"Tristan."

I spit milk everywhere and yelp. I shut the fridge to find ma standing there. I wipe off my mouth, just about crushing the carton I'm drinking from in my hand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"What did you think would happen?" I snap at her, putting the carton down and grabbing a paper towel from off the counter to wipe myself with. "It's midnight and you snuck up on me in a dark kitchen. You're lucky I didn't go Tarantino on your ass."

Once I'm done and I see her expression in the dim light, I frown. I toss the towels in the trash and then sit down. She wringing her hands.

I haven't seen her like this for awhile. And I don't even mean under duress--I mean how she's dressed. She's wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe with equally fluffy pink slippers, and her hair is done up in pink rollers. It's strangely endearing. She definitely looks all the stereotypical Greek woman of her age, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

"What's wrong? Couldn't sleep?"

She shakes her head and sits at the counter with me. "You?"

I cough and look to the side. I'm sure as shit not about to tell her the actual reason I'm still awake. "No."

She smirks at me. "Why do I get the feeling if Orion knew you were drinking from the milk carton, you'd be in very big trouble?"

I had never thought of that to be honest. But she was right. A slow grin spreads across my mouth. "Our little secret?"

She laughs quietly. "Sure. I'm sure he'll find out eventually. Your dad does the same thing--it drives me crazy."

Now I laugh quietly. When I'm done I look at her. "What's got ya up, ma?"

"I think your fiance is mad at me."

"Well..." Hm. How to handle this? "You did show up unannounced."

"I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. I'm only trying to help. If it's too much of an inconvenience, I can book a flight back in the morning--"

I reach across and pat her hand. "Next time just give us advanced notice. Please. Okay?"

"So he is mad at me?"

She looks near tears. I sigh and run a hand through my hair. "Perhaps the word 'mad' is too harsh."

"I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with my son-in-law."

I pat her hand again. "If you're really that worried about it, talk to him."

"I can't--"

I narrow my eyes. "Talk to him."

Before she can reply I go back upstairs.

~

"Well, I just thought teal dyed calla lilies would go really nice with both of your complexions."

Nervously I glance at Orion in time to see his eye twitch. This was now the third thing in an hour my ma didn't agree with. I gulp and look over at Amy who, for the past hour, has slowly turned into a stone statue. She's barely even blinking now.

I think I can hear Orion grind his teeth before he speaks in a very restrained fashion. "I appreciate the input and I will take it under consideration."

"I mean, you know," my mom continues. "You're so pale...The black and red is a bit morbid, don't you think?"

"Classic. I think the word you're looking for is classic."

"Well red doesn't really go with someone who has Tristan's complexion, anyway. His undertones are too warm for that, it'll look weird."

I'm starting to wonder if I, too, have outwardly become a statue. I'm waiting in horror for a screaming match to start.

"I don't like the color teal," Orion says.

"Oh, well something along the same lines then? Blue--what about blue? Or green maybe? Like a light green would look nice, don't you think?"

"Light green? Like--lime?" My love is starting to lose his composure and his voice becomes strained as he's struggling to not shout. "You want me--you want us--to wear lime to our wedding--"

"I never said lime green Orion, goodness." She crosses her arms and closes her eyes, sticking her nose into the air. "This isn't the 80's, dear."

Orion barks out his high laugh. "Oh, well, thank God we're on the same page on that at least!"

"I don't know why you're becoming so hostile, dear--"

"Because you're taking all my ideas and telling me they're trash!"

"They're not trash," my mom says, also raising her voice. "They're just--misguided."

"Misguided?"

He's shouting now. I look at Amy, hoping she knows what to do, but she merely stares at me in a full blown panic. We both look back to the pair. Orion gets to his feet as he continues.

"The definition of misguided is to have faulty judgement or reasoning. I'm sorry, but there's nothing faulty about my reasoning whatsoever!"

To my horror my mom gets to her heeled feet, too. "Well what does Tristan think, hm? How does he feel about wearing a flower on his lapel on the most important day of his life that's going to completely clash with his complexion?"

Both my ma and fiance look at me. My mouth open and closes a few times before I can manage any words out. "I don't care?"

"Do you actually not care," my mom asks, "or is there something more? Like you don't want to upset Orion so you're not even giving a say in this?"

Orion's jaw drops as does mine.

"Are you implying," Orion says, his face bright red, "that Tristan is afraid of me?!"

"Ma," I say in anger, "I genuinely don't care!"

"Oh nonsense!" she says, waving her hand dramatically. "Everyone cares about their wedding!"

"So long as he and I are married at the end of the day I honestly don't care about the details!"

"Can we go back to the part where you implied that your son is in some sort of unhealthy relationship with me?" Orion says shrilly.

"That's not what I meant," ma snaps at him.

"Then what the hell did you mean?!"

