Chance

Chapter 4 - Just Try

The phone rang and rang. As soon as I was about to remove it from my ear, a breathless voice answered, "Hey, Sweetie. Is everything okay?"

"Hey, Mom. I'm good. Are you busy? I can call back later if you are." I twirled my hair around my finger, listening to pots clattering in the background. Muffled voices and hurried footsteps drew my attention away from everything in my life. The hustle and bustle around her was a nice distraction.

My eyes drifted to the muted TV. I was hoping to speak to my mom in peace and that seemed like it wasn't going to happen.

"I'm taking a break, let's chat. How's Cami doing? I hope she isn't getting into trouble. You know that girl is a wild one," My mom, Charlotte, chuckled softly. The sight of the little wrinkles that formed at the corners of her eyes every time she smiled floated through my mind.

There was only one word that was able to capture what she looked like. Stunning. Even that felt as though it wasn't enough. She almost always wore her curly hair pulled back into a bun. That was her signature. Growing up, my mom never had a hair out of place. She could have been working at her bakery for ten hours straight but when she walked out, she still was put together. The only sign of how she truly felt was the way she struggled to keep her eyes open at the end of the day. Her brown eyes lit up every room and the way she laughed, oh, the way she laughed made my heart grow. It was such an infectious sound.

She was my favourite person. No one compared to her in the slightest.

"Cami's been surprisingly tame these days. I'm seeing her giggling at her phone a lot these days which makes me think that she's talking to a new guy. She hasn't said anything yet though and I'm getting impatient. If I have to wait another week I'm going to steal her phone and snoop." Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. It wasn't any of my business but not knowing was annoying, "I'm going to find out sooner or later."

My mom snorted on the other line, "You need to chill, as your brother says. When she's ready to talk about it, you know you'll be the first person she tells," She hummed, the tone of it was all too familiar, "So what's new with you, is there something that you need to tell me?"

Ugh.

Tugging on my hair, I mentally slapped myself. My mom always had a way of knowing, "I went out with Ben yesterday."

Coughing immediately took over the phone call. I pulled my cell away from my ear and put it on speaker, the volume of it was too much to take.

"Why'd you do that?" Her voice was mellow and soothing, the coughing fit long forgotten. I heaved a sigh and relaxed into the couch and put my feet up on the coffee table.

There wasn't another way to say it. Straightforward was the best way to go, "I signed up for a dating app and it matched me with him so I'm going for it." So what if I left out a very crucial part of why I went out with him? That part wasn't important.

"Is that the only reason?" She asked, the way her voice changed was a clear indication of her skepticism. She sounded so tired and it was only three in the afternoon.

"It's not the only reason but I really don't want you talking me out of it, Mom. I need to do this for myself."

There was a long pause in the conversation, the heaviness of it making my heartbeat speed up. I never wanted to disappoint my mom and with that in mind, I also knew she'd never approve of what I was doing. I didn't bother trying to trick myself into thinking that she believed my intentions were innocent. She somehow managed to know everything.