The Artist's Amour (BWWM) ✓

Chapter 23: Mother pt. 2

"I see. I'd love to meet them both if you're okay with that." She spoke honestly.

"A-Aren't you going to say something about how unprepared I am for this situation, or much work a child is?" I asked, suddenly feeling a bit light headed.

"No." She sighed. "I'm done. I'm done with everything. I'm done with all the judgment, and expectations I held above your head. I treated you like some lab rat, when I should have treated you like a daughter. So if this man makes you happy, baby girl, then he makes you happy. And whatever makes you happy, makes me happy. All I want is your happiness now, and it that's in the middle of fucking nowhere teacher little kids art, then I'll come visit once a year, twice tops. So no. I won't lecture you on how to be an adult, or how to be a parent for that matter; that would be way too hypercritical of me." She finished, as she blew her nose away from the phone once again.

"I-I'm in Portland, Maine." I whispered.

"Y-You're WHERE?" She asked, choking into the line.

"Portland, Maine. I want you to come visit this weekend." I spoke with uncertainty.

"I- goddamn, you really are in the middle of fucking nowhere." She joked, finally calming down some. Who the hell was this woman, because she couldn't be my mom.

"Yeah, basically. It's nice here though, very homey." I nodded, as if she could see my expressions through the phone.

"Well, uh, I could be on the first flight out Saturday morning. How does that work?" She asked as I heard her fingernails tap against her laptop keys. She was probably buying her plane ticket as we spoke.

"Perfect." I agreed. "There's an Autumn festival Friday night so the school's been preparing for that." I continued on, babbling about my life here, and Petes Hardware. I was about to tell her about The Secret Garden, but decided against it. Something told me that the first rule about The Secret Garden was probably not to talk about The Secret Garden.

But I couldn't lie. I missed this. I missed talking to my mother like this, so casually. For once, we weren't bickering over me getting my masters, or what jobs to look at. For once, I talked, and she listened. We continued like this, late into the evening. With every hour that passed, I found myself looking forward to her arrival. When we finally let each other go, it was midnight. I swore silently to myself, trying to find Chris's number in my contacts before giving him a dial.

"Hello?" He answered, his voice raspy from sleep deprivation.

"Hi. Sorry for calling so late." I apologized pulling my body further under the sheets.

"It's okay, what's up?" He asked, finding some newfound motivation. He didn't sound sleepy anymore.

"So my mom is coming to visit." I said hesitantly.

"S-S-She's what?" He asked, tripping over his own words as his sleepy state completely left him.

"She's coming... And she'd like to meet you and Nick if you're okay with that." I added.

"I would absolutely love to meet you mother." Chris spoke, his voice still hesitant as he attempted to sound completely sure.

"Are you positive? I mean you definitely don't have to if you don't want to. I mean, are we moving too fast? Are we doing this all wrong? Oh god, I mean, we aren't actually official official, you really don't have to agree to any of this- Chris?" I asked, as the line was suspiciously quite. I glanced down at my phone again and noticed the call was no longer connected.

He had hung up on me.

Oh shit shit shit shit shit. I shouldn't have said anything, I thought, tossing my phone back onto my bed as I squeezed and release my hand to calm my nerves down. He probably thinks I'm crazy. I mean, hell, I think I'm crazy. I pulled my large sweater off along with my leggings, and instead, changed into a large painting shirt and some shorts. I was just about to make my way into the studio that Chris and I had discovered earlier, but was brought to a halt as I heard a knock on the door.

I silently snuck downstairs, hair brush in hand as I approached the front door. There was no peep hole to look through, so I was going to have to rely heavily on the element of surprise.

In one swift moment, I unlocked the chain and threw the door open.

There, standing before me, was Chris.

He was shirtless and in a pair of pajama pants as his keys hung loosely from his pocket. It took every being in my body to literally rip my eyes off his body and look up at him. He had a goofy smirk on his face as he tiredly looked back down at me.

"W-What the hell are you doing on my porch?" I asked, trying to steady my breathing from just how fucking amazing he looked.

"Aria Lane." He spoke, grabbing both of my hands as he pulled me further into his warmth. "Would you do me the fucking pleasure of being my goddamn girlfriend already so you can shut up about worrying and I can go back to bed?"

--------------------------------
We are approaching a climactic ending my lovelies. Before I write my fucking heart out this weekend, I just wanted to say thank you so flipping much for being spectacular. All your votes and comments have honestly made everything worth it. Including spending all my breaks at work, writing.

All of them.

Anyways, love you all XOXO

This chapter was a bit longer, I hope you all didn't mind.