“Oh God, Zayd
en, what were you even thinking?” she said between laughs. “We are going to the suburbs to see my mother, in her house. This isn’t some business meeting where you have a client to impress.”
“I do have a client to impress, though,” I said matter-of-factly. “I doubt your mother will allow me to continue dating her daughter if I don’t impress her.”
“Yes, but there is a huge difference between your business partners and my mom. You can’t employ a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with human beings.”
She shook her head, still giggling, but I wasn’t laughing anymore.
“Do you think I don’t know how to deal with people?” I was taken aback.
“No, no, no. That’s not what I meant at all!” She looked horrified by my reaction. “Of course you’re fantastic with people. You have built and expanded upon a wonderful business by winning people over. Dale Carnegie would be so proud of you—”
“But?” I said impatiently. “Just get to the but, Aria.”
“But you’re a businessman,” she said meekly. “You think of every interaction as a business opportunity. Like, there is always a give and take involved. Like you must ensure certain advantages of having the interaction in the first place.”
“Well.” I frowned. “What else am I supposed to do?”
“With my mom, don’t worry about impressing her. She’s already impressed with you based on the fact that you, you know, paid off her hospital bills without even so much as ever meeting her just because you cared about me.”
“So I shouldn’t try at all?” She was really confusing me.
“No, but try less intensely. If you really want to get along with her – and notice I said get along, not ‘impress’ – then you have to find out what she is like and what interests her. Limos and suits are not those things.”
“What does she like, then? What is she like?” I was genuinely curious at this point. I had assumed that the woman who gave birth to the force that was Aria Roberts was bound to be no less fierce.
“She is very simple.” Aria shrugged. “She is an everyday woman. Very loving, enjoys feeding her children and everybody who visits her house. She likes puzzles and board games.”
“Wow,” I said thinking back. “I haven’t played any board games since I was 10 years old.”
She looked shocked upon hearing this, and her eyes widened twice their size. “What? You never play board games?”
“Is that something adults do regularly?” It was strange to think that there was a whole other world out there where people participated in activities like board games. Perhaps families spent time together that way, I wouldn’t know. My life had been unique compared to Aria’s. I wanted to be part of her life.
“Yeah, me and my roommates play them all the time. And card games, they are fun too. You never get too old to huddle around the people you love and get extremely competitive over things that don’t matter in the long run.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” I said ruefully with a little smile.
“Don’t be like that. You know what us regular people don’t get to do? Fly to the Bahamas in a moment’s notice. So don’t sit there feeling all sorry for yourself. And if you really like, we can play some Scrabble with my mother tonight, but just know that she likes to win. If you don’t let her, it’s not going to go well.”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to try too hard,” I said, now grinning at her.
“You know what I meant. Now can we please stop by a store on our way there so you can get into some regular people clothes? The limo we can deal with, but you really want to get more comfortable if you don’t want her fussing about how hard you must work that you came to visit her straight in your work clothes.”
“One condition,” I said. “You pick out the clothes for me.”
Shopping with Aria was an exciting affair, mostly because she picked out items of clothing that I would never in a million years deem appropriate for a meeting such as the one that was about to transpire. I didn’t understand how her mother was going to approve of me with slightly ripped jeans. Aria matched them alongside a navy blue T-shirt that supposedly made my eyes pop out. I shrugged since she probably knew what she was doing.
When we were back in the car, Aria looked much more relaxed then when she had first walked in. Even Ned seemed to be pleased with what she had picked out as well, to my utter confusion.
“How do you feel?” Aria asked me happily as we continued to drive along.
“I can’t really feel my muscles tighten as usual,” I joked.
“That’s called being relaxed and comfortable,” she joked back. Aria laughed endearingly. “You should get used to it.”
“I suppose.” I shrugged. “Anyways, I bought your mom a bottle of wine. Does she like wine?”