Chapter XVI
A few days later, Mariam and Sable are on their way home from a grocery trip (Mariam offered to go alone, but Sable volunteered to come in the hopes of acclimating herself to car rides) when Mariam’s phone rings.
“Could you see who it is, Sable?” she asks, handing the phone to the woman beside her without taking her eyes off the road.
“It says ‘Mom,’” Sable says, sounding almost frightened. “Your mother?”
Mariam smiles. It’s about time this would happen.
By now, Mariam has given her mother some information about Sable: that they’ve been dating for a couple weeks, that Sable’s new in town, that things have been a little crazy since they met…
but she’s been vague on the details. “Let it ring,” Mariam says. “I’ll call her back when we’re home.”
The rest of the drive is spent with Sable’s hand nervously on her thigh while Mariam strokes it with the hand she’s not using to steer and whistles a tune. Upon arriving home, she has Sable bring in the groceries while she dials up her mother.
The line rings a couple of times before she picks up. Her mother’s voice, not dissimilar to her own, comes through the line. “Hi, sweetie! How’s it going?”
“Hi, Mom,” Mariam responds. “It’s going okay. Just getting back from the grocery store; sorry I missed your call earlier. How are you?”
“Oh, just fine! Your sister and I were just talking about you and thought we might invite you over for dinner tonight. Dotty brought home a cake from work. Your new girlfriend is welcome to come too, if she’s free!”
There’s a sudden thud from the kitchen and Mariam sees an orange on the floor rolling towards her, fallen from Sable’s grasp.
Based on her facial expression, her hearing must be sharp enough to pick up what Mariam’s mother just said.
“Tell you what, Mom. Tonight wouldn’t work for Sable, but I think she could do tomorrow. Would that work for you and Dotty?”
“We can do tomorrow! That’d actually probably even work better for Dotty; I think she’s off work!”
“Okay, Mom, I’ll have to ask Sable and make sure, but hopefully we’ll be over there tomorrow.” Mariam watches emotions war on Sable’s face as she dips to grab her fallen orange.
“That sounds good to me! Okay, sweetie, I need to get back to my laundry, but I’m looking forward to seeing you, and meeting Sable. I love you!”
“Love you too.” She lets her mom hang up first, then turns her attention to Sable. “You okay over there?”
“Ah, just terrified for my life, is all.” Sable gives a half-joking half-smile, but Mariam can tell she is genuinely worried.
“Hey, it’ll be okay, Sable,” Mariam soothes as she joins her in the kitchen. “They’re gonna love you.”
“I hope so. Doesn’t stop my nerves, though.” She starts to peel her recovered orange over the trash bin. “I just… it’s your mother. I want to make a good impression and prove I’m worthy of her daughter.”
Mariam lays her hand lightly on her girlfriend’s forearm. “Hey, you do not have to prove anything. I only care that you love me, and that’s all she’ll care about, too.” She tilts her head to the side. “I just realized I’ve never asked. What was your mom like, Sable?”
“I never met her,” Sable says softly, splitting her orange in half. “She died in childbirth with me.”
“Oh, Sable…” Mariam had a feeling the answer would be something traumatic. She clutches Sable’s forearm, rubbing gentle circles over her scars.“I’m so sorry, my love; that’s awful. Did your father and Fang ever tell you stories?”
Sable perks up at that. “Yeah, my father especially. They were mates, which is more than most Fae can say of their parents.”
Mariam thinks about that. “Didn’t you say that if one mate dies, they both do? How did your father survive her death? Not to be… morbid.”
“He barely did,” Sable says, “though not because of the mating bond. My parents never did the union ritual. It’s common among Faerals for mated pairs to wait until all the children they plan to have are mature.
In the Plains, we don’t have consistent access to the kind of healing magic they do in the Courts…
It’s a wonderful thing to be united with your mate, but not so much to risk a single hunting accident leaving your children without a mother or a father. ”
Mariam just shakes her head. Even among Faerals, it seems like Sable and her family have had especially hard lives.
It occurs to her, too, that the waiting she’s asking Sable to do must be terrifying, knowing how fragile and short-lived humans are compared to High Fae.
She imagines Sable would have been raised hearing her father’s regrets over waiting too long to be fully united with his own mate…
but Mariam can’t let the conversation go there now. She still isn’t ready.
“I’m sorry,” she says, after a long pause. “Do you know much about what your mother was like?”
