I snicker while she huffs in outrage on the other line.“Lola, please, can you just focus for one second. Your father and I would like to have you over for dinner.”I sit in silence, processing her request. In the past, dinner with the parents wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the tension between me and Mother the past couple weeks has been pretty thick. “Lola, are you still there?”“Yea, Mom, I’m here. I would love to come to dinner, but I already made plans with Drake tonight.” A total lie since Drake is still brooding from my interference with his family issues. “Oh, I see.” My mother says then pauses. “Well, then, why don’t you guys just come here instead?” What the fuck? “Seriously?”“Yes, I don’t see why not. I know the two of us haven’t been seeing eye to eye in regards to your relationship with him, but I don’t want you to alienate yourself from the family because of some boy. So, if I have to set aside my objections for a night in order to have a dinner with my only daughter, that’s what I will do.”Again, I sit in silence as I try to process what she just said. For some reason my gut is telling me she is up to no good. That feeling is extremely unsettling because as much as I disagree with my mother on a regular basis, I have always trusted my parents. So, I set aside my instincts and agree on dinner at seven before hanging up to go in search for Drake, having no idea how the hell I’m going to pull this off.I find him in Ruger and Taz’s joint stall feeding the two horses biscuits and scratching their fur. “Hey there, cowboy.” Drake doesn’t so much as hesitate in his movements, solidifying my earlier assumption that he was going to make this difficult. “So, I just wanted to stop by and let you know we are having dinner at the parents’ house tonight at seven, which means we will need to be there around six thirty so we should leave around six fifteen. I’ll leave you to it!” I spin to run away before he can finish processing my request. The damn frustrating man is far too quick for that tactic to work.“Don’t even think about walking out that door, Lola.” I pause and consider just ignoring him, but I know that will do no good. So, I sigh and turn around.“Listen, I know that you’re still a little annoyed with me…”“A little annoyed with you? Lo, you answered my phone, you talked to my mother, and you interrogated me about my family and put your nose into my business. We made it very clear to each other we would just have sex, and go out on occasion when the situation called for it.
