Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Calling me a kid in front of Neil was going to bring up all sorts of pseudo-incest, creep-out issues he still wasn’t quite over. But he didn’t voice those now. “Sophie has told me about her father, and that he left. Has he ever tried to contact you or…”
“No. No, he saw her a few times, but I think the last time was her first birthday. He was a kid name a Joey Tangen, off the res down in Baraga. We met at a party and fooled around. That’s about all there is to that story.” Mom shrugged and took another sip of her Boone’s Farm.
“Have you seen him since?” Neil asked me.
I’d told him only the very basic facts about my missing dad: that he’d been sixteen when I was born, like my mom, that I had three photographs of him, and that my lifelong issues with abandonment probably stemmed back to Joey Tangen, absentee father.
I shrugged. “No. I don’t care to, either.”
“Wherever he is, he’s ancient history,” Mom agreed.
I hated talking about my bio-dad in front of Neil. There would always be some small, sad part of me that was truly embarrassed that my father had been able to walk away from me. So, when the subject switched again—Mom asked Neil about his job—I was relieved.
We sat around, drinking and talking. I never really got a sense of what Mom thought of Neil. I knew she wasn’t happy that I was dating him—if her little freak out at the house hadn’t clued me in, her super polite and interested faces during our conversation would have—but she didn’t seem like she was ready to poison him, so I guess I could thank god for small miracles.
I filled Mom in on what was happening in my best friend Holli’s life. Holli was currently dating Deja, assistant to Rudy Ainsworth, managing editor of Porteras and Neil’s best friend.
“She actually worked for Neil,” I said, deferring to him.
“Oh?” Mom loved Holli, and already I could see all the ways she was deciding that Deja wasn’t good enough for her. “What do you think of her? Is she a good girl? Is she going to treat Holli nice?”
“Uh, I believe so?” After three rocks glasses of Jack Daniels, his cute little drunk frown was starting to show up more often. “She was a good assistant. And very discreet, when she found out what was happening between Sophie and myself, which I appreciated very much.”
“She is just like a grown-up version of Holli. You’re going to love her,” I assured Mom.
“Holli is twenty-five years old,” Neil said with a chuckle. “I think Holli is the grown-up version of Holli, at this point.”
“Well, ladies and gents, I think it’s time for me to mosey off to bed.” Mom pulled the handle on the recliner to lower the footrest and got up, weaving just slightly. She stopped and pointed at both of us. “This is a trailer. The walls are thin. No hanky-panky.”
“Yes, well, I’ll try to restrain myself amid the romance of sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room of my girlfriend’s mother’s home,” Neil said dryly.
Mom just drunkenly pointed again and staggered off to her room.
“I’ll show you where the bathroom is. You can take your contacts out while I make up the bed,” I said with a laugh, and I grabbed Neil’s hands to pull him off the couch.
I’d just unfolded the bed and was tucking in the final corner of the fitted sheet when he came back in a t-shirt and plaid cotton sleep pants. He picked up a pillow and tossed it to the head of the bed. “You know, it occurs to me that I have never once in my life slept on a sofa bed.”
“What?” That just seemed absurd.
“In college, I slept on a lot of sofas, but not sofa beds. This is a new experience for me.” He looked pleased at that, so I had to laugh.
“Well, you did take me to London and Paris and you flew me around in your fancy jet and bought me ridiculous amounts of jewelry, so I thought it was time to return the favor,” I said with a mock-sigh. “Nothing but the best for my boyfriend.”
“Well, if we’re opening up to new experiences, I’ll get into bed and you can turn off the lights for a change,” he laughed.
We were lying in the dark for all of two minutes before the shine of the new experience wore off.
“There is a very sharp bar digging into my back,” Neil groaned.
I lifted my head. “Why don’t you move then?”
“Well, I can’t bloody well move, can I? One creak from this rusty deathtrap and your mother will think I’m out here mounting you.” But he flopped over onto his stomach anyway, while I muffled my giggles into my pillow.