Page 36 of Dying to Meet You
She needed to see this for herself. As if she might understand him a little better—this jerk who made her mother cry. And her mom isnota crier.
Natalie can’t say the same for the woman who came at the last minute and perched on the end of the bench. Her eyes are red, and there’s a nervous energy radiating from her body. Natalie can feel it from two seats away.
She sneaks another glance down the bench. The woman is older thanher mom and skinny. Like,bony. Her hands are clasped together, the grip so tight that Natalie almost expects to hear the bones snap. She looks like she’s climbing out of her skin.
A relative, maybe. There’s a strong resemblance between her and the dead guy. Her hair is mousier, but she has the same cold blue eyes.
It’s a little creepy. But so was Tim, and Natalie would know. Her mom thinks Natalie never met Tim. But they did meet. Twice.
The first time was on a Saturday morning after she’d stayed the night at Tessa’s. She came home early, because Tessa decided to go to the boys’ lacrosse game in Augusta, and Natalie didn’t want to waste half a Saturday on it. Lacrosse players are so full of themselves.
But when she’d popped through the front door of her house,hewas there. Just sitting in the center of the sofa like he owned the place. Scrolling through his phone. She’d dropped her backpack and kind of stared at him for a second.
Then she noticed the sound of the shower running upstairs, and when she realized the implication, a wave of distaste ran through her body. At least Tim was fully dressed, thank God.
She was swallowing her shock and getting ready to grudgingly introduce herself when she noticed what he was doing.
He was easing her mother’s phone onto the coffee table and picking up his own.
It was hermom’sphone he’d been scrolling.
Her mouth fell open in shock. Skipping right past the introductions, she’d snapped at him, “What were youdoing?”
“Just looking at our photos together,” he’d said easily. Like she was the crazy one. “I take it you’re Natalie?” He’d given her a friendly smile.
Her face went hot, and anger rose like a wave.
That’s also when the shower shut off upstairs.
She didnotwant her mom to arrive downstairs, hair still wet, trying to pretend this wasn’t weird.
Later, Natalie would feel dumb about running, but she didn’t stop to think. She grabbed her backpack off the floor and walked back out the front door again. She sat at the coffee shop for two whole hours until hermom started texting with nagging questions, and so she knew the guy was gone.
When she got home again, there was no evidence he’d ever been there. No extra coffee mug on the counter. Nothing. Mom had erased him from the house. But not from Natalie’s mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d casually set her mom’s phone down. As if that wasn’t creepy as fuck.
Then her mother didn’t mention it. And if Tim had told her mom about their awkward encounter, her mother would have brought it up for sure. Probably in the car, where her mom usually broke out the most awkward conversations, using that faked casual voice.It’s time for a friendly chat with my teenager.
But nope. No chat. Tim hadn’t said a thing about meeting Natalie.
Natalie wasn’t sure what to do about all of it. Wasn’t she supposed to warn her mother? Because ifNataliewas dating a guy who looked through her phone, she’d want someone to tell her.
But God, Natalie did not want to be the one to break the news to her mom.Hey, Mom, your first boyfriend in my entire life is a controlling creep. Sorry.
Days passed and still the meeting with Tim never came up. This seemed to prove Natalie’s point. If Tim were a good man, he’d have mentioned it.So, I met your psycho daughter and I think she got the wrong idea about me.
Or something.
Natalie didn’t know what to do, so she asked two friends. Tessa said she should just tell her mother everything. The other one said not to worry, because the trash usually takes itself out.
It didn’t. But then it did, and her mother started crying in the bathroom.
Natalie waited a whole day after the breakup before asking what happened with Tim. Her mother had said that he’d ended things. “But it’s fine,” she’d said with her puffy red eyes. “It wasn’t serious.”
Natalie expected to feel relief, but instead she felt more rage. Because her mother was feeling rejected by aloser.
She still hasn’t told her mother about the phone, because it doesn’t matter anymore, right? And she didn’t tell her about the second time she and Tim met. Same reason.
Instead, she did that thing where you rehearse what you’ll say if you ever run into the guy again.Hey, dude. You made my mother stress-eat the Ben & Jerry’s.I hope your dick falls off.
