25. Story Behind It

25

STORY BEHIND IT

T he minute Zander got home on Sunday, he decided it was time to call his mother and let her know what was going on.

Last night wasn’t a test or anything with Regan and his best friend. It was to get everyone to meet.

But he’d learned that he was someone who could wear his emotions and feelings on his sleeve if it meant something important and serious. Which it did.

Maybe for years he’d held back with the fear that he might not be enough for someone.

That he could let them down.

It didn’t seem he was having much luck holding anything back with Regan.

“Hi, Zander,” his mother said when she answered on the third ring.

“Am I interrupting you?”

“No,” his mother said. “I was only baking cookies and my phone was on the other side of the kitchen.”

“Cookies?” he asked. “What kind?”

“Chocolate chip. Nothing fancy. Your father said he was craving them and I thought it sounded good too.”

“Are you going to give Dad some to bring into the office tomorrow?”

“I will,” his mother said. “Is everything okay? I hope you aren’t calling to say you won’t be here for Thanksgiving on Thursday.”

“No, I’ll be there,” he said. “I wanted to let you know I’m dating someone.”

There was silence on the other end. “Like a girlfriend or just someone you’ve gone on a few dates with?”

“Girlfriend,” he said.

More silence. “For how long has this been going on?”

“Almost two months,” he said, grinning. He could almost see the wheels spinning in his mother’s brain.

“How is it your father doesn’t know this?” his mother asked. “He’d tell me if he knew.”

“I work a lot,” he said. “I don’t talk about Regan at work. Royce and Chloe met her yesterday, but no one else knows.”

“If it’s been going on for two months, why doesn’t anyone know? How is it possible even Betsy doesn’t know? Whenever you’re dating someone they call the office or stop in.”

Which meant Betsy would say things to his mother. Funny how he never caught onto that before.

“Well,” he said. “There is a bit of a story behind it.”

“First, what is her name, where did you meet, and what does she do for a living?”

“You want to determine if she’s good enough for me?” he asked.

“I already know the answer to that,” his mother said.

“Huh?”

“You’ve kept it quiet for a reason, but that means you care. Now you’re telling me personally rather than letting me find out through another source. Again, you care.”

He forgot his mother was good at figuring her kids out.

“I do care about her a lot.”

“Would one use the L word?”

“Lovely?” he asked. “She is that.”

His mother snorted. “I’ve never known you to date someone that wasn’t lovely on the eyes.”

“Hey,” he said. “I’m not all picture and no substance.”

“No, you’re not. Back to my three questions.”

“Dr. Regan Philes, we met in my office building because she is right next door to me and she is a licensed psychologist.”

“Has she seen your apartment yet?” his mother asked.

His shoulders dropped. “Last weekend.”

“Then you’re in love. Oh my God. I didn’t think it’d ever happen.”

“Not funny,” he said.

“How long did it take you to clean the place up before you felt comfortable enough to show her?”

His lips twisted a bit before he grudgingly admitted, “Two weeks.”

“I would have figured double that. Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought it was.”

“It wasn’t horrible,” he said. “Just a lot of stuff and not many places to put it.”

He wasn’t sure how he accumulated so much over the years but realized that a lot of it had to do with work and since he didn’t have an office in his apartment, that made it hard with it all landing on the table off his kitchen or boxes on the floor next to it.

“You need a bigger place,” his mother said.

“Why? So I can mess that up too?”

“If you had a home office you could keep all your stuff in there and shut the door.”

Which he’d thought of, but it was too daunting to even consider moving at this point. He was way too busy.

“I could, but it’s not on my radar right now. I wanted to tell you about Regan. I thought maybe you’d like to meet her if there is room at the table for Thanksgiving.”

“You don’t need to ask,” his mother said. “I’d love to meet her. She has no family around here? Tell me more about her.”

“Her parents are divorced and remarried and both live in the area. She’s not super close with either of them. She has a younger brother, but he recently moved a few hours away for a new job. He won’t be coming home for the holiday and I have a feeling she’d love to not have to choose between her parents.”

It wasn’t a conversation they’d had yet and he was going to call her when he hung up with his mother.

Maybe Chloe was right and they were finishing each other’s sentences or thoughts last night.

In the past he’d be the one to notice those things, not have someone else point out his actions.

“If she has the office next to you, how is it your father hasn’t gotten wind of anything?”

“Regan doesn’t come over when Dad is there. She’s busy. We normally see each other at the end of the day when our employees are gone.”

“So no one knows in her office?” his mother asked.

“No. And there is more to that too. Remember how Royce and Chloe met?”

“They’d worked together for years,” his mother said.

