“I see you took my advice.” She raises her chin and points at my dress. No hello. No how are you? Straight to the point, like usual. “Aside from your arm fat, you look surprisingly good tonight.” She says it with a look on her face that’s eerily like how I look after eating pickles. And I detest pickles. The smell alone makes me want to throw up.

Elias grunts quietly. His chest puffs and I’m surprised to see him taking my mom’s hand and kissing it.

He looks like he ate pickles too. I almost snort at that but keep my mouth shut when Mom raises her eyebrows, giving me a wink when Elias has his head bent to her hand.

Elias shakes hands with dad, while they exchange names and pleasantries.

“So nice to meet you,” he politely says.

Dad gets back to his game of looking at everyone but my daughter and then Mom starts to question Elias.

“So, Elias, tell me, what’s it like to be a doctor?”

Her eyes sparkle with challenge, and I feel him stiffening next to me.

“Not that great, actually.”

Mom’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. She’s a big fan of drama.

“It’s not that I don’t love my job, but it can be really tough when you lose someone.”

He’s not entirely lying. Plants are his patients after all. He deals with loss, too, so that’s probably helping to prevent my mom from sniffing out the lie.

She nods her head in agreement, keeping her mouth shut. She plays with her necklace and bites her bottom lip. Relief washes over me when I realize she won’t continue this line of questioning.

“Well,” she starts, grabbing my father’s arm, a sign they’ll leave, “we’re expecting to see you next weekend?” Elias opens his mouth to respond, but she quickly speaks before he does. “Unless you’re busy saving lives, of course.”

I cringe at her voice, so full of disbelief and defiance. I guess she can’t be silent for more than two seconds. Or respectful.

“Of course,” he smiles and I can hear his false tone, even if my mom doesn’t trace it.

My parents turn to leave, but Elias stops them by placing a hand on Mom’s arm. She looks down at where he’s touching her, but doesn’t have time to pull away before Elias whispers something in her ear. She doesn’t seem pleased at all and I can’t say I’m not happy about it.

“Have a great night,” he says after stepping back to my side.

They hurry away, Mom leaning into Dad, probably telling him what Elias said to her.

“I don’t even want to know,” I laugh and point towards the bar.