"I've lost you forever," she said with a tinge of sadness.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Look at you, all tan. You look like a regular California girl."

I glanced down at my clothes, thinking maybe I had gathered a little bit of sun after all. It was hard not to.

Once in the car my mom started giving me the ninth degree about my job.

"How do you feel about defending someone who has committed a crime?" she started out with.

"That's part of it,” I said. "Technically it doesn’t matter if they are guilty or innocent. Our job is to try and plant a reasonable doubt."

"That sounds fishy," she said, her go to word for things she disagreed with. "I don't know how you do it."

"Well it's my job," I said. "But this guy that we are defending now, I’m pretty sure he is innocent. All the evidence points that way."

"How sure are you?" she asked.

"Sure enough to present a convincing case, Mom,” I said. "You know most people would be proud if their child grew up to become a lawyer."

"Oh, I’m proud honey!" she said with an apologetic tone. "Of course I’m."

We arrived at the grocery store and exited the vehicle. I grabbed a cart on the way inside.

"How is it seeing Aiden again?" she asked. "You guys were so close. Have you picked up right where you left off?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" I said. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to answer this line of questioning. "No, it's nice. It's good to see him again. It's nice to have another friend here." My mother gave me a knowing glance as she reached for the okra. "I mean it, Mom. Now, where do they keep the crab legs?"

We returned home and started cooking. The evening turned out to be fun and relaxing for all of us. Kelsey made a batch of margaritas, and much to my amusement my mother actually had a few glasses. She was acting giggly and silly by the time dinner ended.

Though we didn’t have much of a porch to sit on we did open the patio doors and enjoy the evening breeze. It felt good to have my mother there with us. Her presence made me feel more stable than I had since I had arrived.

I watched her tell some story about an email she received from an irate customer from her boutique, the flickering of the candles reflected in her eyes as their laughter rang across the twilight. Even though I had almost forgotten she was coming I was extremely glad that she had.

Kelsey finally excused herself saying that she was tired and had an early morning. She kissed my mother's cheek and said good night.

"You have a choice on where to sleep,” I told my mother "You can either have the futon in my room, or the couch in the living room folds out into a bed."

"I don't want to be any trouble,” she said. "Which ever one is easier."

"They are both the same," I said. "Or I guess you can just sleep on the couch without folding it out."

"I'll do that,” she said. "That couch is quite comfortable, and last time I slept on a fold out I ended up with three days of back cramps."

"We don't want that,” I said. I stood and stretched. "Do you need anything before I hit the sheets?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so."

"I'll see you in the morning then,” I said, kissing her cheek as well.

I wandered off to my room, checking my phone for a reply from Aiden and feeling slightly disappointed that he hadn’t sent anything yet. Not until I climbed into bed and had just begun to drift off, I heard the soft buzz of my phone.

I reached out from under my blanket and grabbed it, swiping across the screen to open the messages. I'd love to. Just tell me when and where and I'll be there. I smiled at the words despite myself, feeling a small thrill in my stomach. I turned off my phone and pulled the blankets up to my chin. Eventually I fell asleep.

Chapter Seven

"I'll have the chicken fettuccine," I said to the waiter.

My mother had picked a mid-range Italian restaurant for us to have dinner, her treat she had insisted. Aiden sat across from me wearing a cotton short sleeved shirt, green this time which made his eyes look like the ocean. I had settled on a lavender maxi skirt and a white blouse.

Cute but casual.

I closed my menu and handed it to the server.

"I just can't get over how good looking everyone is here," my mother said.

I laughed a bit. "That's funny. You know I had the same thought during my first week here. Every time I had gone out with Kelsey I felt like the world had turned into a competition for a reality television show."

"I know," she agreed.

"It's partially true,” Aiden said with a grin. "Everyone is trying to break into show business. Even some of the bus drivers have to take days off for auditions."

"Well, what about you?" she said tapping him on the arm. "You have certainly grown into a handsome young man. Hasn't he, Blair?"

"Mom," I said in an embarrassed tone.

"Well honestly. It's not as if it's difficult to notice." She reached over and made a show of squeezing his bicep. "I haven't seen you since... It's been a while. I have only seen you here and there when you came back to visit your parents in Iowa."

"That's right,” he said.

"Well you have certainly grown up,” she said. "And this." She rested her fingertips along the edges of his tribal tattoo. "The last time I saw you, you only had it partially done. Just the black part if I remember correctly."

Since when had my mother taken an interest in tattoos, I wondered.

I didn’t want to identify what I was feeling as jealousy, but she seemed to have been gushing over him quite a bit. Plus I found it strange that she had seen him so many times apparently and had never mentioned this to me in all the time I had been away at school.

After all we had been best friends.

Our families knew each other.

I also found it strange the way she kept oohing over how much he had filled out. I couldn’t tell if maybe I was just feeling self-conscious since I had also noticed those things and here she was giving voice to them.

Finally the food arrived to hopefully shut her up and I dug into my Chicken Fettuccine with gusto.

"I don't know how I’m going to finish this," my mother said as her plate of Chicken Marsala was set before her. "Especially since I have filled up on bread already."

Aiden had ordered the steak, and he cut into it with just as much enthusiasm as I had addressed my meal. "Ms. Michaels, this is wonderful,” he said. "Thank you for dinner."

And now he has manners.

"Oh, it is my pleasure. I’m just so glad that Blair has an old friend like you to look after her so far away from home."

"Mom, I'm a grown woman. I don't need looking after,” I insisted.

"It was a pleasant surprise," Aiden jumps in trying to lighten the mood. "When I walked into the lawyer’s office to discover that my partner was my old childhood friend."

"What is it like," my mother asked, taking a small bite of her chicken. "Working together, the two of you. It's not distracting is it?"

"Distracting?" I ask.

That's exactly what it was.

"Not a bit," Aiden said, giving me a grin. "Blair is professional above all else."

He gave me a knowing look across the table and I glared back at him. I would have tried to kick him under the table but refrained out of fear that I would accidentally hit my mom.