“Yes, but the Fierces and Richard had this little scheme that Royce would make a great match with Chloe.”

“Oh yeah. You did tell me that. I guess it slipped my mind because you’d said they’d worked together for years.”

He hadn’t pushed the Fierce agenda on the meeting because, to him, it was as Royce said. Chloe and his buddy did it on their own.

“Well, the Fierces enjoy setting people up. That’s the story I was going to tell you. They’ve made no secret that they’d like to find me a nice young woman.”

“And did they find Regan for you?”

“No,” he said firmly. “She moved next to me over the summer. We’d had some conversations. Betsy and her assistant, Miles, talk all the time, but it wasn’t much more than that.”

“Until it was,” his mother said.

“Exactly. Then after our first dinner together in the office when my food was delivered to her place instead of mine and she brought it over, I started to suspect who they had in mind to pair me with.”

“You’d had no clue at all before?” his mother asked. “None?”

“No,” he said. “I was looking too, but they were careful about not bringing her name up. Only once and it was sneaky and, looking back, that was their first step of slipping it in. But it was sly enough during them asking me for something for work.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I feel like I can find my own woman and I did.”

His mother laughed on her end. “I think I have what I need to know.”

“I figured as much. You’ll tell Dad but ask him to keep quiet about it. At least in the office for now.”

“He will. He’ll follow your lead. He stays out of those things.”

“He does,” he said.

Zander hung up the phone and then called Regan to see how she felt about meeting his parents for a holiday dinner.

“Hello,” she said. “Do you miss me already? It hasn’t even been an hour since you left.”

“I do miss you,” he said. “But I know we both have things to do.” They’d spent all day together yesterday and then didn’t leave Royce’s until almost ten. Went back to her place for the night and as much as he would have liked to stay, he did have too much to do. “I just got off the phone with my mother.”

“And you told her about me?” she asked. “You didn’t waste any time.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No,” she said. “I’m assuming she’d like to meet me?”

He wished he could see her face to know if she was smiling or nervous over this.

“She would. How does Thanksgiving dinner sound on Thursday? Is that too much to do it then?”

“It sounds great,” she said. “And saves me from telling my parents no and sitting home alone. I can say no and that I have plans. I’ll let them know about you too.”

“Score points for me,” he said. “I don’t even have to bill insurance for figuring that out.”

She burst out laughing on the other end. “What is it you figured out?”

“Why are you laughing if you don’t know?”

“I’m laughing over the insurance comment,” she said.

“Oh. Anyway, what I figured out was that you might not want to choose between your parents for the holiday. I hadn’t realized you’d sit home alone though.”

“I normally alternated houses and Kellen and I went together. This year without him, I just couldn’t.”

“Because you saw how good Royce and Chloe were together and realized it’s nothing you’ve seen before?” he asked.

She’d told him last night it was refreshing to see two people so in love and in tune with each other.

He’d like to think that maybe he was getting there with Regan too but wouldn’t admit that.

“That’s some of it, but I’d made the decision not to see either of my parents before last night.”

“Were you going to tell me?” he asked.

“I would have,” she said.

“When?”

“This week,” she said. “Before Thursday. But now I don’t have to worry about it. I can call and let my mother know too and get it over with.”

“Let me guess, you weren’t going to tell them until the last minute either,” he said. “That you weren’t coming?”

“I was debating letting them each think I was going to the other’s without saying a word.”

He didn’t expect her to do that. To use avoidance that way.

“Now you don’t have to lie,” he said.

“Oh, there wouldn’t have been any lying. I just wouldn’t have said a word. As I said, not a problem.”

“I’ll let you tell them then as I’ve got work to do. I’ll talk to you later. You can fill me in.”

“Trust me,” she said. “There won’t be much to say different than what I expect.”

“Tell me what you expect,” he said.

“That both my parents will be accepting of the fact I’m dating. They may or may not change their tone of voice in excitement or happiness. My father won’t ask to meet you, my mother might. Kellen most definitely will.”

“You’re telling your brother too,” he said.

“I’m calling him first. I should check in with him to see how he is doing anyway. We’ve only been texting.”

“You need moral support,” he said. “Don’t you?”

“Maybe just a little. Kellen will appreciate the move.”

He snorted. “You’re the sly one. You don’t need it, but you want your brother to think you do. Why?”

She sighed. “Because he needs to think it. He’s worried he moved away from me and I’m close in location to our parents. I can handle them just fine.”

“By avoiding them,” he said.

“Touché,” she said.

“I know you better than you think I do.”

“And I’m coming to like that too,” she said.

“Was I able to give you some moral support just now?” he asked.

“You did,” she said. “And from you, I wanted it.”