Page 71 of Better Than Gelato
“I can’t believe I’m here!” she says.
“Me either!”
She hugs me for a long time, and when she lets go she says, “When am I meeting Jake?”
“We’re meeting him for lunch right now.”
“I could not believe it when he emailed me about this trip,” she says. “I mean, what a birthday gift! And I wanted to tell you I was coming so bad when I talked to you on your birthday, but of course I didn’t want to spoil his surprise.”
When we get to the restaurant, Jake’s waiting out front with a bouquet of flowers.
“Mom, this is Jake. Jake, this is my mom.”
My mom shoots me an amused look. She’s noticed that my words are tinged with an Australian accent.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you in person,” Jake tells my mom. “You’ve raised an amazing daughter.” He hands her the bouquet of flowers. And that is how Jake wins over my mom in less than thirty seconds.
“Wow,” she says. “Thank you for the flowers. They’re exquisite. And thank you again for flying me out here. This is a real treat.” She looks dazzled by Jake, and dazzled by Italy, and I wonder if this is how I looked when I first showed up.
We find a table by the window and spend a long time choosing the perfect entree for my mom’s first meal in Italy. After we order, my mom asks Jake about his work at the lab and his plans for the fall. His answers are charming and impressive, and I feel a weird pride at how awesome he is.
“Thank you for looking after Juliet,” my mom says to Jake.
It’s a total mom thing to say. She makes me sound like a sad orphan Jake took in.
To make it worse she adds, “I’ve never seen her this happy. I’m glad you were able to win her over.”
“I think I’m nearly there,” Jake says. “She’s a hard girl to pin down.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I say.
“Well, there was that time you tried to break up with me when I told you I loved you.”
My mom bursts out laughing and nods her head like she’s not surprised.
“I did not try to break up with you,” I say mortified.
“Oh, but you wanted to,” Jake says, delighted to put me on the spot. “I could see it all over your face. The only reason you didn’t was because I was flying home to interview at Harvard the next morning. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Wow, I did not hide that well, apparently.
“Okay, well, we got past that.”
“We did,” Jake agrees. “A month after I got back, you stopped flinching every time I called you my girlfriend.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I protest, but Jake is making a face like ‘yeah it was.’
I’m saved from this terrible conversation by the arrival of our food.
We devour tortellini and lasagna and gnocchi. Jake asks my mom about raising five kids. My mom asks Jake about his family in Arizona. By the time Jake walks us to the bus stop, they are laughing like old friends.
“There’s a boy who will love you forever,” my mom says on the way home. And I think she might be right.
“Are you really the mom of Julieta?” Isa asks when we get back to the apartment.
It takes me a second to realize my mom doesn’t understand.
“She’s asking if you’re really my mom,” I translate.
