When Darkness Falls(9)

Doris was a loan officer at the largest local Chase Bank branch. She got a lot of her piano students through people she knew there. The last thing Haley had wanted was to work with her.

“I wanted to get a sense of what a counseling center is like,” Haley said. “Maybe I’ll do something with my psychology degree. Go back to school.”

The idea had been in the back of her mind for a while. It was why it had taken so long to find a full-time job. She’d wanted it to be related to her degree somehow. She thought that might help her decide.

“You should have done that in the first place.” Doris stood and started clearing the table. “I tried to call you Saturday and Sunday and got your voicemail.”

Haley hadn’t finished her food, but she cleared her plate anyway, scraping the leftovers into the garbage can under the sink. “If you’d left a message, I would have called you back.”

“Where were you all weekend? With Devon?”

“Mostly.”

Haley hesitated to say more. On the one hand, it seemed ridiculous to lie to her mother about her personal life, especially when she’d lived with Brian for the last five years of their relationship. Despite the separate apartment, her mom had more or less figured that out. On the other, it wasn’t her mother’s business if Haley spent a weekend with her boyfriend.

Doris pointed her fork at Haley. “Men don’t respect women who have sex with them. If you want this to go anywhere, you better wait. A man wants a girl with morals. He’s not going to buy the cow if the milk’s free.”

Haley rolled her eyes. Being with her mother always seemed to turn her back into a teenager. But she couldn’t resist giving her stock response. “But who wants to be a bought cow?”

Doris sliced the apricot cake she’d made for dessert. “You can make fun, but things haven’t changed that much. You’ve already got a strike against you because you lived with someone.”

“Devon’s not shocked I had sex with someone before him.”

“That’s what you think.” Doris waved her hand as if she were swatting a fly. “But what a man says and what he does are two different things. If you ever want him to marry you, you better listen.”

“He already asked me to marry him.” As soon as she said it, Haley could have bitten off her tongue.

Her mother handed her a plate with cake on it. “So soon? What’s the matter with him?”

“Nothing. He loves me. He wants to get married.”

“Are you pregnant? You’re pregnant. I knew it.”

Haley went back to the dining room. “I’m not pregnant.”

“Well, I hope you didn’t say yes. You barely know him.”

“I know him.” Haley started eating the cake. It was dry, but the apricots tasted fresh and sweet. She could head off some of tonight’s discussion by telling her mother that she hadn’t said yes or no yet. But then she’d be badgered with endless questions and advice for weeks about how she should answer.

“You can’t trust men.” Doris returned to the table.

“And I can’t hide out from them because something bad happened to me. Or you.”

“You don’t have to hide, just don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not being stupid,” Haley said.

“He could be a drug addict, or gay, or a philanderer like Brian.”

“He’s not any of those things. And since when is being gay the same as being a drug addict?”

“You can’t just tell those things, you know. Look at your father.”

“Leave him out of it.” Haley pushed back from the table and took her half-eaten dessert to the kitchen to wrap it in plastic wrap. “That’s what you always tell me to do.”

Doris followed her and put her plate of cake in the refrigerator. “He could’ve fought me in court, you know. But he gave in right away, which shows how he feels about us. Or doesn’t.”

“He didn’t think he had a chance, and he didn’t want to cause more pain by fighting everything.”

“Is that what he says? He wanted to be with his new ‘friend,’ that’s all.”

Haley slammed her glass into the dishwasher. “What was he supposed to do?”

“He could have made an effort.”

“I’m inviting him to the wedding.” Her own words surprised Haley. She hadn’t realized she’d been thinking about it. Or that she’d decided on a wedding.

“What?”

“If Devon and I get married, I’m inviting Dad—and Michael—to the wedding.”

Through most of her childhood, Haley hadn’t seen her father at all, but he’d contacted her on her eighteenth birthday through her aunt, and they’d started corresponding. If Haley got married, she wanted him there.

“Do what you want.” Doris swiped her sponge across the counter, which was already clean.

“I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, Mom.” Haley touched her mother’s hand, but Doris pulled away. “It’s just, he’s my father. I’d like him to be there with his partner. If I get married, that is.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past.” Doris walked into the living room and turned on the TV.