Page 52 of Unwrapped

Miranda comes walking down the stairs, holding Sadie in her arms. The minute she puts her down, Sadie saunters over and starts to sniff at Mr. Moore. When Mona sees her daughter, she smiles for the first time. Both women run to each other, both hugging and crying as if they hadn’t just seen each other yesterday. I look at Mr. Moore, and he rolls his eyes at me, but when he turns back to his daughter and wife, he smiles.

“Baby girl,” Mona says, looking at Miranda up and down, “we’ve come to take you home. Let’s go.” She starts to walk her toward the coat closet, but Miranda shrugs out of her mother’s arms. Her father takes her and hugs her.

“I thought you came for brunch, Mom. Nick spent a lot of time cooking.”

Mona finally looks my way, her face tight and her lips pressing together. Nigel opens his mouth, but Mona speaks over him.

“This is what’s going to happen. You’re coming home, and we’ll forget about this whole thing, and we’ll never have to see his face again.” She speaks rapidly as she reaches for Miranda’s hand, but I don’t miss the dirty look she throws my way.

“Jesus, woman, that’s not what we talked about,” Nigel says.

Miranda yanks her hand from her mother’s and comes to stand next to me. I put my arm around her waist, lean down, and kiss her on the cheek.

“Mom, I love you, but I love Nick too. I’m not going home and forgetting this ever happened. We’re together. I’m sorry you found out the way you did, but that was my fault. He wanted to tell you right away, but I wanted to wait. I regret that, but we’re a couple. I hope you can accept that and get to know him, Mom, because he’s amazing, but that’s up to you. That’s the only thing that’s up to you, though.”

I smile at my girl, so proud of her words. I intertwine our fingers together and lift her hand to my lips.

“You live under our roof,” Mona says. Miranda’s eyes widen as she stares at her mother.

“Are you saying I’m no longer welcome at home if I don’t break up with Nick? You’re putting me out because I fell in love?” she asks, incredulous.

“No, she will do no such thing,” Nigel says, looking at his wife. He looks at her, his eyes wide until she finally looks away. “Our daughter has always been free to love whoever she wants, and that ain’t about to change, woman,” he says, pointing at his wife.

“Miranda, you never gave Glen a chance.” She’s frantic now as she looks around. I’m two seconds away from kicking her out of my house. “Nigel, Glen is half Jamaican. You’ll like him.”

“Woman, it don’t matter if this Glen is half superman. Our daughter don’t want him. She’s with someone else.”

“I don’t like it!” Mona says. The tone of her voice causes Sadie to growl at her. “After everything I told you about the way he treated me?”

I try really hard not to roll my eyes, and I’m proud of myself when I succeed, but her words still upset me. Before I can say anything, Miranda speaks up.

“How has he treated you? By asking you about your role in the company? Because he broke a mug? You told us he apologized for that, by the way. Or was it because he was rude to you the first day? Do you ever consider that maybe he had a bad morning? Maybe he had things going on in his life that had nothing to do with you, but things that hurt him? No! It’s always about what he’s doing to you, but you never consider he might have his own problems. You know what? Fine! You don’t have to accept us. I was hoping you would, but you’re entitled to your feelings, and I’m not going to beg you to accept my relationship.”

The tears start as soon as she says the last word. She buries her face in my chest, and I kiss the top of her head.

“Don’t cry, sweets. It’s okay, baby. I promised you we’d fix this.” She lets out a tearful sob before pulling away from me and running upstairs.

The three of us stand there, looking at each other. No one saying a word.

“Mona,” I say, my voice calm even though I’m fighting for every ounce of control. “The morning we met, I had just found out my ex-girlfriend, the woman who stole fifty thousand dollars from my business, would not serve any jail time. So, excuse me for acting like an asshole. And I sold the business, by the way. It did not tank, and I didn’t need my uncle to give me a job. He asked me to take the job as a favor to him. The mug was a damn accident.” I stop speaking long enough to take a deep breath. “I don’t care how you feel about me. Honestly, that doesn’t matter, but I won’t have you upsetting Miranda. She’s done nothing but stress about telling you, but the cat’s out of the bag now. Deal with it or not, that’s up to you.”

She looks at me, her eyes holding mine, and I don’t back down. I hold her stare.

“I won’t have you disrespecting my wife,” Nigel says.

“No disrespect meant, Mr. Moore. I would never disrespect anyone that Miranda loves.” This time I hold Nigel’s hard stare, neither one of us willing to back down.

“She’s my daughter,” Mona says, eyes like slits as she takes a menacing step toward me. I stand my ground and hold her gaze. “For the past twenty-three years, she’s been mine. Don’t think after less than a month of this so-called relationship, you can waltz in here and tell us how things are going to be. You think you can just take her from us?”

This time, it’s me who takes a step closer to her.

“That’s the last thing I want, but whether you like it or not, whether you accept it or not, she loves me.” I point to myself before I continue. “And I love her too. Do you know how much? Sometimes I wake up in the night just to watch her sleep. Whenever her hand brushes against mine, I lose my damn mind. I live for her smile. I’d lay down and die for her if I had to. That’s how much I love her. I’m not going to let her go, Mona, so we have to come to some accord, otherwise Miranda will be stuck between us. She’s the one who is going to get hurt, and I’m not about to let that happen. I’d like a truce.”

Mona doesn’t say anything. Her eyes don’t soften at all as she shoots daggers at me. I don’t look away, refusing to be the one who breaks the stare first.

“Let me speak to my wife alone,” Nigel says. I direct him to my office, and he takes Mona’s elbow, practically dragging her down the hall. Sadie barks and follows them until I hear the office door open and close.

Several minutes later, I decide to go find Miranda upstairs, but she comes down before my foot hits the first step. The tears are gone, and I can tell she’s washed her face. The second I open my arms, she runs into them.

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