Truly-Madly-Deeply Assistant

Little truths

Is this visit going to turn into an "are you good enough for my son" test? Because that I am fucking not ready for as still even me myself have doubts about that.

"I... not really... I know a couple recipes I learned from my mom but that's all," I forced a smile taking another sip of water and Constance just looked at me interested.

"Oh... how come? Later on, you can't depend on take-out food when you are a Mom yourself, for example," she stated matter of factly and I almost choked.

"I... I know but... for now it's only me and I work a lot so..." I shrugged.

"If you are interested, I can teach you some dishes what Jared likes," she offered, and I just looked at my plate pushing my hair behind my shoulders awkwardly.

"Mom..." Jared spoke up and I looked up seeing him eyeing his mother who just breathed deep, eating some then I felt her gaze on me again as I was just sitting, waiting for my food to cool down.

"What's wrong, Avery; you are not hungry?" she asked confused.

"No... no, I am. I'm just... waiting for it to... cool down a little bit," I nodded with a light smile.

"It's not that hot anymore, sweetie. It's the best while it's still warm," she smiled encouragingly, and I just forced a smile at her then looked to my plate taking a deep breath, ready to try it.

"Mom, Av never eats her food warm," stated Jared, placing his hand on top of mine, blocking me to lift up the fork, and Constance looked at me with a frown.

"Oh, I never noticed... How come?"

"Yeah, so just leave her alone. Please," I heard the annoyance in Jared's voice as he and his mom looked into each other's piercing eyes and I felt more than uncomfortable.

"Okay, I think the wine chilled enough. Who wants some?" asked Shannon standing up from the table. "Everyone? Great!" he grinned and hurried to the fridge, then turned back and poured some for everyone as Jared and Constance stopped the staring contest.

"So, how this happened? With you two?" Constance looked at me and Jared curiously and we looked at each other with him.

I already felt defeated and the last thing I wanted was more attention at the table.

"It's a long story," said Jared as he took a bite.

"A very long one. Bit irritating," stated Shannon and felt like he is already so bored with the topics constantly all about us.

I just buried myself into the wine.

I was not ready for this.

Although, I should have known as soon as the first waves of the happiness calm down, the mother tiger will want to know everything and will definitely going to look at me differently.

Jared ended up telling the not too long, not too short version of our crazy "how did this happen" story, with Shannon's comments here and there while I was downing my second glass of wine shamelessly.

Constance seemed to appreciate the fact that I had and still have the patience when it comes to Jared and that I stood up for this relationship when he was ready to chicken out; as explained by Shannon, so that helped me feel a bit better about the rest of the lunch.

"Alright, what about I bring in the tree from the shed and we start decorating soon?" asked Constance as we stood up from the table and she started to put the dishes away.

"Fine by me," smiled Shannon, "I'll go grab a piece of pine to bring some smell."

As soon as they left Constance grabbed my hand to turn me towards her.