Lover (Court University 4)

She made me kiss her on the cheek after that before she filled both my kitchen and home with amazing smells. I felt bad. I didn’t see her a lot, but LJ’s plan intrigued me and I wanted to know more about the properties he sought to acquire.

Oddly enough, the files for said properties had been readily available when I’d asked for them. As it turned out, Mallick had just finalized a deal surrounding them. They were scheduled for demolition actually.

For a mini mall.

And so, the powers that be in my company had planned for what they obviously considered their own progress and had actually paid people out of their homes to do it. It’d been a fine deal—on paper. But definitely not with people in mind. According to what LJ had given me, he wanted to fix up the neighborhood.

“Are you going to work the entire night or actually interact with your mother?”

On the floor with me, Mom toed my leg in her pantsuit from the office. It’d been a long time since we’d done things like this, ate on the floor like when I’d been a kid. She had been a housewife during the days of her marriage to my father, putting away her dreams. He’d gotten locked up and she’d gotten to take them back, her love for history and academia.

Pembroke had welcomed her back with open arms. Of course, they had. She was fucking awesome.

I smirked at her above my Mac but did steal a taco off a plate she’d put together. She’d laid everything out for me to work.

“I told you I was bringing work home with me,” I said, after basically shoving the whole thing in my mouth. Again, my mom knew how I ate. I winked. “But give me two seconds. Won’t take long.”

Of course, I’d probably been saying that for like an hour now. I couldn’t help it, and I had told my mom about what I was looking at. I think because I found it sad how terribly inhuman the whole process of business, progress was. I knew it was that way—obviously. I mean, I was in the thick of it and knew no other way. I’d also been trying to mind my Ps and Qs at the office, so I’d gone out of my way not to make waves.

I felt I should make more after reading over everything LJ gave me, though. He seemed to have big plans for the city, and changes didn’t have to be bad. In fact, there were many things in Maywood Heights that could use an overhaul.

Clicking away, I went back to work but noticed my mother’s eyes still on me. She had my flat screen on while she ate, keeping herself busy with HGTV, which was basically her drug of choice.

Because it was, I definitely shouldn’t get her eye as much. Of course, she wanted to spend time with me, but when it came to work, she didn’t bug. She got it. I eyed her. “Something else?”

I knew my mom. Something else was definitely in her eyes. She started to pass it off, but then brushed taco bits off her hands. She picked up the remote, shutting the TV off.

“Uh-oh.”

“What uh-oh?” She frowned. “I can’t just talk to you?”

“You can.” But lately, she’d been delicate about it. Like there was always something she wanted to say while we ate tacos and scarfed guacamole together. I figured that had to do with our talk about therapy at the beginning of term. It hadn’t gone well, and when she found out I’d only gone to the one group session, she hadn’t been pleased. My mother never wore her worry well, and she was definitely worried, worried about me.

She crossed her legs, her arms rested between them. “There actually is something I want to talk to you about.”

“Really?” I feigned shock. “Totally didn’t pick that up.”

At this point, I really didn’t know how I wasn’t disowned, and my mother toed at me so hard I nearly dropped my computer.

Chuckling, I righted it, then tugged her over.

She sat next to me, but that worry never left her eyes. “I’ve spoken to your father recently.”

My fingers hesitated for only a second, starting an email. I was aware she was talking to him, part of her therapy, she’d said.

I said nothing, nothing to say about that. She knew I disagreed with their meetings, so no point in creating any tension.

“Aren’t you going to ask what we spoke about?”

My mom was a pusher too, the place I’d completely gotten it from. I typed on, and she sighed.

“Ramses…”

“Ma.” I gauged my time with emails between work and school. Once I finished the office stuff, I moved on to those in my inbox from professors. Those were nothing important, updates here and there and questions they’d answered from other students. Certai

nly nothing that needed my attention now, but I felt it was better placed there in that moment.

Mom angled close, her arms threading around mine. She took one of my hands off my Mac, lacing it. “He wants to see you, Ramses.”