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"Aww, sorry. I'll keep my sweet nothings for this chat, then, sweet pea."
I couldn't contain my grin as I quickly tapped out a response. "Sweet pea? That's a new one."
"Haha. I'm just trying things out. You like Kitten better?"
"I like them both," I replied. "I'd like them better if I couldhearyou say them…"
"I'll use them both," he said, sending a few emojis afterwards. "And maybe sometime soon you will? If your magicky-goodness takes?"
I thought about asking him what I had asked Kinden and Sorrel. About if he considered himself my boyfriend or something more than just internet friends. I knew how Sorrel and Kinden felt, but I also was worried about getting into an argument with Rifyr like I had with Kinden. He was even more outspoken against Mother.
"Hey Rif?" I asked anyway, pushing down my fears. It had gone well with Kinden. And I hadn't even had to really broach the topic with Sorrel, he'd kind of brought it up himself. So, what did I have to lose anyway? Besides a wonderful friendship I'd cultivated for nearly a year. A wonderful, flirty friendship. But other than that…
"Still here, Zelle," he replied.
Also? He'd been the one to bring up 'sweet nothings', and sweet nothings weren't just between friends, right?
Sighing, I decided to just go for it. I began to type out the sentence, tweaking words here and there like I'd done with Kinden's.
And ofcourse, I got a notification at the same exact time. The infographic slid down over the top of my screen. I groaned when I read it.
It was from Mother. I'd have to go look at it right away or she'd think something was up.
Well, somethingwasup. But she couldn't know that or everything would come crashing down around my ears.
I deleted the sentence I'd started and typed instead,"Sorry, brb." I quickly closed down the app. I opened up my email and scanned through the message Mother had sent me.
"R, I will bring you some perisage when I come visit on Monday. I'm sorry to hear you're suffering from headaches. Maybe try some chamomile tincture in your shampoo?"
It would likely help, if I did indeed have headaches. But I didn't.
But I sent back a text in the affirmative to Mother all the same.
"Thank you so much, Mother. You really are too good to me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You are welcome dear. I will see you on Monday."
It wasn't lost on me that it was only Saturday, and she was making me wait another two days for something to help my headaches,even thoughI'd been complaining about them since midweek. But, I supposed if she'd brought it right away, that wouldn't have been in character for her. And I would also have to see her before our scheduled visit, so I didn't really mind.
"On Monday!" I replied, quickly closing down the email app and returning to the chat app to find that Rifyr had been waiting patiently for me to come back.
I was almost giddy that my plan had worked. I would have to try and not get too cocky about it. Cocky was where I started making mistakes.
"Sorry," I said. "That was Mother, she was just telling me that she'd be bringing me some perisage when she visits me on Monday."
"Wow, for real? That was fast."
"Yeah, well. I know how to play her, I guess…" I said with a mental shrug. To be fair, when I 'played' Mother, it usually only worked about half the time.
I guess I was just lucky this go around. Or I found the right combination of stressors to make her mothering instincts kick in. Or I was actually getting better at doing it.
Ormaybe this was such an easy and innocuous fix that evenshecouldn't possibly find a reason tonotdo it.
"I guess that's a good thing," Rif replied.
We were both silent for a long moment and I almost started typing my question again, but those three dots appeared at the bottom and I froze, waiting to see what he asked me first.
"Cool, so what's the ETA on video chatting after you get the perisage? Because Ihellawant to see you, Zelle."
