Page 44 of Wren's Winter

“We seem to have interrupted something.” Her eyes darted down to the hem of the shirt on my thighs and Adrian’s shirtless chest, then back to my hair.

“Right.” I grimaced. “Let me just…” I trailed off, leaving them alone in the living room while I ran up to the loft to find my clothes from the night before. I could hear the indistinct sound of voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Once dressed, I hesitated at Adrian’s dresser. He would need a shirt while talking with his parents. I pulled open the top drawer, grabbing the first tee I saw.

Back in the living room, I handed Adrian the shirt, settling in the spot beside him as he pulled it over his head. Gregory and Diane sat on opposite sides of the larger sofa. The same sofa we had napped the night before after he ate me out on the rug his parents were now stepping on.

“Well, aren’t you comfortable with our son?” Diane said, a weak smile on her face.

My eyes snapped to his mother, my reminiscing ending.

“Mom,” Adrian warned.

“What?” she asked, putting a square French tip manicured hand to her chest. “It’s an observation. We haven’t heard from you in weeks, certainly didn’t know you were serious about someone, and we show up to say hello and find you here in flagrante delicto with this young woman.”

Now I know where he gets his air of dramatics.

“It’s nothing serious. I’m renting the cabin across the way and…”

“Nothing serious?” Gregory asks with a laugh. “Since my parents passed, Adrian doesn’t even like us to come up here, and he’s inviting you inside their cabin?”

“Dad,” Adrian whispered with urgency.

“What? It’s the truth. I know you were close with them, but you moved out of your place in town. You stopped coming to dinner. We barely see you anymore.”

Diane turned to face me, a professional smile on her face. “Maybe you can talk Adrian out of this madness. It’s not right for a young man to be living all the way out here.”

Adrian threw his arm over the back of the couch, his fingers brushing against my shoulder. “It’s not that far from town. I love this house, and it’s only a ten-minute commute to work. But you don’t care about that. Why did you stop by?”

His mother laid a pamphlet on the coffee table. “There’s a course coming up in a few weeks. If you study now, you can pass it in no time. We can even pay for the course if you need us to.”

“Course?” I asked.

“For his real estate license,” Diane explained.

“I have a job.”

Gregory sniffed. “That job is thankless, pays crap, and will drive you to gray hairs. You’re a smart boy. You should do something more than teach a bunch of fifteen-year-olds about how to conjugate a verb.”

“Fifteen-year-olds know how to conjugate verbs,” Adrian corrected. “And that’s not why I do it. I don’t understand why you guys can’t leave it alone. I don’t care about making a bunch of money.”

“Still plenty of time to learn the business. We have a few more years before we retire and…”

“I’m not having this conversation with you guys again. I’m perfectly happy in Gran and Gramps’s cabin, being a teacher.”

“And sleeping around with tourists?”

“Excuse me?” Adrian raised his voice.

“She is one, right? Wren, you said you are staying in Agatha’s cabin? She doesn’t live here and has no roots in the community. Just another example of you not taking life seriously.”

I sat there, numb, listening to the exchange. Nothing they said was untrue about me, but for them to berate Adrian in front of me was too much. It wasn’t my place, but I couldn’t listen any longer.

“Excuse me.” I stood up, rushing out the side door to stand on the back porch. The icy air was welcome on my scorched face.

Some way to meet his parents.

I couldn’t imagine what they would think of me once they got to know me better. If they couldn’t respect his job as a teacher, there was no way they would approve of my paltry salary as a data analyst.

Wait, what? They’re never going to get to know you. Fling, fling. No future.

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