15 One More #2
“Because if so, thank the lord.” She sighed.
“I know you liked him, sweetie, but I never could stand him. He’s good for nothing.
I’ve told you that before. With his basketball practice and all that, he never could focus on you.
Please tell me this new one’s not a basketball player, because I don’t want to see you fall into the same trap.
And remember how he used to fly off the handle?
That was a little bit much. But I’m just talking on and on, and it’s your turn.
Tell me about this boy. How long have you been together? Why am I just hearing about him now?”
“Mom, I literally can’t tell you because you won’t be quiet.”
“Pass me the phone and I can introduce myself,” Ross said. I grabbed a cushion and hit him in the face with it.
“Listen!” I said. “Yes, Monty and I broke up. I sent him a message, I told him I was done with him, he showed up here acting totally crazy, but he’s gone now, and I’m not getting back with him…”
I guess that was as long as she could go without hearing her own voice, because she interrupted my story to ask, “What about you coming home? Have you got a ticket yet?”
“Mom…”
“I knew it! I knew you’d leave and forget about me. It’s always the same! You’ve grown up and you don’t need me more, and now you’re abandoning me like a broken toy or an old shoe. It happened with Shannon.”
“Mom, two things. One, I want to come see you. I really do. But I can’t pay for the trip myself.
And I know how you guys’ finances are. You may have forgotten, but the whole reason I’m living at this apartment is because you couldn’t make the payments on my dorm room.
If I can figure out a way to make a few bucks, I promise a trip home is the first thing on my list, but… ”
“What about driving?”
“It’s seven hours each way, and I don’t even have my license.”
“Yeah. If only your brother Spencer weren’t so lazy, he could come get you. But we both know that will never fly.”
I heard her breathing harder, and I knew she was about to cry. In part because she was sad, but in part because she wanted to twist my arm.
“I can’t believe I’m turning sixty years old and the one thing I want is to see my daughter for my birthday, and I can’t do it,” she moaned.
“I’ll get a job, Mom, and I’ll get you a present to make it up to you.”
“I don’t want a present, Jenna. I want to see you.”
I was trying to figure out how to console her when I felt my phone getting torn out of my hand. Before I could look up, I heard Ross say, in his most charming voice, “Hello, Mrs. Brown.”
“What are you doing?” I shouted, jumping on top of him and trying to grab my phone back. But his fingers were like vise grips and I couldn’t pry them away. “Ross, give it back now!”
“No,” he said, responding to my mom’s questions, “it’s my place.
I own it… Jack, actually, it’s Jack Ross…
Yes… Friends? Yes, I think so, but it’s hard to say.
Your daughter doesn’t seem to want to decide…
No, no, don’t worry… I understand completely…
If my mother were turning sixty and I didn’t go to her party, of course she’d be sad. I could never let that happen to her.”
Will, who had been watching all this with evident amusement, grinned and said, “He’s such an ass-kisser.”
I kept yelling at Ross and he kept batting me away, reminding my mother she needn’t worry and he would be happy to take care of something, and I could hear my mother’s nasal Thank you, thank you, thank you , and he told her the pleasure was his.
At last, he told her he was going to put me back on and passed me the phone.
“Thank God you left that Monty. I mean, with this Jack Ross, how could you possibly stay with Monty? This one’s a catch. You better hold on to him tight.”
“Mom, it’s the twenty-first century. Eighteen-year-old women aren’t out looking for husbands.”
“I don’t care,” she said, “and listen, everything’s settled so don’t you dare tell him no. I’m paying him back, and that’s the end of the story. I’m so happy we’ll all be together again. Your new boyfriend’s wonderful. Now I’ve got to go. One of your brothers needs something. Love you. ‘Bye!”
She hung up before I could say anything, and I couldn’t help but stare at my phone in disbelief. Naya announced she was going to bed, and Will agreed emphatically, and a few seconds later, I was alone with Ross, who was grinning at me ridiculously.
“What?” he asked.
“What was my mother talking about when she said she would pay you back?”
“We agreed that I’d get you a ticket to go see her.”
“Ross! You can’t do that! I can’t just be dependent on you! You can’t pay for everything!”
“It’s not for you. It’s a sixtieth birthday present for your mom.”
“A present is a bottle of perfume, Ross, not a plane ticket!”
