Page 3 of The Night We Met

“Larissa, didn’t you say there were a couple of them that night you all met? At the concert?” Nancy asked over her shoulder.

When Larissa didn’t answer, I did.

“There were four of us,” I said. “Xavier and Jesse are the other two.”

“Are all of you so handsome?”

I choked.

“Mom!”

“What?” Nancy said, pivoting to look at her daughter. “He’s handsome. Are we supposed to just sit here and pretend like we don’t notice?”

Heat crept up my neck.

Larissa was behind me, so I couldn’t see her in the mirror, but I could somehow feel her glaring at her mother anyway.

“So, do you have a girlfriend?” Nancy asked me wryly.

“Uh, no, not right now.”

“Why not?”

“Mom…” Larissa’s voice was a warning.

Nancy let out a dramatic sigh, like Larissa was ruining her fun from the back seat.

“I’m just taking a little break right now from dating,” I said, changing lanes.

“Huh.” She sniffed the sleeve of her sweater. “This smells like soup. Larissa, are you cooking without the fan on again? All my clothes smell like onions.”

I didn’t smell soup. I did smell smoke, though.

“I didn’t cook anything without the fan on, Mom.”

She sniffed her sleeve again. “You probably smell like soup, too, if it’s on me. Smell your hoodie.”

No answer from the back seat.

I couldn’t tell you how I knew it, but I sensed that Larissa was about to cry.

“Do you like podcasts?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Sometimes…” Nancy said.

“You’ll love this,” I said, turning on the radio.

I put on a comedy series I sometimes listened to on the way to the pharmacy and I turned it up enough that her mom couldn’t keep talking. Thankfully it worked.

When we pulled up to the patient drop-off, Larissa’s mom got out and then Larissa leaned into the open door. “Thank you.”

“I’m just going to park the car and then I’ll meet you inside,” I said.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

“Mike asked me to stay with you—”

“I’m fine. Really, I am. Thank you so much. I can get a rideshare back.”