The Bodyguard Affair

Bianca looked up from her mug. “You know, you’ve never told me what the story is there.”

“It’s not really that interesting. What matters is that it accelerated my leaving the family. My mom, who originally had ‘plans’ for me that included college, a career, then a husband, went straight to finding me a husband. She wanted me married off to a man who would keep me in line as soon as I was 18. Those were basically her words. She blamed herself, thought she’d done something wrong while trying to raise me in a country that wasn’t her own. Like America had broken through her motherly protection and corrupted me.”

“That’s exactly how my mom sounds sometimes when she’s talking about my sisters.”

Sam nodded. “So I know what it’s like. I also know what it’s like when they brush you off and pretend that their hurtful words and actions shouldn’t bother you so much.” She raised her mug to her lips and took a sip. When she put her cup down, she had a smudge of chocolate on one side of her mouth. “But, for what it’s worth, I think your mother already regrets how she’s behaved. She’s shocked. She’s embarrassed. She just needs to get over that. She’ll come around.”

“I don’t know.” Bianca rested her chin on her hands. “I can’t take you seriously when you have all that chocolate on your mouth.”

Sam hastily wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

Although Bianca smiled, thoughts of her mother lingered in her mind. Why is my mom the way she is? So obsessed with everyone in her family fitting some heteronormative mold? Was it money? Tradition? Something else?

She sighed. With her mom refusing to even speak to her, would she ever know the answer?