Just a Little Sugar

Butter

Mark was on the phone with Richard when his mother knocked on the door. He walked over to the door and flung it open turning away before she could even say anything.

"So you're saying she's not human" Richard was saying over the phone

"No I'm saying she didn't want money. And that's unusual" Mark replied as his step mom carted the things she'd bought into the kitchen. The maid behind her.
Clutter made Mark nervous so he looked away as she dumped everything she'd bought carelessly on the kitchen counter. He ground his teeth together.

"I'll  clean it off soon enough" his step mom said, "Don't fret"

"Whatever" he murmured and made his way out of the working area of the kitchen to the lounge area.

"So have you told your mom?" Richard asked.

"Step-mom" Mark replied, "And no. I haven't. What's the use?"

"She worries about you" Richard said, "A lot"

"Is that you or Rahmat speaking? Because I hear them having one too many conversations over the phone" Mark replied

"It's both of us. We're a team now" Richard replied.

"What's going on Richard? Did you get  in trouble with Rahmat?"

"Nah. We're doing couples therapy" Richard replied.

"So early. I thought that was for couples that have been married for a while"

"Well we're working through some some stuff and we kind of need it."

"What's going on Richard? "

"It's nothing"

"Well it's clearly something if you're doing couples therapy. Did you cheat?"

"I did not cheat!" Richard said a little too loudly.

"You're getting defensive. You did something"

"Mark, I can't talk about this right now. I have to go"

"Wait... Rich.. " Mark said but Richard had ended the call. "Wow" Mark said as he dropped his phone on that table and rested his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.
He heard the sound of something falling from a height. He turned round just in time to see Sheila bend to pick something off the floor.

He walked over to the work top. The work top he'd fallen from just hours before.

"Hey" he said to her

"Hey" Sheila said smiling. "Hungry?"

"Not really. I could eat though" he said.
As much as Richard loved to make him feel terrible over the lack or inadequacy of a relationship with his step-mom, Mark knew he had gotten better. His one worded replies had slowly morphed into sentences and he was slowly starting to see her as more than Sheila the girl who married his father.

"There's efo but I can make spaghetti if you'd like." she said. She knew he didn't like Vegetable soups but he'd eat them for sake of being polite.

"Sure." he said pulling out a chair and sitting beside her. He gritted his teeth again.

"I'm sorry about the mess. I'm just stocking up for the month. "