TWENTY THREE
Mia
“What the hell is a chia seed?” Luke mumbles under his breath as I gaze anxiously out the window trying to spot Mum and Dad.
I laugh despite my nerves and he gives my leg a squeeze under the table. “Nah, I’m only kidding. I know what they are. They’re those little black things that look like ants and taste like shit.”
I snort into my glass of water just as Mum walks through the door of the cafe and spots us. She narrows her eyes and purses her apricot-coloured lips. God, she looks just as fashionable as always. She’s dressed in a tightly fitted knit dress in white, with a caramel-coloured jacket draped over her shoulders. An Oroton handbag is slung over her arm.
She glances behind her at my father, who enters the cafe pushing his designer sunglasses onto the top of his head, and points to us like he can’t work it out for himself.
I stand for the customary kiss on the cheek. Luke stands beside me and holds out his hand.
“Mum, Dad, this is Luke Wilson—”
Mum’s thinly threaded brows shoot up and she takes his hand with the most brittle, forced smile I think I’ve ever seen on her face. “Oh! The builder. I thought we were having a family catch up, darling.”
She gives Luke her full attention and I can’t help cringing as she sweeps a critical eye from the top of his beach-blond hair to the thongs he has on with his jeans. He told me this morning it was that or work boots, and I told him to wear those, but now I’m second-guessing.
“Mr Wilson. There was no need to drive all the way up to Sydney. I’m afraid you won’t get a different answer from us than you’ve had from Mia about the renovations. They’re on hold for now until we take care of some family business.”
Now I’m really cringing. I should have told her what was going on before we had to all meet awkwardly in person. “No, Mum. I invited Luke to join us as a... friend.” I chicken out of saying more until I’ve gone over the way things are with Oliver, but instantly regret it when Luke shoots me a hurt look. I’ve already bungled this and we haven’t even sat down.
Mum looks at Dad, but they say nothing. Instead, we all sit, and I fidget with my menu in the uncomfortable silence .
At least Dad’s a talker. Right now, I couldn’t be more grateful when he taps his menu on the table decisively and turns to Luke. “Can’t go past the Eggs Benedict. Best thing on the menu.”
Luke smiles. “Ah, I can never say no to a classic bacon and eggs myself.”
I can’t help comparing his response to what Oliver would have said. It feels awful to be doing it, but the fact is it’s such a different dynamic that it actually throws my dad off a bit. Oliver would have agreed with Dad, ordered the Eggs Benedict, and spent the rest of the morning crawling so far up Dad’s arse an extraction procedure might have been necessary at the end of brunch. I always used to wonder why he did it. I’d never seen him be like that with anyone else.
I love that Luke hasn’t let my dad sway his order. I also love it when he slides his hand onto my knee under the table and gives it a squeeze, despite what I said before.
It gives me the courage to speak up. “Actually...” I clear my throat and wait until Mum and Dad both look up from their menus. “I have some news.”
“More news!” I didn’t think it was possible for Mum’s brows to jump any higher towards her hairline, but she proves me wrong.
“Yeah, I guess you heard things haven’t been going so well with Oliver.”
“Honey, is this really the time?” Mum makes the world’s least subtle gesture with her eyes towards Luke.
“I think now is the time, Mum.” I forge on. “I’ve decided not to marry him. In fact, as of a few weeks ago, I’ve broken things off altogether. ”
“Oh, sweetheart, don’t you think that’s a bit hasty?” Dad frowns at me across the table. “You’ve known him for such a long time.”
“I’m not sure I really have,” I mumble. Beneath the table, Luke gives my leg another squeeze. “I don’t really want to go into the details, but I think it wasn’t what either of us really wanted anymore.”
“Quite the contrary,” Dad says. “When I spoke to him yesterday he still seemed very keen to give things a go. Why don’t you go talk to him and see if you can’t patch things up? I’m sure whatever the disagreement was, it can’t be that bad.”
I twist my hands together in my lap, wondering how much I should say. I don’t really want to tell them all the sordid details.
“He was always such a good fit for you, Mia.” When Mum looks pointedly between me and Luke, something in me snaps.
“He cheated! Tegan caught him cheating on me. So, no. I don’t think he was such a good fit.”
Mum opens her mouth, then exchanges a long look with Dad. I can’t interpret the meaning behind it. Normally, I’m pretty good at reading her, so it’s unsettling.
She makes a little humming noise in the back of her throat, then she leans a little closer across the table. “Would you excuse me, Mr Wilson, I need to use the ladies’ room. Mia, do you think you could come help me find it? Last time we were here I took a wrong turn and almost ended up in the kitchen!” It’s a blatant lie, but I smile and follow her to the back of the cafe and into the ladies’ bathroom .
As soon as the door swings shut after us, she turns to me and takes my hands. “Mia, don’t make a big mistake just because of one slip.”
“I’m pretty sure it was more than one.” I think of the scene Tegan described to me, and my stomach churns all over again. He must have been fooling around for weeks. Months! I don’t even know if that was the only woman he was seeing.
