Page 39 of Present Tense

“Ma, what do you want to say? Why the summons?”

“I’ll be right back.” She leaves the room, and my sister and I glare. We stare at each other like it’s a showdown. I’m not even sure why we’re fighting. It’s a good ten fucking minutes, and this time I break. I just want this over with.

I whisper, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Trying to have a family holiday. Eat shit, Liam.”

She looks up to make sure Mom doesn’t hear her. It’s a trick she perfected as a kid. I’d get blamed for every fight because she never got caught needling me.

“Fuck off, Lisa.” My mother cuffs me on top of my head, and I’m pissed I stooped to her level. She grins.

My mother sits and sips her wine, and her wide doe eyes flutter over the top of her glass. She pats down her insane hair sticking up out of her snow white pixie cut. Then she turns on the stare she used to pull out when were in trouble.

“Clearly, you’re trying to get the upper hand here. I’m not going to Lisa’s for Christmas, and I’m not sorry.”

“Tell me you’re protected. Tell me you know what you’re doing. Tell me anything to set my mind at ease that you’re not going to end up alone, broke, and broken.”

“Super bleak. Wow, that did not take you long to become totally unhinged. Thanks for shitting all over our hookup. This is absurd, you’re acting like I secretly married the woman.” Which might not be a bad idea, then she’d have to date me long distance. I’ll see if I can get a waiter ordained. I’ve lost my mind over that minx.

Lisa sips, then looks at me pointedly. “You don’t know her like I do. Or have heard the things about her life that I have. I’m worried about you.”

My mom sits back in her chair and says, “There are concerns.”

“With us being happy and hanging out?” I don’t flinch as I say this. “Just freaking say it. I have a much more important thing to do.” I grin at my double entendre, they do not.

My mother puts her hand on my arm. “Lisa cares. Hear her out.”

My gossip-loving sister is chomping at the bit for some sort of takedown. I nod. I’ve been dealing with this shit for close to an hour now. They’re taking their time. I finally take my coat off.

“Hit me. But know I’m not afraid to ask her about anything you say. And this is all fucking useless.”

“Good. She’ll be unable to deny or lie about it,” my mother says. Lisa has her all twisted.

I roll my eyes as my sister speaks quickly, recounting her various Jillien sources. It’s like a twenty minute monologue of ‘My husband knows Christopher’s family and my dear friend Miriam Talbot went to camp with her ex-husband’s best friend and she said…blah blah blah.’

Somehow she has multiple sources and information gathered on someone she hasn’t spoken to in decades. “She’s not who you think she is. She’s only seeing you for your money.” Of all the things she could have said, that seems rather tame. And the one I least expected.

“Thanks. Is that all?” I say, about to walk out.

“There’s more, Liam,” my mother says.

“She was horrible to her ex-husband. Emasculated him at every turn.”

“Ya done? Why do you care so much? What is it about Jillien that gets you so up in arms?”

“She stole his family home from him.” That’s insane. She continues as Ma sips her third glass of wine. Her smiles is a little crooked “They moved into his family home in Chicago when the baby was born. You know they were young, right? That Ethan was an accident.”

“Stop. He’s a kid, for fuck’s sake. Don’t call him that. And the way she talks about him, he’s never been regarded as that by either parent.”

Ma says, with a mouth full of ice that she’s now sucking on, “I agree with Liam. That was over the line, there, Lisa. Stick to the facts.”

“Fine. When she got pregnant just after college, they moved into his family home, forcing his parents to move to their other house in Palm Beach.”

“Leese, no one is forced to move to a house in Palm Beach.”

She huffs and continues this ludicrous story, “Then she tossed him out six years later, for no real reason I’m told. She demanded ownership of the house and that he buy her out for his half. Despite the fact that she hadn’t worked in a decade.”

“Perhaps she was caring for Ethan.”