Page 32 of Secrets in Love
My last issue was the tall, curvy, sexy brunette one. Polly had sunk her claws into me, and I had been more than willing to be dragged into her cave. Within a week or two, we had gone from friends to lovers, boyfriend and girlfriend living in each other’s pockets. I doubted poor Pol expected me to break up with her by dinner when she had given me a blowjob before breakfast. Then again, very little of what occurred during our time together was expected. What was, however, was the shit hitting the fan when I told her. I could smell it already. Polly—and Mum, for that matter—were going to kill me.
Deciding to take one of the bulls by the horns, I jumped off the treadmill, picked up the phone, and called the airline. Today’s connecting flights were long gone, but I could get on one leaving the local airport at six-fifty am tomorrow, fly into Sydney, catch a connecting flight to Dallas, Texas, and then another to JFK. It would be twenty-six hours of waiting at two airports and in a giant flying tin can, but it also meant I would be back with my number-one girl in less than forty-eight hours.
Full of piss and vinegar, I jumped into the shower, dressed, and then shot off a quick text telling Polly not to come back to the farm but that I would meet her at her place. She’d only left fifteen minutes before Evie’s call and planned to return after picking up some dinner and feeding her seventeen bloody cats. Those things hated me. Each time I entered their space, they looked and hissed like I was the devil incarnate. Perhaps they were right. Maybe they foresaw what future me would do to their beloved mum.
In a cloud of dust, I passed my parents’ house and was flagged down by a less-than-impressed-looking mum.
“What the hell, Nathaniel? You’re going like the clappers. Where’s the bloody fire?”
“No fire, mum. Just in a hurry to get into town. I have to talk to Pol about something, and it can’t wait.” She leaned into the window, looked at my face, rolled her eyes, and slapped the back of my head.
“You’re going to break up with her, aren’t you? I bloody knew it!” Whack! Another slap. “Her mother is going to have my guts for garters. I told you, Nate. I told you not to go there with her, but you couldn’t bloody help yourself, could you?” On and on she went. I could not get a word in edgewise and considered just driving off. But she was leaning so far into the car I may have decapitated her in the process. As tempting as that sounded amid her berating, it wasn’t a wise choice. “Where did I go wrong? I know your father dropped you on your head when you were three months old, but surely that wouldn’t cause this. All of my friends’ kids are settling down and having babies, and you can’t help sticking your—”
“Mum!” I yelled at the top of my voice. “I love Evie, and I am flying to New York tomorrow to bring her home!”
She froze.
“Say that again?”
“I love Evie. I love her with all my heart, Mum, and I am flying to New York tomorrow to bring her home. I know it will be hard for Dad, but I’ll figure it out, I promise. And yes, I know I am doing the wrong thing by Polly, but Evie is—”
“Screw Polly!” Mum shrieked, and her whole body surged through the window till I found myself in the unenviable position of having her pretty much straddling my thighs as she peppered me with kisses—every son’s worst nightmare.
“For fuck’s sake, mum. Get off me!”
“Ohhhhhhh! Oh, Nate! I am so happy and so proud of you. I always knew you were a good boy, that you would make me proud and give me lots and lots of fat grandbabies. I can see it now. I can look after the bambinos while you and Evie work on the farm. Then you’ll come home, and we’ll all have dinner and…”
For some perspective, Mum’s parents were Italian, and it was at moments like this, where she daydreamed till her heart’s content over my future as a fat baby sire, that it showed. Mum continued to ramble while I continued to remove her from my lap. “Mum, please move. This is so wrong.”
Dismissively waving and showing impressive maneuverability for a woman her age, she slipped onto the passenger seat. A vomit-inducing thought of what she and my dad may have gotten up to on the bench seat of his old white Holden truck popped into my brain.
“Okay, Mum. I need you to get out…now.”
She stopped mid-sentence and smiled at me deliriously while clutching her clenched hands beneath her chin. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about your father. He’ll be fine for a few months. The shearing is done, the crops are harvested, and he has me and enough dickhead friends to help him out if needed. This is more important.”
“You’re sure about Dad and the farm?’
“Yes, darling. I’m positive. Now, would you like me to come with you? For moral support?”
“Would I like my mother to come with me to break up with a girl?”
“Yes. For moral support.”
“For moral support? Hmm, let me think…NO!” I leaned across the giddy woman and opened the door. “I love you with all my heart, but you’re crazy. Now please get the fuck out of my truck. I’m losing daylight. And sanity.”
“Yes, yes, alright.” She slid out of the door and slammed it shut. “On your way, son. Good luck. I’ll have lasagna ready for you when you get back. Can’t send my boy away on an empty stomach. God knows what rubbish they’ll feed you on the plane, though Qantas has lovely meals. Are you flying Qantas, Nate?”
Without replying, I dropped the pedal to the metal and left.
“Polly, are you home?”
There was no answer when I knocked. The door was unlocked, so I stuck my head in and called out.
“I’m the bedroom, babe. Just setting up lunch.”
Two things bothered me. Polly calling me babe again, and why was she setting up lunch in the bedroom? I got my answer almost immediately upon entering her perfectly styled room.
Polly was stark naked on her bed, except for the sushi strategically placed over her body’s more…private places.
