My mind was racing.
Should I tell her about Ryan?
At home. I’ll tell her at home.
Should I go to Savannah, and have Ryan go to Athens, and then meet him later?
Yeah… yeah. That sounded good. I would do that.
“Sounds good, Mom. I’ll book the flight and call you back soon.”
“Okay, honey. I’m looking forward to seeing you!”
“Me, too.”
“Okay, well – love you, Kaitie-bear!”
“Love you, too, Mom.”
I hung up the phone. And then things got even more complicated.
61
I went into the studio to find Ryan. He was hard at work on a piece of music on the computer.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey, what’s up?” He grinned, pulled me down into his lap, and started kissing me. “You lookin’ for a little ‘afternoon delight’?”
“Um… that sounds great… but actually, I just got a call from my mom.”
He backed off and got a mildly concerned look. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah… she just wanted me to come visit before my brother goes back to college, and since we’re already flying back together in a couple of days – ”
His entire face lit up like a pinball machine. As in, super-happy. “You want me to meet your parents?”
“…what?!”
No. NO. BAD IDEA.
He could read me like a book, and his expression fell accordingly.
“…or not…” he said, failing to hide his disappointment.
I tried to recover. “No! No, I mean… I just hadn’t thought about it, that’s all.”
“It’s cool, I just thought you meant – ”
“No, I mean – I’d
like
you to meet my parents, I just… you know, I didn’t think you’d
want
to, since we’ve only really been
seeing
each other for a couple of weeks… officially.”
“You’ve met
my
parents.”
“Pff, yeah, like, four years ago, when we weren’t dating.”
It sounded harsher than I meant it, like I was totally blowing him off.
I winced as soon as I said it.
Ryan, God bless him, was trying to keep sanguine about my lack of enthusiasm. “It’s cool. Don’t worry about it, I just jumped to conclusions, that’s all. My bad.”
Now I felt horrible.
“No – no, really, it’s fine, I just – I
want
you to meet my parents. I do. I just – I just hadn’t figured on it being so soon.”
He nodded, totally understanding. “It’s a little early.”
He was totally giving me an out.
Did I take it?
No, of course not.
Being the dumbass that I am, I tried to make him feel better instead.
“No… you know… it’s not
that
early, really…”
Unfortunately, he took me at face value. “I guess you’re right. Seeing as we’re pretty much moving in with each other in Athens.”
‘Moving in with each other.’
HOLY SHIT.
I jumped up off his lap and began pacing back and forth in a panic.
“…Kaitlyn?” he asked worriedly.
“I’m – hold on, just give me a minute.”
“I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
“I know, I know, I just – ” I took in a big breath and then blew it out. “I mean… I hadn’t actually thought about it like
that
… like, you know… us
moving in
with each other.”
“Bad choice of words.”
“No, no – it was fine – it was – I mean, we’ve been living with each other for almost two months now anyway, right?” I gave a short, forced laugh. “I mean – we already
did
sort of move in together, right?”
“No, it’s… it’s a lot. I wasn’t thinking. I can get you your own place in Athens so you can have somewhere to go whenever you need space. No big deal.”
He was so incredibly sweet.
I walked over to him and put my hands on his face and kissed him.
When I pulled back, he kept his eyes closed dreamily for a second… and then looked up at me. “So… is that a ‘yes’ on getting your own place?”
“No.”
He frowned slightly.
“I just freaked out, that’s all,” I said. “I want to live with you. I want to stay with you. And I want you to meet my parents.”
“…really?”
“Really.”
He was incredibly happy once more. “That would be awesome.”
“I just… need to call my mom and make sure she’s okay with that.”
“Okay.”
“Alright, I’ll… uh… let me go do that.”
He grinned at me. “Okay.”
I was about to walk out when I turned back. “But – all my stuff’s up in New York. Well, it’s not
much,
but I’d need to – ”