I nodded, but had no interest in our conversation going there…ever.
The rest of the session was pretty routine. I hit the sidewalk and took several deep breaths, ridding myself of the heaviness I always feel after discussing my past and the subsequent side effects. There was still another four hours left in my workday and I needed my head clear. Putting one foot in front of the other, I took to the street and hailed a cab instead of walking so I wouldn’t be late getting back to the office. The second one of the yellow vehicles pulled up to the sidewalk, my phone rang.
“Hey, Ma,” I answered without having to even check the ID. She made a habit of calling every Wednesday at the same time, making it her personal business to help me detox from my sessions.
“Hey, sweetie. How was it?”
I held my hand over the receiver while giving the driver the address of my building before answering my mother’s question. “Eh…it went alright. More about Angel moving and stuff about Jason,” I replied, intentionally glossing over that last part.
Of course my mother ignored my attempt and went in for the kill.
“Now…I’m not one to encourage cohabitation…” she started.
I laughed at the awkward wording and because I knew what she was about to say. “Mom, I’m not moving in with him. I know you love Jason, and so do I, but…it isn’t going down.”
She sighed into the phone. “I hate the idea of you being in that big city already. But even more than that, I hate the idea of you living alone in that big city.”
I held on when the driver took a turn sharper than he intended to, nodding in response to the apology he made afterward.
“If I don’t just turn Angel’s room into an art studio, I’ll put an ad out for a roommate,” I assured her.
“Ugh, that’s even worse. A stranger, Samantha? What about your coworkers? Any of them looking for a place?”
I shook my head like she could see me. “Nope. And if they are, they haven’t mentioned it, and I’m not asking,” I said before she could suggest it. “I’ll be fine. Cross my heart.”
I smiled, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t amused.
She sighed into the phone and I paid the cab driver when we pulled up to the curb. Closing the door behind me, I decided to set my mother’s mind at ease before heading back inside to work.
“Mom, you’ve been to my place before. The area is nice and there’s tight security at both entrances. I know almost every neighbor on my floor and we all look out for each other. Relax…please? You don’t have to worry about me.” I said it, but my plea undoubtedly fell on deaf ears. She’d made it her business to worry about me for the past five years.
“I hear you,” was as good of a response as I was gonna get. “Tell Dad I love him, and I love you, too, okay?”
“Love you, too, baby. We’ll talk later,” she concluded.
Dropping my phone back inside my purse, I ran a hand up through the back of my hair and headed for the elevator. I stared at my reflection in the brushed-metal doors, assessing my sleeveless black dress while the numbers counted down from the fifth floor – Jason’s floor. Speak of the devil…
The smile that met me when the doors parted was familiar and comforting. Moving aside to let out the others who’d ridden the elevator down with him, Jason stepped back inside to accompany me to my floor, abandoning whatever plans had brought him down to the building’s lobby in the first place. Looking him over in his tailored, gray suit, I welcomed the hug that we exchanged once we were alone. My eyes closed and I felt a little of the tension leave my shoulders from earlier.
“How was your session, baby?” he asked, still holding me close while we climbed to the next floor.
“Fine…it went fine,” I said, finally releasing him. Based on the look he returned, I gathered that he didn’t believe me.
“Fine?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He let it go.