Plus One--A Short Story

Prologue-Richard

Rich sat in his car in front of his mother's house, trying to decide if he had the stomach to go inside. If he cancelled, he could avoid his mother's ill-disguised charade. She always just happened to run into someone's daughter or niece and of course, it would be beyond the pale not to invite the woman to dinner.

Lately it wasn't just Sunday dinners though. She sent women to drop papers at his classroom, his office at the tower, and yesterday one showed up at his apartment. If it were anyone other than his mother, he would have a few choice words about it. But the woman went through hell and back making sure that Rich had a happy home after his father died when he was only two.

Rich didn't understand until one sleepless night during Christmas Break when he was eleven. He'd snuck down to kitchen for a snack when he saw the light in the tiny room his mom turned into an office.

Why he spied on her, he couldn't say but seeing her almost in tears as she worked changed him. He grew up in those minutes in the dark and made a promise that he would do everything he could to try to make her life easier and find a way to pay her back somehow.

"Okay. Enough procrastination."

A promise was a promise. If enduring her awkward attempts at matchmaking made her happy, he could at least do that much.

"Richard!" his mother exclaimed with flourish as she opened the door herself.

"Hello Mother." He kissed the proffered cheek as he passed.

What followed was awkward, to say the least. The minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness, heaping on the mortification.

He called an end to it during desert when his mother started on about naming the children. With an apologetic glance at his step-dad, Rich made a hasty exit.

"Sidney!" his mother shrieked.

He stopped next to his car and turned with a frown.

"Why do you do this? You embarrassed me to death!"

He had embarrassed her? That was the proverbial straw!

"Mother" he began, "Perhaps you should consult me before you promise my stud services."

"Sidney Richard Roberts! You will never speak to me like that again!"

"I'm sorry, Mother." He frowned. "But you go too far. I can't visit home anymore without you arranging company for me. I can find my own dates, mother. In future I beg you remember that I neither want, nor need, your meddling."

"I've met the women you go out with." She groused.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he snapped.

"They're beautiful but they're shallow. There's more depth in a mud puddle!"

"Wow." He shook his head in disbelief that his mother, one of the most successful and intelligent women he knew, could be so shallow. "Do you really believe that if a woman is sexy she can't be smart too?"

"That's not what I meant." She sighed and continued with a shrug. "It's just that when I think I'm getting to know your girlfriend, you swap her out for a different model."

Here it was: Her When-Are-You-Going-To-Settle-Down speech which she often followed with her I-Want-A-Grandbaby-Before-I-Die speech.

"Mother," Rich threw up his hands. "I'm going home."

"But you were going to stay for the weekend. We were—"

"I've just remembered that I have to get back."