What Happens In Vegas | ✓

20 | the parents

I stared down at my phone in disbelief, my eyes repeatedly reading over the string of words texted to me from an unknown number.

Eloise dear, your father and I have heard that you've married. We'd like to meet your husband. Text me the address and we'll head over right now.

Completely forgetting about the episode of Criminal Minds I had just been intently watching, I read the message over and over again. Obviously the text was from my mother, who I haven't heard from since I moved out for college several years ago.

I had forgotten just how demanding she was. She didn't ask if they could meet Noah, she demanded. She has no regard for Noah and I's schedules, and even after all these years she didn't even say hello? She didn't even ask how I was doing?

I scoffed to myself, deleting the text message and dropping my phone. She didn't deserve a response. I got comfy on the couch again, hearing Noah rustling around in the kitchen. He had pulled me away from work this evening to have a movie night. It wasn't very hard for him to convince me since he was shirtless when he asked.

Noah and I have been back from LA for about a week now. Every day Noah has done something special for me, both big and small. A gorgeous bouquet of roses appeared in my sewing studio with his name signed on a small card. He either made or ordered in dinner for us every night, insisting that we sit together in the kitchen and talk and eat.

I enjoyed getting to know him. Honestly, he was a lot different than I had expected him to be. I thought I knew what kind of person he was, but I was wrong. I learned that he was from a suburb of Atlanta and grew up heavily invested in science and technology, which is no surprise given his current job. He won science competition after science competition throughout his younger years, saving all of the money he won for an invention of his own.

I learned he was an only child and his dad died when he was very young. His mother had single handedly raised him, and he was proud of how he had been raised. I learned that his favorite color is green, and he's always wanted to learn how to fly a plane.

Breaking me out of my thoughts, my phone began to incessantly vibrate with several incoming text messages. I groaned, knowing that that's one thing that hadn't changed about my mother. She loved to send text after text until you responded.

Noah returned to the room, two bowls of ice cream in his hands. "Who's blowing up your phone?" He asked, plopping down next to me on the couch and handing me a bowl of ice cream.

I huffed. "You don't wanna know," I mumbled.

Noah didn't know much about my family. No one in my life really did. I wasn't close with them anymore, and I haven't been in years. I ran away from my childhood home the day I turned eighteen and never looked back.

I intend to leave them in the past. At least just my parents.

I relaxed when my phone stopped vibrating, allowing myself to curl into Noah's side with my bowl of ice cream. I nearly threw my phone across the room when it rang with an incoming call.

I forgot about my ice cream and picked up my phone, angrily answering the call.

"What," I spat.

"I know you saw my text message Eloise," my mother said angrily on the other side of the phone.

"And? I didn't respond for a reason."

She sighed. "Why do you have to be so difficult? Your father and I just want to meet your husband. We weren't even invited to the wedding."

Noah perked up, hearing what she said. I glared at the wall. "You're not meeting him."

"And whyever not?"