“Well, that’s an awful lot to tell. Where would you like me to start?”
“What do you with yourself?” Her eyes had gone sultry, and I had to fight the urge to vomit or take Jack’s hand or something.
Milo pulled up a chair next to Mom, but he didn’t look even slightly disturbed by her behavior. He had become too enamored by Jack and just listened for his answer.
“Not a lot really,” Jack admitted.
“You don’t work?” Mom pressed.
“Nope.” He shrugged, and this time I felt irritated that he didn’t have to work and didn’t think anything of it. Mom should’ve felt the same way, but she didn’t. “I mean, I’ve done a lot of odd jobs over the years. Like I tried some bartending for awhile and once I was tour guide for Niagara caves out in Harmony, but that was too far away so I quit. I don’t know. Nothing’s just really stuck, I guess.”
“How do you support yourself?” It was a logical question, so it kinda surprised me that Mom had even bothered asking it.
“Well…” Jack laughed a little, and both her and Milo closed their eyes, as if the sound was just too pleasurable for them to handle. “I guess I don’t really. I live with my family, and… they kind of take care of me. I guess.”
“But you’re twenty-four,” I interjected.
Really, if his family was loaded and wanted to take care of him, then I’d say, more power to you. But if Mom wasn’t going to ask the tough questions, then I was.
“I know.” Jack didn’t look ashamed at all, though, like I probably would if somebody called me out on being in my mid-twenties, unemployed, and living at home. “It just makes sense for us. I don’t know a better way of explaining it.”
“So you live with your parents?” Mom took a drag on her cigarette, keeping her eyes locked on him.
“No, they’re dead.” He said it with the same flat tone that he had before, and there was something off with it. “I live with my brothers and, uh, my sister-in-law.”
“Oh?” Mom raised an eyebrow, and she was probably excited of the prospect of their being even more guys like him. “How old are they?”
“Ezra’s twenty… six, and Mae is like twenty-eight or something, and Peter is nineteen,” Jack answered.
“Hmm,” Mom purred. This was so disturbing, and I was so glad that I had never seen my mom date anyone ever. “So, um, what about college?”
“I went for awhile, but I dropped out.” Jack shrugged again. “It just wasn’t my thing.”
“What is your thing exactly?” I asked.
As far as I could tell, working, school, having a relationship, doing anything that required any amount of responsibility just wasn’t his thing. What was my attraction to him?
Then he laughed, reminding me exactly what attracted me to him.
“I’m still figuring it out.”
“You’re still young,” Mom added quickly, trying to pull his attention back to her. “You have plenty of time to figure things out.”
“That’s what I think,” Jack agreed, and when he looked back at her, she let out a moan of some kind, and that was it for me. I’d let her stare at him enough.
“Well, we really should get going,” I announced abruptly.
“What?” Mom looked sharply at me, her face getting this stricken expression. “Aren’t you staying for dinner?”
“I misunderstood what Alice meant,” Jack explained, his voice getting overly soothing, but I decided that whatever would get us out of here without a fight was fine by me. “I already ate, and then I made plans for us. We really do have to be going.”
My mother tried to think of things to keep him trapped in the apartment with her, but I stuck to my guns. I escaped into the hall while they finished saying their good-byes, but I could still hear the unusually sweet tone to my mother’s voice as she cooed all sorts of things to him.
Once Jack finally made it out to the hall and shut the door behind him, I shivered visibly, trying to shake off what I had just witnessed.
“What?” Jack laughed, looking at me as I pushed the button for the elevator.
“Oh my god, that was so disgusting!”
“I thought that went very well, actually,” Jack smirked. “Your mom seemed to like me.”
“Ugh, she wanted to jump your bones,” I groaned. The elevator doors dinged open and we stepped in. Leaning back against the wall, I shook my head. “It was so disturbing.”
“It’s not my fault everybody wants me.” Jack laughed again and pushed the button for the lobby, and I knew he was only half-teasing.
“I don’t want you,” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Yeah, I know.” Jack got quiet and thoughtful for the rest of the elevator ride, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he was disappointed that I didn’t want him or he just didn’t understand it. He tried to change the subject as the elevator doors opened into the lobby. “So, your brother’s gay?”
“He is not gay.” I bristled and stepped out of the elevator.