“I don’t know if any place is open,” she called to him as he opened a cabinet.
“It’s fine,” Landon said, pouring himself a glass of soda. He entered the living room again, as he had to pass through anyway to make it upstairs to his bedroom.
“Vodka?”
“Sprite. Flat Sprite,” he said, a wry grin appearing on his face. His mother smiled back. “You’re up kinda late.”
“A little. Had to make sure you got home safe.” She turned the muted television’s volume on. “Do you want to watch something?”
“No, I’m good.” He slumped into the easy chair.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her easy-to-recognize motherly concern creeping into her voice.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just isn’t exactly how I pictured prom night,” Landon said, taking a few sips of soda.
“I’m sorry, hon,” his mother replied. “I still can’t believe that Amy did that to you at the last minute.” She leaned over the arm of the couch toward him and patted his wrist reassuringly. He caught a whiff of the flowery scent she was wearing. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Landon and his mother had been close throughout his life, and often her words of encouragement and support were the only things that got him through periods of his life when his appearance and shy personality made him the constant target of mockery. Even as he grew older and found himself needing the kind of advice one might turn to a father to get, because of his father’s frequent absences due to work, Landon still found himself turning to her, the one woman besides Amy who he felt comfortable speaking around. What’s more, she had begun to confide in him of late, discussing the strain that her husband’s absence was putting on their relationship, and floating the idea of going back to school to get a degree, possibly in nutrition sciences.
Landon couldn’t quite believe that his father wasn’t more supportive of her, especially considering how giving, resourceful, and beautiful she was. It was a bit awkward to admit, but even at age forty-three, she was still an absolute stunner, with her distinctive, gorgeous red locks, megawatt smile, and (as far as he could tell) shapely body that all of his friends gave him hell for. “I don’t know if I can explain it,” he replied.
“What?”
“Well, I imagine you never had trouble finding a date,” Landon said with a grin. “For prom or otherwise.”
“What are you saying?” she said, batting at him playfully for a moment.
“I’ve seen your high school pics.”
“Yes, your mother used to be quite the babe in the old days,” she said, as if it were five decades rather than roughly two and a half since she’d been out of high school. “Hopefully it’s not all gone.” Landon tried to think of something to say to reassure her, but he could only mouth the word “no” before she spoke next. “But if you mean that I’ve never had my heart broken, or never been turned down by a boy I liked—well, that’s just not true.”
“I know. It’s just…everyone builds up this idea—this perfect picture of prom night in their head, and it’s like, for most normal people, it happens,” Landon said. “I thought I was going to be one of the normal ones this year.”