The Right One

Twenty one

The human conscience was indeed very tricky. Raymond had known Hope's mum for years and never in all those years had he ever hesitated whenever he saw her calls. Not one single time. If anything, he was usually thrilled to hear from her.

It was different this time around. With the guilt of what had almost happened between himself and her daughter just the previous night weighing down on him, the phone felt like hot iron in his hand, and he could only sit there and watch as it rang, her name flashing boldly on the screen.

Did mothers have some sort of sixth sense that automatically made them know these things? He hadn't even kissed Hope, but would she be disappointed in him all the same?

He felt a bit relieved when the ringing stopped. His relief however, was short lived as his heart picked up pace once more when the ringing continued almost immediately.

Drawing out a ragged breath, he finally picked the call. "Hello, ma."

Raymond winced. He hadn't even been able to call her mum as he'd have done any other day without thinking twice about it.

"Raymond, my child. How are you today?" Her voice was cheery as always and Raymond was momentarily relieved that his absurd assumptions weren't turning out to be true.

He found himself instinctively smiling at her cheery greeting. "I'm fine, ma. How are you?"

"Well, Ella is determined to deafen all of us over here with her constant wailing," she complained with a fond laugh. "Except for that, I'm very fine."

Raymond chuckled, his heart warming as he thought of the baby. Yes. She really could be a terror at times. He'd witnessed it first hand on several occasions. "Your ears will be fine, ma."

She laughed, a sound that incited joy in him. It was never until he was speaking with her he realized just how fond he was of her. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you."

Raymond suddenly felt his palms clamming with nervousness. His voice sounded weak even to his ears as he spoke, "You don't need a reason to call me, ma. I'm always happy to hear from you."

Raymond could almost feel the woman smile over the phone. "Good, because there's no reason behind this call. You were the first person I thought of this morning so I decided to call you. And Raymond?"

"Yes, ma?"

"We've gone through this a lot already. Call me mum," the woman concluded, voice soft.

Raymond winced again. What part was causing him pain wasn't entirely clear to him. He was supposed to be relieved it wasn't some sort of maternal instinct that had induced her to call him, or maybe it was, either ways, it only served to make him feel guiltier. "Yes m-mum."

"Good," she replied. Raymond's mind formed an image of her nodding, pleased. "So, how is Val?"

"Val?" Raymond repeated dumbly. Why was she asking about her niece from him? "Erm . . . she's fine, I guess."

"When was the last time you both spoke?"

Raymond closed his eyes, suppressing the headache that seemed to be forming. He was going to age quickly with all the drama that was filling his previously simple life. How he desperately wanted to go back to the time before. "Yesterday. We saw each other yesterday."

"Really? That's very wonderful to hear," she cooed excitedly. "I trust you both are getting along very fine."

Raymond hummed. Just how had he gotten himself into this mess? He didn't want to imagine just what was going through the woman's mind. "Yes, mum. We are getting along fine."