Fast-forward to six months after we met and he asked me to marry him. Now mind you it could’ve been the fact that we’d only known each other that period of time that had her spooked. I understand a woman looking out for her son. What I didn’t understand was her sudden attacks. The snide comments and innuendos, the slights that left me second guessing myself and always these things were done out of earshot of Dami.
It all really became clear when I would run into her friends and they’d all ask when I was due. At first I had no idea what they were talking about, until one of them slipped and let the cat out of the bag. This Hag was telling everyone, friends and family alike that I was pregnant and that’s why her Damien ‘had’ to marry me. Huh! I let that one slide because maybe that’s what she really thought.
Then it came time to plan the wedding and she wanted to take over. Everything I chose was faulty in one way or the other. Then she wanted to invite about a hundred other people that neither of us knew. Just people she’d ran into throughout her life that had no real meaning for her other than as a thorn to poke me in the side with.
Momma had stepped in back then when she tried to change my bridesmaid dresses. Old lizard ass Barbara was all bent out of shape because she wasn’t in the wedding. I thought the bridesmaids were supposed to be friends of the bride? But she moaned and groaned to Damien until he coerced me into letting her in and then she proceeded to try to destroy the whole event.
At this point I was stressed beyond the limit, but still trying to hold it together. I had my first snap when monster in flaw called the bakery and had them change my cake. Now lucky for me the cake maker knew me because lets face it, food at an Italian wedding is right up there with the nuptials; so by this point we were on a first name speed dial basis.
She called me up all flustered because she could’ve sworn I told her I had an allergy to red velvet and why was I now changing my order so close to the date? After I convinced the poor woman that it wasn’t me and we did some digging we followed the thread back to the hagfish. I nicely and politely asked Damien to tell her not to interfere. I should’ve known then that he was still on the tit because his answer to me was ‘oh she’s just trying to be helpful’. Yeah by ordering a cake that she knew would put me in the hospital.
There were so many things she did after that, leading up to the talk with the ex; too many to mention. But things got really bad when Damien was deployed. She really let it all hang out then. She would walk into the house and act like she owned the place and I was just a squatter. Once she rearranged the kitchen to suit her. I liked to make Dami little care packages every week to let him know I was thinking of him. She hijacked that. ‘It would make more sense to just send one, don’t you think since the army’s so busy and all’? There goes my secret little eye openers. Then she wanted to know what time he usually called because she wanted to be there to talk to her son.
Once I was in the kitchen with headphones on jamming to my old school hip-hop while I was cooking. I saw movement in the sliding glass door and almost had a heart attack. When my heart climbed down out of my mouth I realized it was her, just standing there with a sneer on her face.
“You can’t just walk in here like that any time you want, what if I’d been indecent?”
“This is my son’s house of course I can come and go as I please, that’s why he gave me keys.” She smirked at me the old cow. No he gave you keys because you convinced him that with him gone it was the best thing for my safety. That’s when I started buying cans of tuna and keeping them handy for her ass.
Chapter 13
Now here we are, two days before Xmas and I’m sitting in a parking lot wondering what the hell had happened to my life, and how long it was gonna take Damien to realize that I’d been kicked out of the hospital?
It wasn’t that long because ten minutes later I saw him coming. I tried to gage his mood from his facial expression but that was a bust because the aviators he had on hid his beautiful stone grey eyes. I guess I got my answer when he slammed the door as he got in. My stomach started to twist and turn again and I was back to inhaling my cuticles.