"Happy birthday Stephanie." Paul walked into the dining room where Stephanie was sitting with Madison eating toast.
She looked up at him, surprised he remembered, "thanks." She smiled at him and noticed he was dressed, looking as if he was about to leave, "where are you going?"
"Out." He pulled a jacket on and sighed, "I want to just get out somewhere before my mom gets here. Is that okay?"
She nodded, "I don't care." She frowned at the thought of being alone on her birthday, but didn't ask to come along, "when is she getting here? Has she called?"
He shook his head, "no, she hasn't called yet. We have to go get her by the way. At LAX." He jingled his keys and looked at her, "she decided yesterday that making us go get her an hour away, is cheaper and more sanitary than getting on the bus."
"Isn't the bus only like, six dollars though?" She bit her lip, "so you want me to go with you to get her?"
"Well yeah, I don't want to be alone with her for an hour." He sighed, "if she calls while I'm not here, text me and I'll come get you."
"Where are you gonna go anyway?" She asked again, trying not to sound like she was nagging him.
"Nowhere, just out." He turned red, "I'll be back." He went out the garage door and slammed it.
She sat at the table, confused about the way he was acting. He was acting totally different today, way different than she'd ever seen him.
A few hours later, the phone rang and Stephanie saw Paul's mom's name on the caller ID, she was hesitant to answer it but after four rings, she did, "hi Mrs. Levesque, how are you?"
"Oh just fine. I'm at Los Angeles airport now, is Paul there? I told him I would call when I got here so you guys could come and get me."
"Yeah, I don't know where he is right now, he left a couple hours ago and said he was going out for a little while. But he said to call him when you called me, so we'll be on our way soon."
"Okay, have him call me when he's like ten minutes away. I'm so excited to see you guys!" She hung up, leaving Stephanie trying to fake a smile.
She dialed Paul's number, then remember he said to text her, but it was already too late, "what?" He answered, sounding as if he was rudely interrupted.
"Paul, is something wrong?" She felt uncomfortable with him sounding annoyed, "you sound like your mad or something," she changed the subject, "your mom just called and said she's at the airport."
He cleared his throat, "okay, I'm about to leave then. Be there in a few minutes. Why didn't you just text me like I said?"
"I don't know. Calling you was faster I guess." She bit her lip, "I'll see you when you get here." She pushed end on her phone as fast as she could before he could say anything back.
"Hey." When he came back, he was smiling at her, "you ready to go?" He was back to normal, or so it seemed, "what's wrong?"
"What do you mean what's wrong? What's wrong with you? Why did you seem all pissed off earlier?"
He just stared at her, "um, I don't know. I was in a little bit of a bad mood earlier, with my mom coming and all that. It was nothing, sorry." He took Madison's diaper bag for her, "we're taking the Mercedes right now."
"But you just said it doesn't have gas, the truck is full." She walked towards the truck, "what are you doing?"
"Just get in the car." He glared at her, "I'm gonna fill it up on the way there, don't worry about it Stephanie."
"Fine, jeez." She put Madison in and buckled the belt around her carseat, "what the fuck is wrong wit you today?" She slammed the car door and got in beside him, "don't start this before your mother gets here, we don't need to be fighting."
"Nothing is wrong with me!" He started the car and put his seatbelt on, "the truck just smells right now," he hesitated, "because I left food in there on accident, I need to air it out." He pulled the gear into reverse, then put it back in park, I forgot, I wanted to change clothes. Do I smell?"
She stuck her nose in the air, "not really? The garage kinda smells like old cigars, and sometimes it smells like a skunk out here…"
"Yeah, I'll be right back." He got out and ran inside. A few minutes later he came back out in a complete different outfit, "sorry, I kept smelling myself."
"Smelling what on yourself?" She opened her window, "nevermind, you've been acting weird today, that's all I'm gonna say." She pulled out her phone and scrolled around, "but you said you're nervous about your mom coming over, and that's understandable."
He nodded, "just don't worry about it, I always get a little bit weird when I know my mom's coming over, just wait until she's actually here."
"Mom, we're almost here." He held the phone with one hand, while the other was on the wheel, "what terminal am I picking you up at?" He waited for her to answer, "hello? We're about to start going down by all the terminals, where are you?"
"I don't know, all I know is I took Southwest, it should say where Southwest's terminal is outside, there's a bus in front of me right now."
"So move away from the bus, what kind of bus is it?" Paul looked at Stephanie and rolled his eyes, "I'll honk when I see you, but I have to get off the phone now." He hung up and stuffed the phone in the cup holder, "fuck, I'm so hungry right now." He held his stomach, "help me keep my eye out for her."
"Where the hell does your mom live? Why did she fly here? I would have thought she lived close, like Laurie." She stared out the open window, "there she is, behind that red bus." She pointed towards his mother with two huge bags next to her.
He quickly pulled out of traffic and drove towards her, his hand was laying on the horn until the car came to a stop, "don't get out, just stay in the front seat with me, please." He seemed to be begging her, so she stayed put, watching as he took the huge bags to the trunk.
"Hi Stephanie, how are you?" His mom got in the car and put her seatbelt on, "it was cool in San Diego, but its hot here already."
Paul got in and got back in traffic, "how was your flight mom? Was it nice?" He was driving erratically, weaving between as many cars as he could, "are you hungry or anything?"
"Just a little bit, but I can wait until we get back to your house, I'm fine." She looked over at Madison, "well aren't you a little cutie? Stephanie, how old is she again?"
"She's eight months, born on January third." She smiled uncomfortably and looked over at Paul, who was squinting to see the road signs, "Paul, honey, don't you have your glasses with you?"
He glanced at her, "oh, yes honey I do." He smiled back and reached in the center console, "I forgot I was supposed to wear them." He put them glasses on and sighed, "I think we can go out for lunch, I'm so hungry. I haven't eaten today yet."
"Since when do you wear glasses Paul?" His mom leaned between the two front seats, "are you going blind or what? Your father had to get glasses early too."
"They're just for driving mom. I complained to my eye doctor that sometimes I can't see the signs until they're really close, especially at night, and he suggested I wear glasses, not for anything else but driving."
"And reading." Stephanie spoke up, "you have some for reading too, that you use at work, right?"
He just nodded, "yeah," he pulled onto the freeway and turned the radio on, "I'll stop about halfway so we can eat, I know of a good restaurant we can go to."