Chapter Twenty-Two — Blair

Blair played with Sandra’s hair as she nestled into him on the couch. He couldn’t believe it had already been three months since he and Sandra had been dating for real. Before the Day of the Dead party, they had been dating—for like a week—but it hadn’t been like they were now.

“So, I was thinking, for our anniversary, maybe we could go out rock climbing again.”

She tilted her head so she could see him. “It feels like we just went out for our two-month anniversary.”

“Time flies when you’re with the guy of your dreams,” he said with a grin. Okay, it was official. Blair could no longer judge other couples and their eye-rolling sappiness.

Sandra returned his smile and gave him a quick kiss. “All right, let’s go rock climbing. As long as I don’t have to wear that dress again.”

“I thought you liked all the publicity you got from that.”

“Yeah, that turned out really well,” Sandra said, sticking out her tongue. “Especially the part where I had to close my social media accounts and get new ones because I couldn’t handle getting dozens of private messages every day—most of them from creepers.”

“Okay, so it had some drawbacks.” Blair laughed as he smoothed Sandra’s hair down and leaned into her.

Blair could imagine staying like this forever.

Until his mom called down the stairs. “Is now a good time?”

Sandra sat up, panic flitting across her face. “A good time for what?”

“Relax,” he said. “She’s not going to call us into a meeting to discuss our relationship or anything like that.”

“Are you sure? I still have PTSD from all the meetings I had to endure in her office—both the ones with and without you.”

Blair gave Sandra’s arm a reassuring squeeze and called, “Now’s fine, Mom.” His mom was always nervous around them, always announcing her entrance, like she was afraid of interrupting a make-out session or something. It was actually very considerate of her.

His mom walked down the stairs slowly, like she hadn’t completely believed Blair when he’d said it was a good time. She held a small box that was wrapped with a red ribbon on top.

Blair felt Sandra relax against him, but she still sat straighter than she had, like she didn’t want his mom to get any funny ideas about what they had been doing.

“With graduation just a week away, and you two going down to work on that dude ranch for the summer—”

“It’s a resort, Mom,” Blair interrupted. He hated when she called it a dude ranch.

“Resort,” she said with a barely concealed eye roll. “I wanted to give you your graduation present early.” His mom held out the box to Sandra, who straightened all the way.

“This is for…me?” Sandra hesitated, waiting for Blair’s mom to confirm that yes, the present was indeed for her. “Thank you.”

His mom was practically bouncing on her toes as she watched Sandra open it.

“You may want to open it faster,” Blair whispered. “My mom looks like she might pee her pants if you don’t.”

That earned him a well-deserved thwack on the arm from his mom, but it was totally worth it to see the look on her face.

Sandra laughed as she untied the ribbon and lifted the lid from the box. “Oh. My. Gosh.”

Blair’s mom immediately launched into the speech she undoubtedly had prepared. “The wristbands you have now are cute and all, but they’re too spiky. I see them get caught on everything. These ones have studs, see? So they will be easier to maneuver around with.”

Sandra lifted the new wristbands from the box as if they were diamond earrings. “You got me new wristbands,” she said in awe. And was she tearing up? She totally was.

Blair watched, dumbfounded, as Sandra jumped from the couch and wrapped his mom in a hug.

Shoot, he should have gotten her new wristbands.

Sandra stepped back, but she still held onto Blair’s mom. “Thank you. So. Much.”

His mom was blushing, but her smile spread across her entire face. “I’m glad you like them.”

“It’s more than that,” Sandra said. She didn’t explain further, but there seemed to be an unspoken conversation that occurred between the two of them.

And it must have ended on a good note, because they hugged again before his mom left them to finish their movie.

“I like your mom,” Sandra said, snuggling back into Blair and admiring her new wristbands.

“Me too,” Blair said. “And I like you. A lot. In a very different way than I like my mom.”

“That’s comforting to know,” she said with a laugh.

Blair wrapped his arms around Sandra. “I can’t wait to spend the summer with you.”

She tilted her face to look up at him. “I can’t wait to spend more than the summer with you.”

He grinned. “Yeah?”

“Heck, yeah.”