“Stefano.” My mother grabs the phone from the table and makes sure I can see her whole face.
“You call her and tell her that your parents are taking her out because we owe her a lot more than a meal.” The glare and tone are something I’m not going to argue with, especially after what just happened.
“Fine.” I take a deep inhale. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
“Idiot,” is the last thing my mother says before she hangs up on me.
I toss my phone to the side and look up at the ceiling before I rub my face with my hands. I then
lean forward, putting my elbows on my knees and hanging my head. It’s maybe five minutes before I hear the sound of footsteps running up the stairs. I look at the door, hearing a knock for one second before the door opens, and Matty stands there in shorts and no shirt. “You told your parents?” I just stare at him. “The Bat Signal has been unleashed.”
“Well, it’s been five minutes,” I say, looking at my watch, “the family is slacking, if you ask me.”
Matty laughs and shakes his head. “I just got four messages from Uncle Max and Matthew asking if they have rentals in the area.”
“Say no,” Sofia yells from somewhere in the house, “they can stay with us!”
“Are you insane?” Matty yells over his shoulder. “Don’t you dare even speak that out loud, they might have Spidey senses.” He walks out of the room. “This is going to be fun,” he states right before he closes the door behind him.
I pick up my phone, wanting to speak to only one person. I pull up her name, and instead of calling her, I text her. If she’s sleeping, I don’t want to wake her.
Can you talk?
I look down at the phone and see the gray bubble with the three dots pop up before my phone pings with a text.
Haven’t we spoken enough?
addison
. . .
I press send on the message and put the phone down, but the phone rings softly beside me. I can hear his laughter fill the phone as I bring it to my ear. “Hello.”
“Am I bothering you?” His laughter is still coming through. I don’t know why, but his laughter makes me smile.
“Well, it’s been about twenty minutes since the last phone call,” I reply, sinking into the bed.
“I called my parents,” he says, and everything stops. I don’t even think I’m breathing at this point.
“Oh,” I say.
“Yeah, they are coming down tomorrow.”
I immediately sit up. “What?” I say in a whisper, but it comes out in a yelp.
“And asked if they can take you out for dinner to meet Avery.” My heart, which is normally beating in my chest, is now beating so freaking fast and hard I feel like it’s about to come out of my rib cage.
“Ummm,” I start, closing my eyes to get my heartbeat to normal as my ears now start to buzz. “I don’t need to be there.” I put my hand on my head, thinking that maybe I’m going to faint or maybe I have scarlet fever.
“What?” he shrieks. “Of course you have to be there.”
“Ugh.” I put my hand on my stomach. “I don’t know. I don’t do well with parents.” My head is just about ready to explode. This is too much; this is all just too much. “I mean, look at my own.” I laugh bitterly, trying to joke about it, but the pain still hurts, even after all this time. The emptiness is still there. The fact they haven’t even tried to get to know Avery just breaks my heart because she’s the best, but I also know it’s their loss. They don’t deserve her awesomeness in their lives.
“You need to come and maybe protect me from my mother,” he declares, and I am not rolling my lips to stop from laughing at him. His tone is both equally scared and panicked. “She is not pleased with me.”
I don’t even know why, but the words come out without me knowing. “Okay.” I give in. “I’ll go.
Now, I need to get to bed or else there will be bags under my eyes tomorrow, and that isn’t the look I want to have when meeting your parents for the first time.”
He chuckles. “Addison, you could be wearing a potato bag and war paint on your face that is dripping down, and you’ll still be the most beautiful woman in the room.”
My heart stops. Completely. “Good night, Stefano,” I say before I hang up on him and put my phone on do not disturb. I’m not doing this with him. He has a girlfriend, and I’m not the one who is going to walk in there and just steal him away. I’m not that person. “We have a child together, so I’m going to have to be nice to him, but that’s it when it comes to Stefano and me,” I huff, putting my phone on my bedside table. But isn’t he sexy? my head screams out. Remember when he did that thing with his tongue? I put my hands on my ears. “I’m not listening to you anymore.” I turn over and close my eyes but that makes it even worse because now all I can see is me ripping his shirt off him while he places me on that hotel desk no one actually works on. His hands roam up my legs that are spread with him standing in the middle of them, our mouths devouring each other. My eyes spring open. “That didn’t help anything.” I turn onto my back before turning over on my side. “He’s in bed with his girlfriend right now,” I tell myself. “Yeah, so shut the fuck up and go to sleep.”