Flowers

57

Camille

"That sounds lovely," I quietly told my mother on the phone.

As I had waited for Michael outside the house in his car, my mother had called me to plan him on joining our dinner tonight.

"I'd also like to invite a friend of mine," she spoke carefully, "his name is Thomas. I really want you to meet him, darling."

"Oh," my brows raised a tad even though she had no way of seeing it, very surprised, "that's... nice. I would love to meet him."

"Fantastic!" She sounded very relieved and I smiled, despite feeling a little confused.

Since my father's passing she had never displayed any interest in anyone else. How she had just mentioned this Thomas man made me feel like he may be a romantic interest, and was happy and excited for her. Of course to get to my mother, he had to go through me, and I held very strong criteria toward whoever wanted to date my mother.

There was a light tap on the window of the car by me, making my already very nervous self jump. To my utter horror I found Alexis standing outside the door, waving at me with a wide grin.

"Mum, I have to go. I'll see you later, I love you," I quickly hung up the call and then rolled down the window just enough to be able to talk to Alexis.

"Not surprised to see you here, doll," she cooed, for voice dipped in honey and now unbearably sweet.

I was in no mood to even try to be nice to her. Her intentions had never been close to okay, so I was left very wary and narrow-minded when it came to her.

"That's nice. What are you doing here?" My brows raised at her expectantly, just wanting Michael to be done with their talk soon so that we could leave.

"Listen, Cam," she rested her arm on the hood of the car, "I know we got off on the wrong foot, n' I'm sorry."

I grew increasingly more hesitant, gut telling me not to trust her at all.

"What do you want, Alexis?" I asked her tiredly, phone held tightly in my lap. 

"A lotta things, Cam," she shook her head with a very knowing laugh, "one is to start fresh with you. If you're gotta date my friend, we should get along."

Despite what she was now saying was what I had wanted from the start, I didn't trust her amused tone, sincerity nowhere in sight.

I sighed and gave her a tightlipped and uncomfortable smile, "now's really not a good time, I'm afraid. I'm sure we'll see each other later and discuss this further."

Alexis seemed rather taken aback, definitely not having expected me to not agree with her straight away.

"Yeah?" She gathered herself, seeming very cool again, "now's a better time than any, doll. Come out and we can hang, I'll tell you all my secrets."

"I'm busy right now, I'm sorry," I shook my head confidently, "another time, okay?"

"Get out of the car," the smile on her lips left, light green eyes very firmly on me now and all joy gone from her tone.

"No. Please, leave," I closed my eyes for a moment, already knowing this was the worst possible situation I could be in.

I should have stayed home and understood Michael had been right from the start. Still, if he had been completely honest and transparent with me, I would have understood much earlier.

As I was now here though, I wouldn't leave the car. He hadn't forbade me from doing so, but it was clear as day that I should patiently wait in his locked car with us being in a very sketchy street downtown, no knowing what kind of people I might come into contact with.