Chapter 4

The gang went down to the Life Café and had a round of drinks. Mark and Reggie had switched to the afternoon shifts at their jobs so they had to leave for work. Collins, Maureen, and Roger headed back to the loft. When they came in Roger saw there was a message on the machine.

"It's probably Benny." he joked. "You know he's going to try to hit us up to baby sit." Alison had recently had a baby girl and she was driving Benny up the wall. Roger pressed the play button. But it wasn't Benny who'd called.

"Hello Roger darling. It's your Mother, Alan and I were hoping you'd like to come for a visit soon honey. We're cleaning out the old house and you have stuff still here. Alan said to trash it, but I wanted you to see what it was first. But if you don't want to come we understand dear. Love you. Bye."

"Shit. Fucking shit, shit, shit!" Roger exclaimed. "I hate it when she does that."

"What's wrong Roger?" Maureen asked, concerned.

"She is always guilting me into going over to the old house. You heard her with all the dear, and darling stuff. Now I have to go over there." he complained.

"What's so bad about going to see your mother?" Maureen wanted to know. "I thought you liked her."

"I love my mother. It's her husband I can't stand. When my dad died he just swooped right in and married her. We never got along and he was only too glad that I moved up here and away from him." Roger explained. "And now I have to go over there and make nice for who knows how long."

"What if I go with you?" Maureen suggested. "Then you won't have to deal with them by yourself."

"If you did that I would kiss you right here and now." he replied. "I'd ask Mark but he probably has to work and we need food around here."

"I'll go." Maureen told him. "I want to meet the woman responsible for raising such a wonderful man."

Roger scooped her up and kissed her thoroughly. "You are wonderful." he said happily. "How is it that I never realized how wonderful you are? I must have been crazy, or you know distracted by that whole you cheating on my best friend thing. But you are so freaking great."

Maureen raised an eyebrow. "Are you just saying all that so I'll sleep with you? Because that's going to happen anyway. I mean how can I resist your cute butt."

Collins grimaced. "Um could you two wait till I'm not here to do that? Cause I really don't want to see it." That's what he said, but he had to admit he was happy to Roger back to his old self.

"He's right." Maureen said. "We should take this somewhere more private."

Roger nodded. "As you wish." he said. Then he carried her to his room and dumped her on his bed. "Is this better?"

She giggled. "Yes." Then her mouth was too full of Roger's tongue to say anything else.

Mark and Reggie walked in the loft from work before Roger and Maureen emerged from the bedroom.

"What's going on?" Mark asked. He headed towards Roger's room.

Collins was sitting in a chair reading a book. "I would not go in there if I were you." he warned. "Rog's mother called and he has to go visit her. So now he's working off his frustrations with Maureen."

"Okay ew." Mark said and backed away from the door. "What did his mom want?"

"Something about there being old stuff of Roger's at the house that he needs to get before his stepfather trashes it." Collins replied. "Maureen just volunteered to go with him."

Mark's blue eyes widened. "Whoa Maureen is going to meet Roger's mom?" he asked in surprise. "That may not be the best idea." he walked to Roger's door and hammered on it. "Rog have you lost what little piece of mind you have?"

Maureen opened the door wearing Roger's shirt. "Do you mind Mark? We will be out in a minute. Nothing is that serious unless the loft is on fire or someone's dying." then she shut the door back. Mark sighed and plopped down on the couch where Reggie rubbed his shoulders.

About a minute later Roger came out carrying Maureen. She was still dressed in one of his shirts and he had donned another one. "Okay Mark what's the emergency?" he asked.

"Are you planning on telling your mother about Maureen being your girlfriend?" Mark wanted to know.

"Yeah I was."

"Roger you know what's going to happen if you do that." Mark warned. "Your mother is going to say it's nice but not mean it and Alan's going to make some stupid joke about Maureen and then you're going to get upset. Remember what happened when they met Mimi?"

Roger did remember. That day had been a disaster. Somehow he had forgotten to mention to his family that April had died and they thought Mimi was her. When he corrected them and told what happened, his stepfather had accused him of "killing April off" to find someone better. It had taken Mimi, his mother and Mark to keep him from killing Alan.

He sighed. "Alan will probably always be an ass Mark. I'm not going to let him get to me anymore." He picked up the phone and called his mother to let her know he'd be over the next day. This time will be different, he kept telling himself.

In fact he was still saying it in his head when he and Maureen got on the subway the next morning. One thing Roger and Maureen had in common was they were not morning people. So they were both pretty quiet during the ride. They arrived in Scarsdale a while later. Maureen had been there before when she had met Mark's parents. Roger's house wasn't that far from the subway stop, so they just walked the rest of the way.

"Here it is." Roger said suddenly. They stopped outside of a small comfortable looking house. He took a deep breath and knocked. A few seconds later the door was flung open and Roger found himself in the arms of his mother. She was shorter than him by half a foot but they had the same blond hair and green eyes.

"Hey Ma." Roger greeted, hugging her back. "You look good."

"Oh Roggy you always say that." his mother said with a grin. Then she noticed Maureen standing there. "Hello dear." she said. "You must be a friend of Roger's. I'm his mother. Call me Mallory."

"Hi Mallory." Maureen replied. "My name is Maureen Johnson."

Mallory looked thoughtful. "Roger, didn't Mark used to date a girl named Maureen? I remember his mother was telling me about how she dumped him a while ago."

Roger rolled his eyes. "Come on Ma, it's cold out here. Are you going to let us in or what?"

"Oh of course. Come in." she said quickly.