Matched

"You really should tell Marina about us."

I shake my head. "I don't need the aggravation."

"She'll find out from someone at work."

"I won't invite her to any of our work functions."

"She's going to keep trying to match you with a new date," Jon says, frowning.

"I'll humor her. I said I'd help her with the app and I will. Maybe I'll help her re-design the questionnaire. She really has to think twice about moving forward with it if she failed to match either of us using it."

Jon kisses me. "It's up to you. I think you should tell her and tell her to accept it or shut the fuck up, but that's just me."

"She's my best friend, Jon."

"I thought I was your best friend," he says with a big fake pout that's only half-joking.

"You're my best male friend and my lover," I say. "A woman needs a best girlfriend to survive. I need Marina. She keeps me sane."

Jon nods, but I can tell he doesn't really believe it. I know he thinks she has far too much influence over me, but that's just because Marina doesn't really like Jon and doesn't want us together.

She's going to have to deal.

They're both just going to have to accept that the other person is important to me, and just chill.

I kiss Jon once more and then leave, taking the stairs to the front entrance and out into the clear, bright morning.

I breath in deeply, enjoying the morning, then take my car to the hospital to see my mom.

She's doing much better when I arrive and had a good night. She's even sitting up in bed, eating her snack of a cup of tea and a muffin. It's good to see her improving enough that she can sit up by herself.

We talk about everything, and then out of the blue, she asks me about Jon.

"You look happy. What's happening between you two? Did you think about what we talked about?" She raises her eyebrows expectantly.

"We decided to give it a try," I say, unable to hide my smile. "But we're keeping it quiet – at least from Marina."

"You should be honest with her. She's only going to cause you trouble if you don't tell her the truth."

"She's busy trying to perfect her matchmaking app. She needs both of us to help her."

My mom frowns. "You're not going to keep letting her set you up with dates, are you? That won't be good for your relationship with Jon."

"I'll advise her to rework her app. I don't want to go on any more of her dates, and I won't, but I can help her with the questionnaire without agreeing to date any of her picks for me. No more blindly going along."

"Honesty is the best policy."

"I know, I know," I say and kiss her cheek. "I will. Eventually. Right now, I don't want a big kerfuffle when Jon and I are just trying things out. Who knows if they'll work between us? I don't want everyone and their dog giving us a hard time. Especially not Marina."

My mom pouts. "She should be happy for you two."

"She doesn't like Jon for some reason," I say with a sigh. "Probably because he doesn't fit neatly into her view of love and romance."

"Does he fit into yours?"

I shrug. "He fits really well into everything else," I say, meaning work. Then we both laugh at the double entendre. "You know what I mean," I say.

I kiss her again and then leave, making my way home so I can do a bit of work before meeting Marina and the girls for brunch.