“She was apparently very strong-willed and outspoken,” Sable says. “She was stronger and faster than a lot of the folks in the clan, and protected people who needed protecting.”
“She sounds an awful lot like you.”
Sable’s eyes soften. “I hope so.”
“I definitely think so.” Mariam smiles and moves to put away the rest of the groceries. “Go enjoy your orange. I’ll finish here.”
“Sure, sure.” Sable leaves her alone to put the groceries away… and to imagine the future mother-in-law she’ll never get to meet.
* * *
The next evening comes quickly, a little too quickly for Sable’s liking.
Dressed in a collared black shirt with a gray knitted vest over it and matching black slacks, she waits for Mariam to finish getting ready, and in the meantime, Sable’s nerves go wild.
She runs through the story she and Mariam talked over, triple-checks in the mirror that the points of her ears aren’t visible under her hair.
How the hell is she supposed to pull this off? Faerals do not have family meet-and-greets or dinners with a courting partner’s parents. Hell, courting partners in her clan rarely even spend time with each other outside of sex, unless they’re proper mates.
Of course, Mariam is her mate, she reminds herself, so her scripts for what courtship should look like don’t apply here.
And, well, they wouldn’t anyway, because her mate is a human.
A human with a human family and human customs Sable still barely understands, that she had never even considered until she started courting a human.
Courting a human! Such a strange life she finds herself living, a strange story to be part of. And things are only getting stranger.
“Deep in thought, are ya?” comes Mariam’s voice from the hallway. Sable turns to look at her, and all the strangeness melts away. She doesn’t bother to hide how her eyes move over Mariam’s curves; she’s in a thin, deep green sweater with black leggings, both of which hug her figure very nicely…
Sable’s thoughts are interrupted by Mariam clearing her throat. “Hey, don’t look at me like that now. We won’t make it to dinner.”
“Would that be so bad?” Sable mutters, but then gets a hold of herself. “Kidding.”
Mariam playfully rolls her eyes, but meets her in the living room and pecks a kiss on her jaw. “Are you ready to head out, my love?”
“As ready as I can be.”
~§~
Mariam’s mother lives about forty minutes away, which means a long, uneventful drive of soothing Sable as she fidgets nervously and picks at her clothes.
Sable struggles with car rides as it is, but this is the longest one of her life so far, and she’s scared about the evening to come, so it’s as miserable as Mariam has seen her since the aftermath of her splintering injury.
She can’t help but be reminded of taking an anxious pet to the vet, though she keeps that thought to herself with a wry smile.
Mariam is relieved as she finally sees her mother’s powder blue house appear on the horizon, on the other side of her charming white picket fence.
Her mother lives at the end of a tree-lined street, the houses here all separated by strips of forest on either side.
“It’s that house, right there,” Mariam says, pointing it out as they approach.
“It’s cute,” Sable comments, craning her neck for a better look. “Why is it so… blue?”
Mariam practically snorts. “My mom’s just extra like that.” She pats her girlfriend’s leg as they pull into the driveway. “Don’t worry, alright? Just be yourself. It’s going to be okay.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all I’m asking for.” Mariam turns the car off and they get out.
They meet at the front of the car, and Mariam smiles as Sable’s hand goes to the small of her back.
They walk together, Mariam opening the gate for them and Sable closing it behind them.
Mariam goes up the three stairs to the porch first, leading the way to the cream-colored front door.
She rings the doorbell, and in seconds, the door pops open, revealing her mother with a warm grin on her face.
“Oooh, I’m so glad to see you!”
~§~
Sable watches as a human who looks like a shorter, slimmer, and older version of Mariam emerges from the home and hugs her love, holding onto her tightly.
“I’m glad to see you too, Mom,” Mariam says, a little muffled from the hug. When she’s released, the woman’s smile shines to Sable instead as she comes over and catches Sable in a similar hug. She stiffens at first, then gently returns it, rubbing the woman’s back.
“Oh, you must be Sable! Oh, my dear, you can call me Barbara.” Barbara pulls back and gives Sable a light pat on the arm. “Sorry, we’re huggers around here. My older daughter, Dotty, is waiting inside for us.”
“I’d hate to disappoint her by making her wait, then,” Sable replies, offering the woman a smile of her own. Such a friendly face, offering kindness she’s done nothing to earn and isn’t sure she deserves… Yes, it makes sense that a person like this raised a person like Mariam.