He was at work when he got the call from his mother.
He didn't have many people that called him during the day - mostly because a lot, if not all, of his friends worked as well. That's why he generally didn't think of turning off his phone.
Big mistake. It rang in the middle of the office during work time. It startled Oliver, that practically jumped on his bag to retrieve it. When he rose his head with his finger on the answer icon of its screen, he saw that all of his colleagues were glaring at him. This made him blush and mutter some excuse before he scurried out of the office.
"Mom, I told you not to call during work hours," he said.
"Aw, you're still at work?" She asked. He could almost see her as she always was during calls with people, sitting on the couch with her legs propped up on a stool. She was probably scratching Teddy Pompom behind the ears too - Teddy Pompom being one of her Pomeranians. "I missed you."
Hs rising anger melted instantly. It had been a while since he had last seen her. "I missed you too. Is there something you wanted to tell me?" As he asked her, he passed in front of his manager's office. He was a diligent worker and he had almost finished his workload for the day too - unless something unexpected came up. It was fine if he took a five-minute break.
"Oh, no, I just wanted to hear the lovely voice of my Oli-poo. I was thinking about you today, you know."
"Oh?"
Oliver quickly walked in front of the glass windows between the hallways and another office area. He didn't want Remy to-- A rats, Remy had seen him and was waving at him. Oliver pointed to his phone, making sure that the other man saw that he was busy before he could walk over and try to start a conversation. Oliver had no idea why the man was so hellbent on becoming his friend. He knew that Remy had a wife too, so he was quite sure that it couldn't be romantic. It was a mystery.
"Why were you thinking of me?" asked Oliver once the threat was passed.
"Oh, well the other day I saw Paulette. Do you remember Paulette? She had family over - her daughter and granddaughter. The girl's twenty-one years old, but she's so mature for her age, Paulette assured me that she was, and so I thought that it would be marvelous to invite them to dinner..."
Oliver knew where this was going before she was finished. "You want me to come over and meet them?"
"Only if you want to."
Oliver repressed a sigh as he finally arrived outside. He worked in an industrial area and people from different offices had gathered around the ashtray for a smoke. He made sure that he was far enough from them that his conversation would remain private.
"And when will that dinner be?"
"Oh, well we didn't exactly agree on a date, you see, just to make sure that you could organize yourself around joining us, but it would be this week if it happened at all."
Rats. He was going to have to be honest, he couldn't get around this by pretending that he had something planned exactly on that evening. He hated deceiving his mother when he could help it.
"Mom, I don't think that it's a good idea."
"Why that?" she asked. "I think that it's a great idea. Paulette hasn't seen you in such a long time, she was looking forward to having you over, and her granddaughter is such a sweet girl too. How can you not give her a chance?"
"Because... well, for one, she's twenty years old."
"That is not a problem! Oh, Oli-poo, I know you might think that she's young but I'm sure you will get along. After all, girls mature faster compared to boys - even if I must say that it must be hard for you, after all, you haven't spent a lot of time with them so you can't realize that. I was twenty-two when I met your father, you know, and we got along splendidly."
"I've been around twenty years old, mom." Olive didn't want to have this conversation. Again. The parking lot of his office wasn't the place to talk about those sort of things. "I don't want to go out with one."
"But she's studying to become a nurse! She will know how to take care of you."
"What does that even mean?"
"Well, you know..." she lowered her voice. "Your condition."
This time, Olive really sighed and made sure that he did so loud enough for her to hear it.
"Oh, don't be like that, you know I am right. It's not like I expect you to jump right into her arms - not if you don't want to - but it would do you great good to meet some new people, instead of staying all locked up in that tiny flat of yours. I wonder how you can even stand it, you don't even have enough room for a kid - unless you throw out all that pointless crap in that storage room."
"It's not pointless crap. It's a storage room. It stores things that I need later."
"You know that you'll have to throw it all out someday, or move out in somewhere bigger. But we've already established that you don't want to listen to me on the subject, so let's get back to that dinner."
"That dinner I won't be coming to."
"Oh, how can you be so close-minded? I know that you are a little... picky when it comes to women but, if you don't give her a chance, one day you'll wake up and you'll be forty and it will be too late to make a family."
But he didn't want a family. Not to be overly dramatic but he would rather die than try for one if that meant sticking his dick in a vagina. (No offense to vaginas and everyone that owned one but they were better off trying their luck with people that would truly appreciate them.) Even if he did get along with someone that was eight years younger than him (which he doubted he would), she would never be the woman to bring him the happiness his mother so desperately wanted him to have. Well, unless she spent a lot of money on changing her body for him, which honestly would be really creepy if she did. Rather, he liked thinking that one day he would find the courage to make a move on a guy (a real guy, complimenting Wovyn didn't count) and use that as a good reason to come out to his mother.
Okay, that didn't sound like a good plan, but since he didn't truly believe that he would do neither it wasn't as if that plan needed to be given any more thought.
"Are you still there?" asked his mother.
"I am."
"Are you mad at me?" she asked in a quieter voice.
He sighed. As nosy and as insufferable as his mother could be, she was his only mother and he still loved her. He understood where she came from. He even felt bad for her because he knew that she deserved to know things as important to him than how he wanted to live his life... yet at the same time he was terrified of letting her down. It wasn't as if she could have any other child to dote on - not after he was born at least.
"I am not," he said. That was a lie. "I mean, I am not really mad at you. I know you try your best."
"Of course. Always."
"But I don't want to meet Paulette's granddaughter. I know you try with the best of intentions, but it has not worked in the past and I... well, I feel really awkward when doing it."
"But what if it works this time? This could be the love of your life!"
"Mom..." Oliver thought about his words. He knew that the only way to get around this was to talk about his own feelings - that was the only way she was going to hear him at all. "Maybe I am not built to be in a couple at all. I am... I'm happy as I am at the moment, and I feel as if you don't trust me."
She paused for a moment. He knew that she had understood him then. "Well, if that makes you happy... But listen, you got to promise me that if she is exceptionally nice you'll have dinner with her."
Oliver chuckled. "Mom, you think that every young lady is nice."
"I see how it is," she scoffed dramatically. "Poor mom is too old to know what's good for her child."
They both laughed. Oliver didn't really think that her joke was funny, he was just relieved that they were dropping the subject.
"At least I got to hear your voice," she continued. "Girl or not, you need to drop by once for a visit. Maybe we can even bake something together."
"I would love to. Is dad there?"
"Oh, yes, he is right in the room with me-- give me a moment." He heard her cooing at Teddy Pompom to move away from her lap before she got up and walked over to his father.
"Hey," said the latter in a gruff voice.
"Hi Dad," replied Oliver. "How are you?"
"Work is all good as usual." The man, an important doctor in an important hospital, paused. "And life at home is pretty sweet."
Oliver heard his mother chuckle in the background and rolled his eyes. Those two never changed but there was something comforting about it.
"And you, champ?"
"I'm doing good." Of course he did. He couldn't talk to them about the fact that he was starting to see sexy imps appear in his bed now, couldn't he? "I need to go back to work soon, I'm not exactly on break."
"Ah, okay. Bye champ, then."
"Bye dad."
His mother quickly took the phone back. She must have had the speakers on. "Bye-bye, Oli-poo! I'll miss you. And remember to call your old mother from time to time."
"I will."
"Love you!"
"I love you too, Mom."