"Yes. OK. We have."
"So you’ve already slept with him. And he’s in here helping you do my dirty dishes. Good. He stood up for you with me the other night, and now he’s helping you clean. Any guy who’ll do that isn’t just out for one thing." I was amazed at this. "You’ve got me thinking about my junior prom, as I said. I loved your father, you know. Loved him with all my heart. And I was the same age that you are now, so you can’t tell me it wasn’t real."
"No," I agreed.
"And he let me down. He let me down hard." She looked at Ed. "You’d better not fucking let her down," she said. As I looked at her in complete astonishment, she nodded her head, and then shuffled off towards the bathroom.
"Oh my God, I think I’m going to faint," I said.
"That’s OK." He picked up the sprayer. "I’ll just set it to ice-cold. It’ll be a short faint.
"Don’t you dare!" I laughed.
"If you’re going to be fainting, it’d better be from this," he said-and then he grabbed me and kissed me.
"Oh, swoon," I said with a giggle, and then kissed him again. Midway through some nice heavy lip-locking, I heard a chuckle. I broke the kiss, and looked back and saw Mom again.
"Oh, don’t stop on my account," she chuckled. I just looked at her, astonished.
"Mom, are you ill?"
"No," she chuckled. "Well, I won’t be as soon as the Pepto and the Advil I just took kick in." I laughed. She looked at me. "Like I said, I was thinking about my prom. When your father left me, I stopped believing in love. And the way my life turned out didn’t help-you don’t see much canoodling over dirty dishes at Doc’s." I giggled at that. "And I never showed you much love, either," she admitted. "How is it you still believe in it?"
"I don’t know," I admitted. "I’m not sure I did. It just happened. I can’t not believe in something I know I’m feeling, can I?"
"Hey, I hadn’t believed in love for two years until I met Natalie," Ed said. "It’s a long story, but let’s just say I had a very bad experience. But then I met Natalie, and it happened, and I couldn’t deny it anymore, like she said."
Mom had sat down at the kitchen table. "The problem with love is, if you’re not careful, it turns into obligation. And you’d better believe in love when you’re confronted with the obligations. If you don’t, you screw up. Badly," she admitted. "You’re still on the pill, right?" she asked me.
"Yes," I told her.
"Good. Stay away from obligations until you can handle them, OK?" she said sadly.
"Mother," I told her, "you’re probably not going to like what I have to say, but-if I was shying away from my obligations, I wouldn’t have come home at all."
She looked at me in surprise. Then she settled down. "You see me as an obligation. You feel obliged to cook, clean, do all those things."
"Yes," I said.
"I suppose that’s only fair, because I’ve been treating you like one since the day you were born." She looked up at me. "What can I do?"
WHAT? I was going to faint. "Huh?" was what I said.
"What can I do so-you know-you feel less obligated to come home?"
I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it. "First, stop hitting me, and stop threatening me."
"Done," she said simply. "What else?"
Wow. Was it that easy? Should I go for the crux of the matter? Why not? "I think things would be a whole lot better for me around here-and for you, for that matter-if you’d make an attempt to cut down on your drinking."
She sighed. "That’s going to be harder. I can only promise to try."
"They run AA meetings in town," Ed spoke up. "My Uncle’s a recovering alcoholic, I can get you the details if you're interested."
"I’ll think about it," she said. "Maybe. Let me try on my own first. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take you up on it." She sighed. "I really thought you had gone, you know. I saw you Thursday night, you left me a note Friday morning, and then I don’t hear from you. I figured you were gone." She sighed again. "And, at first, I was pissed. Then I realized, I couldn’t blame you." She stood up and looked at me. "I couldn’t blame you at all. If I were you, I’d have left a long time ago." She started walking towards her bedroom. Then she stopped, and said, very softly, so I barely heard it, "I’m glad you came back." Then she walked into her bedroom.
I collapsed, crying, on the floor, in complete disbelief. I couldn’t believe she actually said that. Ed came down on the floor next to me, and held me as I cried. After I calmed down, he smiled at me, and said, "Honey, I think you need to disappear for three days more often!"
"Jeez, I know, huh?" I sniffled. "I suppose, in a way, it’s pathetic."
"What is?" he asked.
"That ‘I’m glad you came back’ are the nicest words I’ve ever heard from my mother."
"Baby steps, Natalie, baby steps. You know?"
"Yeah," I agreed. We got up off the floor and went back to the cleaning. After we were done, and the place looked pretty good, I looked at Ed and said, "You know what? I’m starving. I know your mom made a nice breakfast, but that was a few hours ago." I looked in the refrigerator. "Unfortunately, it must be time for me to go shopping, because there’s nothing in here."
"How’s pizza sound?" Ed asked.
"Heavenly," I grinned. He grabbed the phone and ordered it.
While we waited, we went into the living room. Ed found my video collection, and put in The Sound Of Music. The pizza came, and we were munching on it, snuggling on the couch, watching the movie, when Mom came out of the bedroom. She had gotten dressed, and looked better. She went into the kitchen, made a cup of tea, and then came into the living room, sitting in the chair.
"The Sound Of Music?" she asked.
"Yeah, Ed’s an old film buff, too," I said.
"Yes, you told me that," she said. "The other night."
"That night was our first sort-of date," I giggled, "and he showed me Singing In The Rain, which I hadn’t ever seen, which is his favorite."
"Would you like some pizza?" Ed said thoughtfully. "There’s plenty."
"Ugh," she grinned. "Thank you for the offer, Ed, but I think I’ll stick with tea, the way my stomach feels."
The movie was up to the part where Maria and the children are in the bed singing.
"Julie Andrews in a nightgown. Hubba-hubba," Ed joked.
"Yeah, right," I grinned at him. "That nightgown is less revealing than the straightjackets I used to wear."
"Used to?" Mom said. "When did you stop?"
"Friday," I laughed. "While Ed was at baseball practice, I borrowed his car and went to the mall, and put a major dent in my trust fund."
"Well, that’s what your grandparents wanted you to use it for," Mom said.
"I came out of practice, saw her, and almost swallowed my tongue," Ed laughed. "Though I’ve only seen that one outfit."
"Good point," I grinned. "You know what? This shirt is still wet. I’ll go change." I kissed him and ran into my bedroom.
"I think we’re getting a fashion show," I heard Mom say through the wall.
"I think you’re right," Ed agreed with a laugh. I chose a light blue spaghetti-strap low-cut tank top, and a navy blue flared miniskirt. Light blue bra and panties. I was back out in a flash.
"Oy," Ed said with a huge grin. "I’m gonna have a coronary."
"I’m glad you like it," I grinned back.
"When are the auditions?" he asked.
"Auditions?"
"Yeah, for the Miss Teen Cleavage beauty pageant."
I laughed, and swatted him. "You be nice."
"I’m always nice. I’m a sweetheart, remember?"
"Keep telling me that and someday I’ll believe it," I teased.
I happened to glance at Mom. She was staring at me.
"Mom?" I asked.
"You know something? I put you in the program for all the wrong reasons. But if it made you this at ease with your body in just a week, maybe I did something right after all."