With that, he went back to his work with his back to me leaving me with nothing to do but finally leave the room. As I entered the kitchen I found Kelly and Mom sitting at the kitchen counter eating Chinese food out of To-Go boxes. Both girls dressed casually, Kelly in a green spaghetti-strap tank top and black yoga pants and Mom in a cute gray summer dress.
“If it isn’t my two favorite ladies,” I said as I approached from behind.
They both turned and smiled up at me, Kelly while slurping up a long noodle.
“Hi Baby,” Mom said standing up and kissing me on the cheek. Kelly remained seated as she stretched her arms high asking for a hug with chow mein and chopsticks still in hand. I reached down and squeezed her tight.
Mom motioned to the surplus of white boxes. “Help yourself. I think Beef with Broccoli is that one over there,” she said pointing to a box. “I may have splurged a bit too much.”
“Mom, you always get too much,” said Kelly.
“I second that,” I said as I picked up some food and a box of my own.
“At least you kids never went hungry.”
I smiled. “You got us there,” I said as I took a large bite. “So Dad’s going to Ch…” I started to say between chews but stopped the moment I saw Kelly’s eyes go wide and she shook her head.
Mom sighed. “Yes, flights tomorrow at 5AM” she said as she moved the contents of her box around without reason. “He’s packing up now.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Is this a thing right now?” A tension seemed to fill the air.
She relaxed a bit. “No, it’s fine. It is what it is.” She shrugged as she set her food down before taking a deep sip of her wine.
“The camera was nice. What’s the occasion?”
This time she shook her head. “No occasion,” she said looking at me. “Just wanted to do something nice.” She smiled, though I couldn’t tell if it was sincere. Regardless, I returned the grin.
“Well it was,” I said then felt the immediate need to change the subject. “Kelly tell you the good new yet?”
Mom laughed then rolled her eyes; this was genuine. “About the shoot? That’s all I’ve been hearing about for the last week.”
“Uh-uh. We’ve talked about other things,” Kelly defended, though she began to grow uncertain. “I’m sure we have. We’ve talked about Jason a bunch.”
“What?” I asked, mouth full of food once more. “What about me?”
Kelly deflated a bit. “I told her about your cold feet at the sushi place.”
“You did what?” My eyes were wide. “Why would you-”
“It’s not her fault, Jason,” Mom said calmly. “I might have coaxed it out of her.”
“I don’t… Why did…” I stammered, too many questions coming at me at once.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mom said. “To be honest with you, we were more confused than anything else. I mean two weeks ago, at the shoot, you were so confident and driven. Very…” Her eyes were without focus as she searched for words. “… very masculine. Basically I did almost everything you asked. You were totally in charge. You knew what you wanted and what you needed and you took it. You were in your element. So, naturally, we were confused because it didn’t seem like you.”