“Coffee, please.”
She nodded and then set to work making it. “It’s great to finally meet you,” she said, surprising the hell out of me. Finally?
“Umm, yeah, you too,” I stuttered, not really sure what to say because it wasn’t like I knew much about her. Nash didn’t often talk about his family. All I knew was that he had a couple of sisters who sometimes did his head in.
“Nash has talked about you a couple of times.” She continued to stun me, and I stood speechless because I didn’t know what to say to that.
Linda didn’t need me to be involved in the conversation to keep going. “Nash hasn’t mentioned any other woman since Gabriella so I figured you must mean something to him.” She paused and pinned her gaze on me before saying, “Something special that is.”
Gabriella? I had no idea who that was; Nash hardly ever talked to me about any of the women in his life. He’d once mentioned a woman trashing his heart, and I considered whether that could be who his mother was talking about.
“Velvet, did you hear what I said?” His mother was watching me carefully.
I did hear what she said but I’d been focusing on the part about Gabriella rather than on the part about me being something special to Nash. “I’m not special to Nash,” I eventually said.
Her lips pressed together and she made a funny face at what I’d said. “I beg to differ, honey.”
It felt like I was being bombarded from all directions this morning. For a start, Nash had changed towards me and was being nice, and now his mother was throwing ideas out that made no sense to me. And on top of that, I’d learnt something about Nash; he’d had a woman in his life called Gabriella. I would never have picked that; he seemed hell bent on avoiding relationships.
His mother was waiting for me to say something. “We’re friends,” was all I could muster.
She pulled a face that I assumed meant something like ‘sure, if you say so’, and then finished making coffees. She brought them to the table and indicated for me to take a seat. “Nash, coffee’s ready,” she yelled out.
He didn’t reply but I figured he would have heard her as she yelled so loud. It reminded me of the way parents yelled out when they had a tribe in the house and needed to be heard.
“So, tell me about yourself, honey. What do you do for work?”
I just about spat my coffee out. That question was always a make or break question for my friendships. A lot of people struggled with the idea that someone would choose to be a stripper. However, I loved my job and had no qualms telling people what I did; it was up to them what they did with the information. And, if they were the kind of person to judge someone based on their profession, I’d rather not have them in my life anyway. “I’m a stripper at Indigo.”
She didn’t even blink. “How long have you been working at the club?”
“Just over four years now.”
“So that’s where you met Nash?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He used to sit and talk with me after my shift some nights. He was different to the other guys there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Most guys just wanted one thing from me; they assume that if you’re a stripper you must be up for anything. Nash never did that.” I smiled and then added, “Well, your son is a huge flirt, but he never assumed anything about me and I loved that about him.”
“You said that he used to sit with you. Doesn’t he do that anymore?”
Damn, his mother didn’t miss anything. “No, he’s drifted away from me a bit lately.”
Her face softened and she looked sad. “It’s not just you that he’s drifted from lately, honey,” she said softly, “He’s going through some stuff at the moment and he’s taking it out on everyone he loves.”
“Oh.” What did someone say to that? This visit had been very enlightening but at the same time, I had more questions now than when I’d stepped foot in this house.
“Please give him some time to sort himself out. He’ll push you away because that’s how Nash deals with his pain, but please promise me you won’t let him.”
“Linda, I’ve gotta be honest with you; this has been going on with Nash for awhile now. I’ve tried to be there for him but he’s made it really clear he doesn’t want me in his life. I’m not sure what else I can do.”
She looked torn, like she wanted to tell me something but wasn’t sure if she should. “I’m not sure what he’s told you about his life, but I’m guessing not much because my boy likes to keep stuff to himself. Something happened to him a long time ago and the ten year anniversary of that is coming up next month. It was very painful for him and he hasn’t fully dealt with it yet. We’ve tried to push him to do that but he’s resisted. I’m watching him unravel at the moment, honey, and I think this year might be the one that finally breaks him. As hard as that is for a mother to watch, he really needs to go through that to move forward. And I’d like him to have as many friends around him to help him through it.”
She’d pulled my heartstrings with her little speech; my heart was hurting for him and I didn’t even know what had happened. I could only guess that it must have been pretty bad because she was right, Nash was unravelling.
I reached out and squeezed her hand, and nodded. “I’ll be there for him.”