Page 59 of Meet Jon, the Billionaire

She poured me a glass and I drank half of it in one go. The cooling liquid soothed my palate. Once I sighed in relief, my mother smiled.

“Now that you’re done being my guinea pig, why don’t you tell me what brought you out here today?”

“Is Dad around?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“He’s off at one of his friend’s houses, taking apart a factory model Shelby Cobra and putting it back together… hopefully without any pieces left over at the end. Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

We settled in at the kitchen table and I gathered my thoughts.

“Mom,” I said. “When’s the first time you knew you were in love? I don’t mean just crushing orthinkingyou’re in love. I mean actually knowing it.”

She almost spat out her coffee. “Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting to hear come out of your mouth. What brought this on—oh! Did you meet someone special?”

“I think I have, yes.”

She chuckled. “You never did settle down with one girl, not the whole time you were growing up. Your father and I used to measure your relationships in dog years because they ended so quickly.”

“You make me sound like a playboy.”

“Well…” she said, shrugging. “If the Italian loafer fits…”

I had to laugh. “You’re right. I did change women more often than socks, but this time it feels different, Mom. I can’t get her out of my head.”

“How long have you been dating?”

“A week, maybe.”

Her mouth formed an O. “Now that is interesting. You’re at this stage already, which means one of two things.”

“What’s that?”

“Either it’s Limerence, which can seem a whole lot like love, or it’s the real thing.”

“What the heck is Limerence?” I tried not to cuss in front of my mother.

“It’s a French word… it means a kind of infatuation-crush. Really intense. You can’t get the person off your mind, can’t hardly get anything done… it’s hard to describe.”

“Oh.” I sighed. “I think you’re doing a pretty good job describing how I feel. I guess it is just Limerence.”

She gave me a look. “Maybe you should wait until I finish before jumping to conclusions? Limerence and love have a Venn diagram that shares an awful lot of attributes.”

“Then how can you tell the difference?”

Mom sighed and leaned back in her chair. She puffed on a vape, which almost made me fall out of my seat.

“Mom, what the heck?”

“It’s safer than smoking.” She shrugged. “And I can do it in the house because it all smells like strawberries. Now, when it comes to Limerence, I can only tell you my own account of it.”

“With Dad?”

“No, before I met him.” Her eyes grew distant. “When I was a freshman in high school, I played second chair flute in the school band. Our first chair clarinet was a boy named Bryce. God, he was so gorgeous… I started to daydream about him. Not just in a prurient way, but I started to think he could help me solve all my problems. That he could complete me, somehow.”

I pursed my lips, unsure of what to think.

“Anyway, I guess I stared too hard or too long, because then one of my friends caught on that I was into him and tried to make introductions.”

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