“So…” Mom blew out a smoke ring and gazed intently at Jack. Her features still had that same rigid, worn look they always did, but there was something extra in her voice. “You must be Jack.”
When she accented his name, that’s when I realized what it was. She wasn’t as overt as Jane had been, but the look in her eyes and the tone to her voice… it was definitely seductive. Not that I really should’ve been surprised that she’d react to him the same way everyone else seemed to, particularly women, but I couldn’t help but feel my stomach twist nauseously.
“And you must be Alice’s mom,” Jack grinned at her, authentically this time. He had leaned back against the counter again and crossed one foot over his ankle, bouncing the toe of his blue Converse on the tile.
“Anna.” This time, my mother actually did a “casual” lick of her lips when she looked at him. I rolled my eyes, then looked to Milo to see if he noticed her being so ridiculous, but he was no help. He just stood in the middle of the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest, staring at Jack. I realized then that I could continue cursing Jack’s unusual ability to be attractive to everyone, or I could use it to my advantage. If Mom liked Jack, then she wouldn’t object to him.
“Anna.” Jack repeated, and my mother looked down, flicking her cigarette in the ashtray.
“So tell me about yourself.” Her eyes went back up to him, and they had never looked so young before.
In actuality, my mother was only thirty-four, but she usually looked much older than that. But when she looked at Jack, there was this girliness underneath that came through. Suddenly, I could see how beautiful and radiant she must’ve been when she was young, before she had me. Feeling an odd protective jealousy, I hoped that Jack didn’t notice it.
“What do you want to know?” Jack tilted his head at her.
“Everything.” She was being coy, and that should’ve (and actually did) creep me out a bit, but her answer excited me. Given the situation, she would be able to ask him questions, and he would answer. Not vague little sidesteps like he did with me, but real, legitimate answers. Because she was my mom, and that’s what people did when they were interrogated by parents.
“Well, that’s an awful lot to tell. Where would you like me to start?”
“What do you with yourself?” Her eyes had gone sultry, and I had to fight the urge to vomit or take Jack’s hand or something. Milo pulled up a chair next to Mom, but he didn’t look even slightly disturbed by her behavior. He too had become too enamored by Jack and just listened for his answer.
“Not a lot really,” Jack admitted.
“You don’t work?” Mom pressed, and this fact that should’ve sent her into a glowering tirade of disapproval, just seemed to make complete sense to her.
Of course Jack didn’t work. Why would he, when he was just that fabulous?
“Nope.” He shrugged, and this time I felt irritated that he didn’t have to work and didn’t think anything of it. Mom should’ve felt the same way, but she didn’t. “I mean, I’ve done a lot of odd jobs over the years. Like I tried some bartending for awhile and once I was tour guide for Niagara caves out in Harmony for awhile, but that was too far away so I quit that. I don’t know.
Nothing’s just really stuck, I guess.”
“How do you support yourself?” It was a logical question, so it kind of surprised me that Mom had even bothered asking it. She looked like the only two questions that mattered to her was what he was going to be doing in ten minutes, and if he wanted to be doing it with her.
“Well…” Jack laughed a little, and both her and Milo closed their eyes, as if the sound was just too pleasurable for them to handle. “I guess I don’t really. I live with my family, and… they kind of take care of me. I guess.”
“But you’re twenty-four,” I interjected.
Really, if his family was loaded and wanted to take care of him, then I’d say, more power to you. But if Mom wasn’t going to ask the tough questions, then I was going to have to. After all, I didn’t really understand him at all, and the more information I could gain about why he did what he did, the better it would be for me.
“I know.” Jack didn’t look ashamed at all, though, like I probably would if somebody called me out on being in my mid-twenties, unemployed, and living at home. “It just makes sense for us. I don’t know a better way of explaining it.”
“So you live with your parents?” Mom took a drag on her cigarette, keeping her eyes locked on him.
