Troubled Indeed

CHAPTER THREE

My mother opens her front door at the exact same moment I step next to Anthony. He smiles at me, greets my mother with a kiss on her cheek, and moves past her. I'm pretty sure he's trying to avoid me. I want to go after him and ask him about the money, but my mom grabs me by my shoulders and squeezes me gently, a wide grin is plastered across her face.

"I'm so happy you're here. What took you so long? What were you talking about in the car for so long? I saw you pull up and I almost ran outside but Alexi stopped me. Are you guys fighting? Oh my god, are you pregnant?"

She's almost hyperventilating, she must be having the wedding rush.

"Mom, STOP!" I raise my voice just a little bit to make her snap out of it. "We're not fighting. We're fine, and I'm definitely not pregnant!"

I hear Anthony snort in laughter from somewhere behind her.

Mom lets go of me and wipes her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Phew! I thought you guys were in trouble so soon already," she says with relief, "Not that I would mind having another grandkid."

"I promise you that my next child will be born after I'm married," I say as a joke, but it backfires immediately.

"Did he propose?" Her eyes widen as she asks me this. She's almost jumping with joy and clapping her hands with tiny silent claps.

Right at that moment, Anthony appears from behind her. Great. Perfect. This moment couldn't have gone any better. He definitely heard what my mother just said.

"What are we so happy about?" he asks with a sly look, staring at my mom and then me.

"Nothing," I reply quickly.

My mom senses my tone but being the straightforward woman that she is she just can't let this one go.

"I was just wondering if you two guys were engaged already," she says nonchalantly and disappears into the kitchen, leaving me standing on the porch with my very confused non-fiancé. Anthony watches her leave and then turns to me, clearly looking for an answer.

"Forget it," I say with a sigh, "That's just my mom. You should know her by now." As I move past him, I kiss him on the cheek. And then quickly go inside in search of my son. Turns out I'm the one who's not ready to talk about getting married.

"Okay," he says barely audible but doesn't follow me. I guess it's something he never really thought about. Being the gangster bachelor that he is. Getting married might be something he's never going to do. That's why I made the marriage before kids joke to my mom in the first place.

***

As I suspected our simple dinner turned out to be a wedding planning event. We've had grilled chicken, established the venue, had dessert, chosen the theme color for the wedding, and after three glasses of wine, I'm done talking wedding.

"So, honey, I was wondering," mom says sweetly, and I know immediately she wants something, "If it's not too weird, maybe we could go wedding-dress shopping sometime soon?"

"Sure mom," I drag the first word and suddenly feel a little bit drunk, "It's not like I'm going to look for my own wedding dress anytime soon, right?" I salute her with my half-empty glass and take another sip.

Mom looks at Anthony almost apologetically, since she brought up the topic right at the front door.

"Honey, come on," she tries to smooth things over, "All in good time, right Anthony?" she pushes him.

Anthony was mid-bite and almost chokes on his food. I snort, barely able to control myself. I'm way too drunk to be talking about this, but my mouth goes faster than my brain.