Chapter 40 The Real You
THE REAL YOU
Matt stormed into his mother’s office. “What did you say to Anya?”
His mother put her phone down she was reading. “What?”
“She lit a blaze in my face and marched out the door. You told her Macy was here. Why?”
“I thought she knew,” his mother said. “Why wouldn’t you tell her that?”
He snarled. “Why would I? It was a work thing. I don’t tell her every person who comes into my office. I can’t do that and you know it.”
“It’s not about that,” his mother said. “I thought for sure you would have told her you saw Macy. She was the last of the women in your life that didn’t know or see the real you. You even said you had to go through women like her to know who you were. That’s important.”
He didn’t need the reminder. “That doesn’t mean that you’ve got to get involved though,” he said. “You’ve never done this before.”
“I wasn’t involved. I thought you told her. I congratulated her and told her how wonderful you two are together. You took a punch to the face for her. Why the heck wouldn’t I think you’d be honest enough to tell her what Macy did to you and how it made you feel?”
“Are you trying to make me feel guilty over this?” he asked, throwing his hands in the air.
“No. I’m sorry,” his mother said. “I really believed you said something.”
If his mother hadn’t looked on the verge of tears, he’d light right into her the way Anya did to him. But he didn’t believe she meant any harm.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said, turning on his heel and marching back to his office.
He picked his phone up to call Anya, but it went right to voicemail.
She sent him there! It didn’t even ring once fully.
He texted her, saw she read it but didn’t reply.
How the hell was he going to dig himself out of this if she wouldn’t even talk to him?
His fist hit his desk.
“Problem?”
He looked up to see his father standing there.
“No,” he said.
“Really? Because you look like someone whose puppy is running loose down the street and your shoelaces are tied together when you try to go after it.”
“That sounds about right.”
Tim Kelly walked in and sat in front of his desk. “What happened with Anya? You had the closing this morning and then the lawsuit signed off. I thought today would be a good day for everyone.”
“I thought so too until Mom opened her mouth.”
His father frowned. Matt knew he was crossing the line with his tone, but he was too furious to care.
“What did she say?”
“She brought up to Anya that Macy was here. She thought Anya knew, which she didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you tell Anya?” his father asked. The same confused tone his mother had. “I have to admit I’m surprised you didn’t. I thought you two were saying everything to each other as your way of earning her trust and clearing the air.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again.
“Fuck!”
His father stood up. “I’ll take that as you realize you made a mistake. You’ve fixed several of them already, I’m sure you’ll figure out how to correct this one.”
“You owe me.”
Grace looked up from her desk when her husband came in.
“Thanks.”
“I think you’re wrong doing what you did.”
“Things are too good between them,” she said. “Jolene was right. They need to have some kind of disagreement. With their past, it’s the only way they can see what their future holds.”
“I’m not disagreeing, but it’s not good to get involved. You’ve been overly involved with Matt more than anyone else. Why?”
Her head went back and forth. “Because Matt is the one that has needed the most reassurance. I often think we were too hard on him.”
“No,” Tim said. “We weren’t hard enough. We’d point out what he was doing but never forced him to take a bigger look at things.”
“You said he had to learn on his own,” she argued. “I agreed with you. But he didn’t learn fast enough.”
It was a disagreement they’d had for years with Matt.
Her son loved to play jokes on people. He needed the attention.
The middle child syndrome in her eyes.
Not everyone thought it was funny.
“Yes,” Tim said. “He was a slow learner. And then you coddled him. Your tone of voice was more about a lecture rather than hard facts. Grounding him and making him replace broken items worked more, but you didn’t want to do it. That was me that forced it.”
Her husband wasn’t wrong. She always felt as if Matt was acting out for her attention. Ben was the oldest. Phoebe the baby and the only girl.
She worried that if she was too hard on him, he wouldn’t come to her.
The realization hit her now and she knew she overstepped.
“You were the bad cop, I was the good cop.”
“And I was again this time,” Tim said. “Which is why you can thank me.”
“How so?” she asked.
“Because I pointed out that he boasted to us that he and Anya told each other everything to build on the trust and clear the air. He told her he’d do what was needed for that trust and didn’t do this.”
“Ouch,” she said. “I should have thought of that.”
“That’s right, but you didn’t. You were too busy listening to Jolene.”
Her lips twisted in frustration. “This time I was wrong. I apologized to Matt for slipping.”
“But you and I know you didn’t slip.”
“Yes, I did. I truly thought he brought it up to her,” she said.
She wouldn’t have wanted to cause a fight on purpose. It was more about being nosy to see if Anya knew and her reaction to it. There was no reaction at all and she believed Anya and Matt had gotten through something that might have caused a fight.
A sign that they had worked through something.
Not that she’d just lit the match to the fuse at the fireworks show.
“Now you know otherwise. Are you going to be honest with your son?”
“You know I will be,” she said, standing up. “Might as well do it now before I lose my nerve. I just hope those two are fine. I should apologize to Anya too.”
“A word of advice,” Tim said. “Don’t. If you talk to her about it, she might think Matt put you up to it. Or that Matt can’t handle his own problems. Talk to your son and do what he wants and needs. Not what you think he does.”
Now she knew how Matt felt months ago when they gave him some tough love and told him he acted like his grandfather.
She was guilty of it now. Some might say it was a form of manipulation when she would call it mothering.
She walked to Matt’s office and stood in the doorway. “Got a minute?”
“Yeah,” he said.
The look on her son’s face said it all. Her little boy was upset and she’d caused it.
“I’m sorry.”
“It happens. I should have said something. There were a lot of witnesses to it here and it would have come out, I’m sure.”
“I agree with that. I agree with what your father said and I truthfully thought she knew. But there is another side to it.”
“What’s that?” he asked. “Your meddling?”
She was caught there too. “You know?”
“It’s not that hard to figure out once I calmed down. The question is why? Don’t you trust me not to mess this up? Which is stupid considering I just did.”
“It wasn’t a matter of trust.” Her heart was breaking over her misstep here. “Everything is going so well with the two of you. I wanted to see if she had a reaction to Macy’s name. She didn’t. I thought, great, he told her and nothing happened.”
“Nope. She’s good at keeping her emotions locked in on the fly. You should have remembered that from when she was a kid. Like I never knew when she was upset over my jokes.”
“You’re right. I’m wrong. I should have asked you if you brought it up and how she reacted.”
“Or you could have stayed out of it, but it’s hard for you to do,” he said.
“Ouch. I deserved that.” She sighed.
“Mom. You’ve always had my back. More than anyone else. But I’m an adult and have been doing well on my own with Anya.”
“Until now.”
“Yep. I made a mistake and I’ve got to fix it. I’ll own that.”
“Just like I’m owning this.” She moved toward him. “Can I have a hug?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I learned from my mother to make it right when you mess up.”
She smiled and patted his cheek. “The good with the bad, Matt. We all make mistakes. Learn from this. You’re never too old to admit you're wrong.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Let me handle this with Anya. If I need help, I’ll come to you.”
She nodded her head. “You have my word.”