Someone to Love

Nineteen

"Carter, can you please drive us to Ara's place." my mom said to her chauffeur, in her ever so thick British accent.
"Mom, Ara's place is in New York, you're bringing me back there? With Lucas?"
Mom sighed and looked at me as if she had enough of me. Well, I had enough of her, the fact that I am in a car with her makes me want to pull my hair off.
"Lucas here, Lucas there. I think you're becoming that girlfriend who can't stop bragging that she had shagged a neurosurgeon." Mom said, which left me in awe.
"Mother! Language." I said
"Well, whether you shagged him or not, you think and talk about him all the time and I think you love him-"
"Mother, I am not shagging him."
"Not yet, but it's about to happen. I can sense a big boy in him." And then my jaw dropped.
"What the hell, mother!"
"What? Don't tell me you haven't thought about it, or even seen it?"
"Mother-"
"Just an outline?"
"Fu-"
"Or just-"
"Mom, I'm sorry no, I'm not talking to you about that." I said, suddenly my British accent is back.
"Well, you should because I can share you a few tricks-"
"Shit, Mother, stop please."
She rolled her eyes.
"Don't come knocking when you have dealt with a big boy."
I just shook my head and ignored her for half an hour. Okay, I didn't ignore her for half an hour, because I think I fell asleep.
"Ara, wake up." my mother said, shaking me awake as if the driver suddenly had a heart attack while driving us to wherever she wanted to go.
"What!" I said
"We're here." I looked around and it definitely felt like SoHo.
"In SoHo?"
"Yeah, uh I got you something." She said as Carter opened the door for her.
"You got me something? What, a building?" I said as I followed her.
"I wish. But I couldn't buy it without alerting your father so, I just settled for something small."
"The post light?"
And she just entered a white building, and I looked at Carter.
"Should I just follow her?"
"I believe so, Miss." and I did, my mother was waiting for me inside.
"What's this?" I said, but she just ignored me and headed to the front desk.
"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Hayden." The young man working the front desk said
"Yes, uh, this is my daughter, Ara." He just looked at me as if he knew me already or even my purpose in this building.
I looked at his name plate, Riley it read. He doesn't look older than me so I bet he's just my age.
"Hello." I said, again my British accent is back, it's one of the reasons why I don't talk to my mother that much.
"I'll just take her upstairs." Mother said
We went to the lifts and she pressed the button for the top floor.
"Mom, what are we doing here?" I said
"You know how you were supposed to get married today?"
I nodded, okay. They think that I was supposed to get married today, but Will and I— well, I told that story before so I just—and I don't know why the hell are we here so, I'm letting my mother control me for a while.
"Yeah, supposed. Then my fiancé ran off with the wedding planner, give me news please."
"Fine, this was supposed to be my wedding gift to you. I know that you are your father's child, but you are also my child so whenever you needed space, you always find sanctuary and peace, right?" She said
"I think so. You seem to claim that you know me very well." I said
"And I thought that it would be nice to have a place of your own to think and well, to call your own." She said as the elevator struck 30. Like we legit were in the 30th floor.
"So, what you bought me an apartment?" I said
"I wanted to buy the whole floor but-" mother said
I frowned.
"What? You're serious?" I said
"When did I ever kid around you?" lady's got a point. You know how like, other mothers make an effort to sometimes view a situation lightly by using humor unto it? Yeah, my mother doesn't do that. In fact, she used to make an effort to blame me for things, a perfect example would be my brother's death. Sure, it hurts to lose a brother and it hurts more to lose a kid.
I just followed my mom until we reached a door.
"So, you said you wanted to move out and this is me trying to be supportive to that." She said as she punched in the numbers for the door to open.
The apartment was not that bad, in fact it was amazing. It's fully furnished as if my mother knew me all along or my mother's interior designer knew me all along. The color scheme of the place was white, grey and light pink, very chill for me.
"Mom, uh I don't know what to say." I said
"How about a thank you?" She said, and I did something that I haven't done for years, I hugged my mother.
"Thank you." I said, I have to say that she was a bit shocked with my gesture.
"There's parking space for you too, two actually. In case you didn't want to use your Maserati." She said
I nodded while I walked around the house.
"This is actually a three bedroom place, one for you, one for your clothes and a spare guest bedroom. In case you wanted to have company. In this case, in case you want Lucas to move in with you."
"Mom-"
"I'm kidding, but this place is not like our house but it's your space. And it's big for one person to live in it but you can manage. There's no rent anyway."
"What?"
"It's in your name and I bought it for you." She said
"Mom, I love it." I said
"I know you would. I think you should start packing away your things from the house."
We didn't look around the house that much because I think I wanted surprise and I'm gonna spend time here tomorrow to unload some stuff. With a lot of help, I think I can move my closet here.
As soon as I got home, I phoned up Lucas.
"Hey." I said
"Hi, what's up?" He sounded tired.
"How are you?"
"I just got home. There's a new batch of interns and there are now residents that would manage them so, I have more time to rest for a while."
"Well, that's good. Catch up on sleep."
"You sound weird."
"You sound tired."
"No, is this Ara?" He said
"Oh! You mean my accent." I said as I cleared my throat.
"Yeah."
"Uh, I told you before that I am half-British. And I have been talking to my mother the whole day that's why it activated my accent, sorry."
"And you make fun of my Korean accent."
"I don't make fun of it, I love it."
He just sighed.
"So, how was the rest of your day?" He asked me
"How was my day? Lucas, you were the one who actually had something to do today."
"Oh right, we were on the phone a while ago."
"Are you tired?"
"A little bit but I just like hearing your voice. And the fact that I almost lost you today-"
"What if you did? I mean, I think your life would be back to normal or the way it used to be-"
"I'll be sad that's one."
"Ay, Dr. Seo, you like me?"
"Ya think."
I laughed.
"I kinda miss your place." I said
"I think it misses you too."
"This place sucks."
"Why don't you come and move in tomorrow?"
I frowned.
"Why don't I just see you tomorrow? As friends."
"Why are you making it clear?"
"Well, we don't have a clear path on where we're going. And if ever people ask, you and I are still friends and it would be weird if people saw me hanging out with a guy the day after my supposed to be wedding."
He scoffed.
"So, I would be expecting you tomorrow?"
No, I'm in a mood for a midnight drive.