“Nice try, Jen. I know how picky women are about perfumes, you’re not going to get me to step into that minefield.”
“Can you please take me seriously for once!” He smiled and said he did, and I told him he didn’t.
Seeming surprised by my outburst, he asked whether the problem was that I didn’t want him to meet my family.
But it wasn’t that. It was the money. I already felt like I owed him, I certainly didn’t want my parents paying him back, and I had no idea how I ever could.
He swore he would never ask me for it, but that wasn’t the point.
He wanted to know why I worried so much about money; I wanted to know why he never did.
I thought how nice it must be to just never think about where my next meal was coming from.
He told me there were many things more important than money, like happiness, and I replied, “To be honest with you, I think I’d rather cry on a yacht than be happy on a park bench. ”
“Look,” Ross said, “here’s the real story.
I’ve got my own money. I had a YouTube channel that was a pretty big deal for a while.
The money’s just sitting in the bank earning interest, and I don’t use it for anything apart from paying the mortgage on this place.
I really don’t have anything to spend it on.
The last thing I bought was a forty-dollar sweatshirt.
Now I have something I can spend it on, and I want to. So what’s the big deal?”
When he put it like that, I could see why he didn’t fret over money.
But I didn’t want to take advantage of him.
I mentioned that, and he cracked a joke as usual.
“You can take advantage of me as much as you like. Nothing would make me happier.” But then he turned more serious and told me to think about my mother and how happy she’d be when she saw me.
He picked up the remote and started scrolling through the channels looking for something decent to watch. Finally he settled on a film and I asked about his YouTube channel.
“It was just goofy short movies,” he said. “Stuff I wanted to go viral. But I had a knack for it. It got to be pretty well known, and that was how I started taking movies more seriously and decided to go to school for film. It even got me some kind of important contacts.”
“Why’d you never mention it?”
He reached into my salad, pulled out a piece of lettuce, and tossed it in his mouth. “I don’t know. You didn’t ask.”
“How would I have known to ask?”
Instead of responding, he stared at the screen with a self-satisfied grin.
I think it was only then that it hit me that I’d be seeing my family in a couple of weeks: my brothers, Shannon and Owen, my mother, my father.
Maybe even my grandparents. Hopefully not Monty and Nelle, although anything was possible…
“I can’t believe I’m actually going home,” I said. “I’m going to see my family!”
“I’m glad you’re happy about it,” Ross replied.
I hugged him and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best!” I screamed.
“Now that’s more like it.”
“Promise me, though,” I said, “that this is the last time you pay for something for me.”
“Sorry, no deal there.”
“Ross, I’m serious. At least, not until I pay you back for the trip.”
“Anything you pay me back is getting invested in our dream home,” he responded.
I shook my head. I was holding on to him like a koala.
I wasn’t the most touchy-feely person, but with him, I couldn’t help it.
And he didn’t seem to mind. As he murmured proudly that he thought my mother might like him better than me now (she certainly liked him better than Monty), I pulled away to look at him until he finally said, “What?” I realized I’d fallen in a trance and said, “Nothing,” but of course, I was thinking something, and I knew very well what.
“You wouldn’t be tired by any chance?” I asked him.
“You’re not trying to get me into the bedroom, are you?” he replied.
I looked up as he leaned in to me and closed my eyes for the kiss that I saw coming. Then, when it didn’t arrive, I reopened them. Ross was rolling his eyes as he looked toward the hallway, where Sue was staring at us with disgust on her face.
“No,” she said, “please no. Not another couple in this house.”
“Can we help you?” Ross asked.
“I was going to wash off my plate. But I don’t think I can keep from vomiting if you two are there cheesing it up.”
She crossed her arms, waiting for us to go. I didn’t need any encouragement to go to the bedroom, and apparently Ross didn’t, either. We hurried off, hearing Sue exhaling with frustration behind us.
It was late, but I still hadn’t fallen asleep.
I was lying there with Ross’s head on my chest. His eyes were closed; his breathing was regular and soft.
He’d been like that for a while. I stroked his face, toyed with his hair.
He liked sleeping like that; he’d done it a lot lately. And I certainly didn’t mind.
I ran a finger down his jawline, circled his chin, traced it up to his kissable lips. I wondered if that was a word: kissable ? His upper lip was shaped like a heart. His lower lip was thick and juicy.