Page 29 of One Bossy Date

I returned the gesture with a smile.

My and Anders’s eyes met for a second, deciding what to do with this misunderstanding. His mother must not be used to seeing anyone at his place to immediately assume I was involved with him. The thought somehow pleased me.

“Mother, this is Zoe Jones. Zoe, my mother, Lilian Windham.” Anders presented his mom to me. “Zoe is my dog sitter, Mom.”

“Hi, Mrs. Windham, it’s wonderful to meet you.” I smiled, actually not too unhappy that Anders had corrected her and told her who I really was. The truth was always best. Just like he had said.

If Anders’s mom was disappointed that I wasn’t his girlfriend, she didn’t reveal it.

“Well, same to you, darling. And it’s Lilian, please.” She leaned in and kissed the air next to my cheek, then stood back and swiveled her gaze between Anders and myself. “Sorry to barge in, Anders dear. Caroline mentioned you were taking a late morning, and I wanted to check in.”

“No matter. Coffee?” he offered, walking over to the machine.

“Yes,please.” She set her Louis Vuitton handbag on the table and took the seat Anders had vacated, facing me. I sat down as well, giving her my friendliest smile. I didn’t even have to try hard. Seeing that much color automatically put me in a great mood.

“So, what were you two lovebirds up to before I rudely interrupted?” she asked, eyeing me curiously with that sort of look only mothers were capable of. She also appeared somewhat amused. I tried not to fidget.

Eh…great question.

Almost-kissing?

I had wanted him to kiss me so badly. I knew I shouldn’t. And now I didn’t even know if he had really wanted to kiss me. Maybe it had all been in my head.

Of course, I couldn’t tell Anders’s mom any of that.

My mind jumped to Granny Dotty, who also liked to ask questions that semi-invaded people’s privacy, as well as make romantic assumptions where there were none. I didn’t mind it too much. Anders’s mom clearly had good intentions, just like my granny.

“We were actually discussing Zoe’s grandmother’s birthday dinner party,” Anders supplied.

“Yeah, I’ve asked Anders to be my date,” I added. “And guess what? He said yes.”

“Oooh, how exciting!” With a knowing smile, Anders’s mom nodded enthusiastically. It seemed as if she was pleased that her “girlfriend theory” hadn’t been completely off after all. “Iadoreparties. Where will it be?”

“It’s on Friday at the Oracle of Delphi. It’s a Greek place downtown. Do you know it?”

“Do I?” Lilian waved her hand in a “Please” sort of gesture. “Iloveit there. I almostlivethere. We know the owner, don’t we, Anders darling?”

By now, he had her coffee and had joined us at the table. To my delight, he took the seat next to me. “We do. Costa is a friend of the family.”

Lilian leaned forward, whispering to me, but still loud enough for Anders to hear. “Costa basically got me to marry Anderson’s father.” She giggled, and I could just about feel Anders’s eyes roll from where I sat, along with an “Ah, geez” sigh. “See, we had our first date there, and Costa was still the young manager—he eventually took over for his father, you know—so he served us every time we went back and made sure we had the best table, the best wine,everything. It was so romantic!”

All nervousness had flown out the window. I absolutely loved this fabulous and talkative woman. So much so I was having doubts as to whether she really was Anders’s biological mother. I mean, how did her character—all chatty and sunshine—not at least rub off on him a teensy bit? It seriously stumped me.

“Mom—”

“One second, dear. So, one day, Darryl and I had the worst fight while we were there, and Costa talked me down from leaving him altogether.”

“Mom—”

“And I would have, trust me! Iswear. No ten horses would have—”

“Mom.”

She sighed, dramatically dropping her shoulders and turning to Anders. “Yes, darling? You were saying?”

“Let’s not get into this now. Zoe has her work to get back to, and I have to get to the office. We can have this little ‘get to know each other’ session another time, can’t we?” The stern, impatient Mr. Grumpy had returned.

“Thank you for being thoughtful, but it’s fine, Anders, I don’t mind if—” I started to object, but Lilian clearly knew her son.