The Girl in the Painting

I shake my head. “I met her after I painted it, Mom.”

I know they say the truth will set you free, but in this case, the truth would only lock me inside an interrogation room with Della.

“Talk about some coincidence,” Neil contributes, and my mother nods her agreement.

And, like a fucking miracle, my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I pull it out as if it is the one and only key to my eternal salvation.

Incoming Call Nigel

“Shit, sorry,” I mutter and hold my phone up in the air. “I need to take this.”

“Ansel,” my mother sighs. “But we haven’t finished eating.”

“I’m sorry, Mom—” I stand up from my seat “—but it’s important.”

I’m not sorry. I’m fucking thankful.

“Bullshit,” Bram mutters through a cough, but I flip him the bird and answer Nigel’s call by the third ring.

“Hey, Nye, just give me a second,” I greet, immediately making a beeline for the entryway. But before I’m able to shrug on my jacket and step outside to take Nigel’s call, I don’t miss my mom saying, “I really hope I get to meet her.”

Dammit, Bram.

“All right,” my mother says, and I look up from my spot on the couch in their sun-room to see her standing in the doorway, her petite body wrapped up in a thick winter jacket, a scarf, gloves, and a hat. “I know you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you.”

It takes her all of two seconds to call me out on my lie.

“Yes, you are.” She grins, hands me a fresh cup of a coffee, and sits down beside me. “It’s thirty degrees out, and you’re sitting in the sun-room of all places. This is the coldest spot in the whole house.”

“But the view is perfect.” I smile at her and make a show of looking through the large windows and out toward their backyard. The sun has set and the sky is dark, but the glow of the moon shimmers and shines off the lake I used to swim in as a kid.

From where Bram and I are in the city, my mom and Neil live about an hour away, in a more suburban part of New Jersey. Every once in a while, the silence and serenity that comes with stepping outside of the hustle and bustle is a much-needed reprieve.

For a long moment, we just sit side by side and drink from our mugs.

Occasionally, my mother reaches out to pat my knee or my hand like only a mother can, but mostly, we just savor the quietness and the companionship of each other.

That is, until her curiosity gets the best of her.

“So, are you going to tell me about her?”

An exasperated sigh leaves my lungs. “I think you’re being a little dramatic. There’s nothing to tell.”

“I don’t think I am.” She reaches out and takes my hand into hers. “Can I meet her?”

Her question makes me grimace. “It’s not that simple, Mom.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s not mine. She has a boyfriend,” I answer, even though it makes my chest hurt. “And we’re just friends.”

“From what Bram told me, it doesn’t seem like you’re just friends.”

I shake my head. My fucking brother. “Bram doesn’t know anything.”

“Your brother knows a lot more than you think, Ans.”

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” I ask on a laugh, and she has to fight her smile. “I mean, you’re saying Bram and knows a lot in the same sentence, and it just isn’t adding up right now.”

“Okay, smartass.” She laughs and nudges my arm with her elbow. “Can I just say one thing, and then I’ll drop it?”

“I think we both know you’re going to tell me no matter what I say.”

She snorts and shakes her head. “Can you drop the sarcasm act for one minute?”

“Fine. I’ll shut up.” I make a show of acting like I’m zipping my mouth shut with my index finger and thumb.

Her responding smile is contagious, but it doesn’t take long for her eyes to turn serious.

“Relationships are hard, and marriages are even harder. But I can tell you, whoever this girl is, if she’s the one for you, if she’s meant to be an important part of your life, there won’t be any question. You’ll be able to feel it.” She gently taps the palm of her hand to the center of my chest. “Right here.”

The soft seriousness of her tone makes me keep my mouth shut and listen.

“When it came to your father and me, I thought I felt it, but when I look back, I know I never did. It wasn’t until Neil that I really felt it. That I really knew. And when I met Neil, it was awful timing, Ansel. Horrible timing, actually,” she says on a quiet laugh. “He had a girlfriend, and I was in the middle of a divorce and had two young boys. It was a total mess.”