Page 139 of Sapphire Spring

“Fair.”

“Also, I haven’t touched my wallet in a month, so if youwant ten bucks, you can probably just take it.”

His mother’s voice came from the doorway. “Naser, what isthis? You are on him like a worm.”

“I’m stuck! It took twenty minutes to get in this position,and now I don’t know how to get out.”

Mahin exhaled loudly and started for the bed. “I will helpthen.”

“Fine,” Naser said, “but don’t judge me. If a man ever savedyour life, you’d be on him like a worm too.”

She lowered the guardrail on the side of Mason’s bed with aloud clack. “I do not get on men like worms. This is a terrible way to talk toyour mother. Hold my arm.” Naser did, and a few seconds later, she’d helped himwiggle out from under.

Once he got to his feet, she began brushing the shouldersand lapels of his shirt.

“Seriously, though, didn’t Dad ever do anything that made itimpossible for you to keep your hands off him?”

“Yes. His recliner would get stuck, and it would take me anhour to get him out. I need some time alone with Mason. Go and get a coffee orsomething.”

Naser’s smile faded, and he looked to Mason. “Well, that wasan abrupt transition.”

“Go,” Mahin said, and patted her son on the backside like hewas three.

Naser complied. Sort of.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mason saw his boyfriend drawthe door almost all the way shut, save for a few inches. He took up a hidingplace on the other side.

Mahin walked to the windowsill and made a show of fluffingthe flowers lined up there. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. You?”

Mahin waggled a hand in the air, and a silence descended.

“If he had told me about you before you saved his life, Iwould have done everything I could have to destroy this relationship.”

Mason was shocked silent.

“But then you went and drove off a cliff for my Naser, sonow I cannot say this without seeming terrible.”

“You actually did just say it, Mahin.”

“Well, don’t get me wrong. It’s not because you are a man.”

“I know why it is. But I did, you know, drive off a clifffor him and all.”

“This is true, and that is why I did not say it.”

“You did actually say it, but okay.”

“It’s why I did notdoit. It’s why I’m giving thismy blessing even though I haven’t been asked. But you must tell me, what is itI am blessing? What are your intentions with my Naser?”

“To love him. To love him the way I’ve wanted to from themoment I first saw him.”

Mahin studied him, nodding slowly. “That is a good answer,”she whispered. “But I am not done. What do you know about what happened in mycountry in 1979?”

Behind the door, Naser threw his hands out and made anexpression of astonishment. Mason waspretty startledtoo.

“The Iranian Revolution?” Mason asked.

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