“I never told you that your father cheated, did I?”
I stare at her. Is this my perfect socialite mother talking? I never thought she’d accept that.
She nods, as if I’ve asked one of the questions spinning in my head. “Right after you were born. Things had been difficult at home and he... went elsewhere for a little while. But it was just sex. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
I shake my head. “What do you mean it was just sex? Didn’t you care?”
She shrugs. “There are more important things.”
“Like what? Loyalty? Trust?”
She smirks at me. “Come on, Mia. Use your brain. We have a very comfortable life. Do you think I would have been able to give you that as a single mother?”
I bite back a retort that she might have if she’d considered getting a job, but I guess that’s never been on Mum’s radar. “Mum, I have to admit I’m shocked. But what happened between you and Dad... That’s up to you. And it’s in the past.”
“Sweetheart, it may or may not be in the past. I stopped asking. When you’ve been together for long enough you learn what makes a relationship work. It takes compromise.”
It takes me a minute to pull my jaw up off the floor. And another to stop wanting to gag at the thought of my dad still sleeping around. I’ve had enough of this conversation. “Mum, I’m with Luke now.”
She pulls back. “The builder?”
“No, Mum. Not the builder . The guy I’m seeing. The guy who treats me a hundred times better than Oliver ever did.”
“Oh, Mia. Not Luke. Listen honey, there’s something you don’t know about the Wilsons.”
I stare at her. Is she really about to do what I think she’s about to do?
“They're not... well they’re not human, Mia. They’re monsters. It’s like some kind of sick joke the way they flaunt their unnatural state in that town.
I can’t take any more of this right now. My head is pounding and my skin prickles with heat. I don’t say anything to Mum. I turn away and walk out of the bathroom. As I open the door to leave, Mum says behind me, “He’s just your summer mistake, Mia.”
I hurry back out into the cafe and take Luke by the hand. “Sorry, Dad. We have to go. Something just came up. Tell Mum I’ll call her, OK?”
Dad gets to his feet as I pull Luke out of his seat and tug him towards the door. Luke grabs my handbag from under the table and gives me a searching look.
“Everything OK, sweetheart?” Dad’s concern makes me turn, but not stop.
“No, but it will be.”
I lead Luke out before Dad can reply and before Mum returns from the bathroom. I don’t stop when we get outside, just keep hold of Luke’s hand and march him down the street and around the corner. When we get to where I parked my car, I’m searching all my pockets for my keys, but my hands are shaking too badly. I growl, drop my handbag and rifle through it angrily. Luke quietly hands them to me.
I let out a long breath and sit on the curb. “Thanks.”
He sits beside me, ignoring all the people walking past staring at us, and waits until I’ve calmed down. Eventually, I get up, unlock the car, and we get in. I flop back against the driver’s seat.
“What happened?”
“I found out things about my Dad I wish I never knew.”
Luke frowns at me.
“He cheated on her! More than once I think, and she doesn’t care.”
“Ah.” There’s a pause. Then he sighs. “And she thinks you should go back to Oliver?”
I nod. I feel guilty even admitting it. Even though it’s not my opinion.
“Is that what you want?”
“No!” I fling my arms around his neck and hug him tight. “Not at all! I’m mad at her for even suggesting it. And for being awful about you and your family.”
He hugs me back and we sit there for a long moment until my anger boils down again to a simmer. I pull back and start up the engine. “Sorry. Are you hungry? Let’s go find somewhere else for breakfast. Somewhere with no chia seeds?”
He smiles. “Sounds like a plan.”
I pull out onto the road. “I just wish I knew what to do about work and about the coast house. I’ve never even thought about a long distance relationship before, but here we are. ”
He rests his large hand on my knee in a spot that’s already beginning to feel like his. “Here we are. And I don’t want to be anywhere else. Not if you’re not there.”
God, I’m so grateful for his patience and his faith in me. I feel like another guy would get mad or at least be a bit frustrated, but Luke just gives me that reassuring smile and lets me tell him all over again how annoyed I am with my Mum.
By the time we’ve found a new cafe and we’re finally eating breakfast, I feel a lot better. That was just the first encounter. Mum and Dad are always resistant to change. I remember the year I took my first overseas holiday by myself. The year I turned eighteen. They’d convinced me to go to England to meet some distant relatives and stay in this quaint old village just outside London. Then halfway through my gap year, something called to me and I hopped on a train to Italy and never looked back. I spent the next three months wandering through art galleries and eating gelato every day, even when the weather got cold.
When I rang my parents from Milan, they freaked out. Tried to tell me it would be too hard, that I didn’t speak Italian, and it wasn’t safe for me to travel in a country like that by myself, staying in hostels. But it just took them a while to get over it. They even came out to spend Christmas with me in Bologna and it was one of the best family Christmases I can remember.
They’ll come around to Luke. It’ll just take time.