Falling In Love With My Mother's Man

Rose POV

Jazz played in the background, along with the clinking of glasses. But I couldn't stop thinking about the coincidence that my life had just become: the stranger standing next to me.

He told me he cared about my mother as much as I did. And just a couple of weeks before the diagnosis, my mother started coming in late.

I joked about her keeping her boyfriend away from me, and now...

I shook my head in disbelief. It was impossible.

Right?

"Mr. Castel!" The bartender greeted, stretching out his hand to the man beside me. They exchanged pleasantries, a grim look in both their eyes. "How is she doing?"

Mr. Castel shook his head, glancing at me for a brief second.

"You shouldn't worry," the bartender said, staring at us with sympathy etched into his features. "She's going to get better. I believe that."

I hated the way he looked at me. I hated anyone feeling pity for me.

The bartender nudged his head in my direction.

"Rose," Mr. Castel muttered. "Emma's daughter."

"Oh, my God!" He placed a hand over his mouth, and I almost yelled at him to just bloody stop.

"How are you holding up? It must have been awful to have met your mother that way in the bathroom. I heard..."

"Gary." Mr. Castel shook his head slightly, and the bartender ruefully lowered his head.

"Sorry. I'm just... I hope she gets better." And then, he looked up. "The regular?"

Mr. Castel nodded. "And gin and tonic for her."

"I can place my order myself," I countered at once, standing on my full height even though it was nowhere near his shoulders. "I want something stronger. Vodka."

"You're not having that," he said without looking at me. "Gin and tonic. We'll be at the other end of the bar."

Mr. Castel didn't bother waiting for me or my response as he stalked away towards a dark corner, one hand in his pocket and the other buried in his hair. I could see it now. The slack in his gait, the worry creasing his eyes. Definitely the man Mom has been hiding away from me.

Beyond the chauvinistic and rude jerk that he was, perhaps he did really care for my mom. But that had nothing to do with me, and I needed to let him know that.

So I crossed the space behind him, waiting for him to be settled in the seat. He retrieved his phone and scrolled without paying me the slightest attention. Wasn't he the one who asked me here to have drinks with him?

"Is this how you act with my mother?"

He arched a brow.

"Control her every life, including what she drinks?"

"Your mother is a woman of her own. And I don't control anyone."

"What am I? A child?"

He shrugged. "Her child. And until she gets better, I am responsible for you."

"I am a fucking adult with a fucking job!" I was almost yelling.

"You are nineteen, in college with a part-time job that I really think you should quit."

I rolled my eyes. "That's hypocritical, coming from you. My boss is your wife."

"Ex-wife," he corrected, leaning back into the seat and now giving me his attention. "Charlotte and I divorced last year. I'm sure you heard about that. Practically the whole of the city heard."

"Yeah. Your last name is hard to miss."

He shrugged, then motioned to the seat in front of him. "Now, stop acting like a child and let's have an actual conversation."

Left with no choice, I lowered myself into the seat, waiting as the bartender, Gary, placed our orders gingerly on the table.

Well, more like Mr. Castel's order and the one he was forcing me to have.

Bloody gin and tonic.

"My mother didn't tell me she was seeing someone," I said when Gary left.

"I never said we were seeing each other," he murmured, leaning forward to grab his glass.

I rolled my eyes. Of course he was going to deny it. Mom probably told him not to tell me the truth.

"Emma is important to me," he continued. "She was going to introduce us, but she didn't think it was a good time. She said you were going through something at work. If I'd known..."

"...that your wife was the annoying bitch, you would have done something about it, right? Oh! Let's save my girlfriend's daughter from my wife's bitchy claws. I definitely see how that would have gone."

"Ex-wife," he stated again, this time with a stern look. He muttered something else under his breath, but I didn't catch it. "And no. I wouldn't have saved you from her claws. I would have bought her out of the company."

My lips parted, but no words came out. It wasn't often that I was rendered speechless. Leaving that, I decided to go another route. I needed to vent.

"And what was that about earlier? I was going through something that apparently, you are going through too. And you ask Charlotte to kick me out?"

His slender fingers reached for his hair, burying inside the strands and messing them up. "I didn't know who you were... and.... I'd just heard... Never mind."

"You'd just heard what?"

"Rose...."

"Tell me!" I insisted. "Is this about my Mom?"

"She's in her fourth stage," he breathed, after what felt like an eternity.

"Oh...."

"You don't have to worry, Rose. There's a new treatment that's going to be tried, and the doctors are hopeful. Your mom doesn't want you to worry."

"Is that why she didn't recognize me?" I couldn't hear my own voice, but for some reason, he did.

And he nodded.

"It's a side effect."

"Does she recognize you?"

It took a full minute before he nodded.

"Oh, God!"

"Rose..."

"I'm going to need more than a fucking gin and tonic," I muttered, getting on my feet. "And if you dare stop me, I'm going to yell rape and get you arrested."

He seemed to think better of it, leaning back into his seat as I sauntered away from him back to the bar.

"I need shots of tequila," I told Gary. "Loads of it."

Gary looked at me and then towards where Mr. Castel sat.

"He's not my father."

"You are not up to twenty-one," he said ruefully. "The only reason I obliged to the gin and tonic was that Mr. Castel asked for it. I'm afraid he's going to have to give his consent to this, too."

I turned towards my mother's boyfriend, even though he claimed he wasn't, with a lethal glare on my face, and he had the effrontery to smirk at me.

Motherfucker.