“No, they’re dead.” He said it with the same flat tone that he had before, and I couldn’t explain it, but there was something off with that. “I live with my brothers and, uh, my sister-in-law.”
“Oh?” Mom raised an eyebrow, and she was probably excited of the prospect of their being even more guys like him. “How old are they?”
“Ezra’s twenty… six, and Mae is like twenty-eight or something, and Peter is nineteen.” Jack answered thoughtfully.
“Hmm,” Mom purred, and oh my god, she really was thinking about his brothers! This was so gross and so disturbing, and I was so glad that I had never seen my mom date anyone ever. “So, um, what about school?”
“I went for awhile, but I dropped out.” Jack shrugged again. “It just wasn’t my thing.”
“What is your thing exactly?” I asked.
As far as I could tell, working, school, having a relationship, doing anything that required any amount of responsibility just wasn’t his thing. What was my attraction to him? Then he laughed, looking over at me with an expression that was almost proud, and I remembered exactly what it was.
“I’m still figuring it out.”
“You’re still young,” Mom added quickly, trying to pull his attention back to her. “You have plenty of time to figure things out.”
“That’s what I think,” Jack agreed, and when he looked back at her, she let out a moan of some kind, and that was it for me. I’d let her stare at him enough.
“Well, we really should get going,” I announced abruptly.
“What?” Mom looked sharply at me, her face getting this stricken expression. “Aren’t you staying for dinner?”
“I misunderstood what Alice meant,” Jack explained, his voice getting overly soothing, but I decided that whatever would get us out of here without a fight was fine by me. “I already ate, and then I made plans for us. We really do have to be going.”
My mother tried to think of things to keep him trapped in the apartment with her, but I stuck to my guns. I escaped into the hall while they finished saying their good-byes, but I could still hear the unusually sweet tone to my mother’s voice as she cooed all sorts of things to him. Once Jack finally made it out to the hall and shut the door behind him, I shivered visibly, trying to shake off what I had just witnessed.
“What?” Jack laughed, looking at me as I pushed the button for the elevator.
“Oh my god, that was so disgusting!” I exclaimed.
“I thought that went very well, actually,” Jack smirked. “You mom seemed to like me.”
“Ugh, she wanted to jump your bones,” I groaned. The elevator doors dinged open and we stepped in. Leaning back against the wall, I groaned and shook my head. “It was so disturbing.”
“Its not my fault everybody wants me.” Jack laughed again and pushed the button for the lobby, and I knew he was only half-teasing. For some reason, everybody did want him, and I wish he would just tell me why.
“I don’t want you,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Yeah, I know.” Jack got quiet and thoughtful for the rest of the elevator ride, but I wasn’t sure if was because he was disappointed that I didn’t want him or he just didn’t understand it. Then, in an attempt to fix my mood, he tried to change the subject as the elevator doors opened into the lobby. “So, your brother’s gay?”
“He is not gay.” I bristled, then stepped out of the elevator. It wouldn’t really bother me if Milo was gay, but he wasn’t. I mean, I would know if he was.
“Oh, so he hasn’t told you yet.” Jack shoved his hands in his pockets, following me as I hurried outside into the cold night air. Once we got outside, I realized that I didn’t know where he’d parked or even what car he’d driven, so I stopped outside the door and waited for him.
“There’s nothing to tell,” I insisted. He turned to the left, walking a little ways down the block, when I saw his Jetta, sitting in an amazingly good parking spot. He always got good parking spots, like luck was constantly on his side.
“Oh, come on,” Jack scoffed. “You had to have noticed the way he looked at me.”
“Everyone looks at you that way.” I tried to think back at everyone gaping at him and I couldn’t remember if the guys had been doing it too. Everyone reacted to him in a very friendly fashion, like the way the crowds parted for him at the concert, but I was pretty sure that guys hadn’t given him that particular look, not the ones like my mom or Jane.
“No, everyone does not.” Jack played with something in his pocket, and the Jetta beeped loudly, announcing the fact that it was unlocked.