mom," I grabbed her mid rant and crushed her to me in a tight hug to distract her. Her smaller, rounder frame fit right up against me and she relaxed immeadiately, pressing her face against my chest.

She was worried and I knew that my unapproved life decisions stressed her out. But she also let it known that the only reason she nagged was because she loved me.

"Have you been eating well?" She finally asked, refusing to let me go and I caught sight of dad, sipping on a beer, watching us carefully from the living room.

"Yes, I've been eating well. I'm a grown up, mom," I smiled, kissing her cheek. She stepped back her hooded eyes glaring for a second.

Then she smacked me again.

"What was that for?!" I squealed chidishly. I should call childline, dang.

"You're speaking Korean with an American accent! Gosh, you make me so mad!"

Then she turned and stomped away towards the kitchen, leaving me standing there in the corridor, holding back my laughter. She was so dramatic when she wanted to be. Dad always told me I got most of my sass from her and it was so very true.

"I made you dinner." Mom called out from in front of the kitchen door and I grinned. Of course she'd cook for me, she couldn't resist, no matter how frustrated I made her. My mom would never let her poor boy go hungry.

"I love you!" I yelled at her, curling my hands into a heart over my chest and thrusting it at her. I caught the smile she tried to hide and grinned wider.

She huffed with a shake or her head, her short, black bob of hair shaking around her ears. I took that as my cue to join my dad in the sitting room. I patted him on the shoulder as I walked past, falling into one of the floral covered, severely outdated couches across from him. "Hey dad, how've you been?"