"Mom, the pepper spray is to ward off an attacker. How am I to contact you and Dad, and you come to help me before the attacker hurts me?"
"Exactly!" She raises her hands in the air, waving them at me and turns her attention to Grandma, who is chuckling and shaking her head.
Sometimes, I don't get my mom. She is in her own little world.
"So, your roommate is hot!" Aria leans in and whispers rather loudly.
I nod. Yeah, Jamie is good looking. Very good looking. The problem is, he knows it. He thinks he is the sexiest thing to walk the Earth since Prince first stepped into platform boots. Oh, and he's a tremendous flirt. He has hit on every single female in the program. Most of which have fallen for his charms.
While I don't mind so much that he's like that, but it makes me a little nauseated that he uses his father's death as his opening line to pick up the ladies. It's just so slimy.
Other than that, he is quite smart and we work well together on our projects. At the beginning of the program, they teamed us up in groups of three. It's me, Jamie and another guy, Matthew. As a team, we work well and our projects always please the instructor.
Matthew is married. How do I know this? He tells everyone. Points to his wedding band and tells anyone listening how wonderful his wife is. So, he obviously isn't secure in his marriage. I feel bad for the guy. I think he is a little afraid of her. I overheard a conversation they had once on the phone. He just nodded a lot with plenty of 'yes dear' and 'of course dear' peppering the conversation.
"Yeah and he knows it. If you are interested, I can let him know. He will be more than happy to tap your ass, as he so eloquently refers to sex...all the time." I roll my eyes as I play with my spoon but glance up and see Aria's eyes darting around the room nervously.
"Uh, that's okay. I am taking a break from the whole sleeping around thing. I just wanted to mention that I approve if you were interested in him. So, feel free to ‘tap his ass’ if you wish. Ha...ha...ha."
Aria's nervous giggle is weird. I have never seen her uncomfortable talking about sex, or men, or sex with men. Something is up with her.
"Is something going on Aria? Oh my God! Do you have VD?"
She frowns at me shaking her head.
"No! I don't have a disease. There is just a guy I like and I kind of want to only be with him. That's all."
"WHAT?!!" I shriek and my parents turn to see what is going on.
"Oh my God! Aria has a boyfriend! I never thought this day would come. How was I not aware of this? Is he a vampire or something, only coming out at night?" I laugh as I look back at her as she cringes.
"Wow. That is great news Aria. Here’s to Aria and her new love!" My dad announces picking up his glass again. He is in his element. There is nothing he loves more, other than baseball and old war movies, than making toasts. I remember in ninth grade I came home and told my dad I dissected a frog in science class. He grabbed a beer, gave me a root beer, and toasted to my dissected frog.
"Love is overrated!" My grandma blurts out while folding her arms over her chest. Which, I might add is looking pleasantly plumped up today. Her very low cut plum colored wrap dress makes her look much younger than her seventy some years. Her blue hair is up in an elegant French twist and long gold earrings dangle from her ears, accentuating her long neck. If I didn't know better, I would think my grandma is trying to get her groove on. She’s also eyeing every male in the room in the twenty-five and above age bracket as if they were a delectable dessert.
Grandma doesn’t look happy with Aria’s news. She likes to win and once she has her mind set to something she won't back down. She is going to have me and Aria marry each other if it's the last thing she does.
"Well, I think love is a beautiful thing Aria. I am very happy for you. I hope you bring him to the welcome home dinner I am having in two weeks when Morgana comes home. We would love to meet him."
My mom smiles over at Aria who appears to be having some sort of panic attack as her chest rises and falls rapidly.
"Uh, I need to get some fresh air for a few minutes. I'll be right back." Aria stumbles up and races toward the restrooms, her green swing dress shimmying as she goes.
She is just not used to dealing with relationships with men. I think she might be a little overwhelmed from all of the attention. I give her a few minutes and then excuse myself from the table to look for her. After finding the women's restroom, I push open the door to a brightly lit but darkly decorated room. The long room has brown subway tiles lining the walls, and dark beige granite counters with three steel sinks. The dark beige compliments the cream-colored stalls on the far side of the room. The first two stalls are wide open, but the last one, the handicapped stall, is firmly closed.
Looking under the door, I don't see feet but I hear ragged breathing.