"You just seem--" She cuts herself off.

"I just seem? Well? What? Out with it!"

"Controlling and nit-picky!"

"Oh yes!" Orion screams now, "because controlling doesn't imply that Tristan is in an abusive relationship at all--"

Amy leaps to her feet and laughs, clapping, shouting over everyone. "People, people!" She waves awkwardly. "Hi. Yes, I am still here."

We all look at Amy. She clasps her hands together, huge grin on her face. "I think we all need a short recess, yeah? Okay sounds good! Mrs. Smith, go up to your room please, and Orion and Tristan go downstairs or outside or something--"

"I'll be in the backyard," Orion snaps, and I'm alarmed when I notice him near tears as he rushes past me.

I turn, watching him go. "Orion--"

"I wanna be alone," he tells me and then slips out the sliding door.

I glare death at my ma. "Well gee, thanks for that!"

And even though she calls after me I ignore my mom and hurry into the basement to cool off.

~

"What are you doing?"

Ma looks at me angrily. She's been crying. I quickly shut the door and walk over to her.

It's been an hour. I got tired of waiting after an hour passed and still no Orion. Amy was nowhere to be found, either, so I decided to check with my ma.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Packing."

When she does nothing more than dramatically shove underwear in her suitcase, I sit down on the bed.

"Ma. Ma. MA!"

I shut the suitcase. She glares at me, so I glare right back. That makes her sigh and sit down.

I take a deep breath. "Look. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but I'm marrying him, and nothing is going to stop that. And he is not controlling. Well, I mean he is, but, c'mon ma. You know me. I gotta thick skull--I don't listen to anyone. Do you really think I'd let some scrawny guy push me around?"

I was hoping to make her laugh. Instead she merely frowns at me. "Love makes you do stupid things, Tristan."

Now I frown, and in my chest I can feel the beginning twinges of panic. "You really don't like Orion, do you?"

She wrings her hands. "I do, but I don't know him that well!"

"So then get to know him!" I say exasperatedly.

"Why do you think I'm here?!" she snaps at me.

"I don't understand how you can go from being scared that Orion was angry at you two days ago to you giving him a list of reasons to actually be angry at you."

She doesn't say anything.

I take a deep breath. "Ma, what's gotten into you? It was incredibly rude to just show up here, unannounced, and now it seems like you're trying to hijack this wedding and make it your own. None of this is like you."

"I need to make sure my baby boy is okay."

I shut my eyes, trying to not roll them. When I open them she's wringing her hands again. "Is that seriously what this is about?"

"Tristan! I don't know the boy!"

"He's not a boy, ma."

She tisks. "You know what I mean."

I cross my arms.

"See it from my position, honey. You up and leave without telling us properly, and while you're gone you tell us you've fallen in love with a man. But you don't let us talk to him ever, you only tell us about him. And when we asked to talk to him, you always made up some excuse why you couldn't. And then you finally told us who he was..."

As she trails off I begin to feel bad, frowning. She continues.

"Which worried us, I'm not going to sugar coat it. Then you told us about the problems you had in your relationship, and the personal problems he had, and then you broke up..."

I narrow my eyes. "Why am I just now hearing about this?"

Ma crosses her arms. "Do you seriously think had we voiced any of our concerns you would've done anything but get mad at us?"

Alright, so she had a valid point. I remain quiet.

"So then you tell us you're back together, and you're not together that along before you say you're marrying him..."

"Fine, so I haven't handled this well," I succeed, "but that doesn't give you the right to say the things you said. He's not controlling! I honestly don't care about this wedding--but I know he does, so of course I'm going to give him whatever he wants."

"It seems like you give him whatever he wants more often than not."

I sigh, running my hand through my hair. "Look, I'm not going to stand here and defend my relationship, nor am I gonna explain the ins and out of it and what he gives to me in return."

"I'm just calling a spade a spade as I see it."

"Well a spade is not a spade in this case, a spade is an angel, and you're going to have to trust me on this one."

"Fallen angel is more like it..."

"Fine," I growl, "but I caught that fallen angel, and I'm helping it not be such a mess, alright? Because I love Orion, ma, I really do, and you need to respect that."

She sighs. "Maybe someday I will see what you see."

"Then go talk to him if you don't yet!"

"I just don't want you to get hurt again."

"Go talk to him."

"I'm not apologizing."

"I'm starting to see where I get my stubbornness from..." I point in anger. "Go. Talk. To Him."

She sticks her nose in the air. "He should be the one coming to me, I'm the elder--"

"Go talk to him or you can book that flight back to Texas you said you were going to," I snap.

"What if he won't talk to me?" she replies after a hesitant pause.

I put my arm down, smiling faintly. "He will. I promise. Go talk to him, and maybe you'll finally start to believe he's not a bad guy."

I'm happy when she leaves to go talk to him.