Chapter Twenty-Three
Tessa
I was heading toward the student parking lot when I heard someone calling my name. I stopped and turned. It was my mother.
“Mom!” I said. “What are you doing here?”
How long had it been since we’d last talked? Since she’d walked in on me and Leo. In a way, it was hard to believe that so much time had gone by; I’d never gone that long without speaking to either of my parents. My mother was wearing dark sunglasses and a sun hat; I had the sneaking suspicion she was trying to disguise herself.
“Tessa,” she said, hurrying over. She paused when she got to me, but then opened her arms and pulled me into a hug. “Things have gotten way too out of control, with all of this. I never thought that things would get like this. Where are you staying? I’ve stopped by your apartment several times, and you haven’t been there.”
“It’s not my apartment, remember?” I said. “There was no way I was going to be able to pay rent and stay on top of my schoolwork, Mom, so I moved out.”
“And you didn’t think about telling us?”
“Honestly? You guys haven’t made it seem like you really wanted to talk to me.”
My mother shook her head. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I really am. I’ve missed you so much, and I’ve been worried about how you’ve been doing. Your father didn’t want me coming here to talk to you, but I’m not just going to cut you out of my life completely. That’s crazy.”
“So he doesn’t know you’re here?”
“I told him I was going shopping and out to lunch. He might have guessed
himself that I was coming to see you. I know I could’ve called, but I wanted to
see you in person. It’s been too long.”
“I know it has,” I said. “I’ve missed you, too. I don’t want to be fighting
with you guys right now.”
“So . . . how is everything going?”
“Pretty good. I mean, I’ve been a little stressed and really busy with
everything, but things are actually . . . good.” I smiled, thinking about Leo.
And since he had confronted Seth’s mother about the paper and they had both
agreed to just keep quiet about everything, I felt as though a weight had been
lifted from my shoulders. It seemed that things were actually working out, and
that made everything else seem more bearable.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
I was about to ask how she was doing when I saw, over my mother’s shoulder, that Leo was walking toward us. I smiled and gave a little wave as he approached, and my mother turned to see who I was waving to.
“Hey, Tessa, you want to . . .” Leo’s voice trailed off when he realized it was my mother. “Oh, hi,” he said.
My mother frowned. “Hello,” she said. “I
was just trying to talk to my daughter.”
Leo nodded. “Yeah, of course. That’s fine. I can give you guys some space.”
“That’s not what she meant,” I said, even though I had a feeling that was exactly what she wanted. “Listen, Mom. I know you and Dad don’t approve of this. And I’m sorry that you had to find out about it the way that you did, but the semester is basically over, and Leo and I are staying together. I’m living with him right now, and I don’t have any plans to move out.”
My mother didn’t say anything for a minute. Finally, she took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “That’s not what I was hoping to hear, obviously,” she said, “but I’ve realized over these past few weeks that you’re an adult, and you are allowed to make your own choices. They might not be the choices I’d make for you, or the choices I would make if I were in your shoes, but we do need to let you make the decisions in your own life.” She looked at Leo. “I’m sure you’re a very nice person,” she said. “This whole situation has just been a bit of a shock to us.”
“I don’t think any of us planned on things happening like this,” Leo said. “And I do apologize that you had to walk in and see us like that . . .”
My mother and I both blushed. “Anyway,” I said.
“I’ll give you guys some time to catch up,” Leo said. “I think that might be a good idea.”
He gave us both a smile and then strolled
off. My mother watched him go. “He is an incredibly good-looking man,” she
said, almost to herself. She sighed and turned her gaze back to me. “I’m not
going to try to tell you what to do anymore, Tessa. We have a lease on your
apartment, though, so regardless of what your father might tell you, we will
continue to pay for that because we have to. He’s certainly not going to go
through the trouble of finding someone to sublet it, and I have no interest in
that either. I suppose we can revisit the issue when the lease runs out in a
few months and see where things are. Maybe you should try giving your father a
call.”
“Why?” I said. “I thought you just said he didn’t even want you to come and see
me.”
“Oh, you know how he can be. And I know that he does happen to miss you a great deal, and that he’s worried about you. It might help if he just heard your voice, if you took the first step.”
I sighed. “I’ll think about it,” I said.
“But since I’m up here, why don’t you let
me take you out for coffee, at least? Could we do that?”
“Sure, Mom,” I said.
We went to a little café not far from the school. We sat at a corner table and I got a mocha, and my mother got a cappuccino. It felt a little strange to be sitting with her after not seeing or talking to her for a while, but it was nice, too. I was glad that she’d come to see me, even if it hadn’t been exactly what my father had wanted.
“So you really think I should call Dad?” I asked. “You don’t think he’s just going to yell at me and then hang up? Because that’s basically how our last call ended. He yelled at me and hung up.”
“Tessa, you’ve got to understand that what
has happened this past semester hasn’t been easy on any of us. We didn’t
realize that you’d gotten involved with . . .
what was his name?”
“Nick.”
“We didn’t realize that you’d gotten
involved with him, and that was why your grades suffered
to begin with. And then to find out that you got involved with a professor . . . it’s not really what any parent expects
to find out about their child.” She took a tiny sip of her coffee and then set
it down. “Now, I don’t know all the details about you and Leo—and I don’t need
to—but there were a few things that I did not tell your father.”
“About Leo?”
“I only told him that I happened across the two of you in a compromising
position. I did not elaborate any further.”
“Well . . . thanks, I think,” I said.
“Your father didn’t need to know the specific details. And I also did not mention that this whole thing started because of a grade.”
“You know,” I said, “it might’ve started
out like that. And that sounds sleazy or scandalous. It’s not the sort of story
you want to be telling your grandchildren when they ask how you and grandpa
met, I get it. But the thing is, Mom—I love Leo.”
Her eyes widened. “You do?”
“Yeah, I do,” I said, smiling. It was the first time I had admitted it out loud, but it felt good to say, because it was true. “And we haven’t said this to each other yet, and maybe he doesn’t feel the same way about me, but you know what? That doesn’t matter. Well, it does in that I’d be sad if he didn’t love me, too, but even if he doesn’t, it’s not going to change the way I feel about him. And so maybe the way we got together wasn’t the best, it wasn’t some storybook meeting, but maybe it had to happen that way because it was the only way it was going to happen. And if that’s the case, then I’m fine with it.”
My mother nodded slowly. “He loves you too,” she said. “I can tell. I could tell by the way he was looking at you.”
I felt a tingling happiness spread throughout my chest and my heart fluttered just hearing her say it.
“We want to be happy for you,” my mom said. “I don’t want you to think that Dad and I don’t want to be happy for you, or that we don’t want you to be happy. Because we do—more than anything. I don’t want this fight to keep going on. Life is too short to hold grudges like this, and it’s ridiculous to think that we would just stop speaking to you for the rest of your life because we didn’t like how you got involved with the man that you love. This is not going to turn into some Shakespearean tragedy!”
“I hope not,” I said. “And I would like nothing more than to not be fighting with you guys, either.”
My mother reached over and patted my arm. “Let me talk to your father,” she said. “We’ll get this sorted out.”