Publishing

"Do we really have to do this?" Sam moaned as her and Freddie walked into the lobby of Bushwell Plaza. "Can't we just send her a postcard or something?"

"Sam, it's my mom," Freddie said. "We have to tell her in person. It'll be fine, trust me."

"Freddie, she doesn't like me," Sam sighed. "She's not going to be 'fine' with us getting married."

"She will, I promise, baby," Freddie assured her. "Look, we've been engaged for over a month without telling her. Carly's going to start pushing us to send out our wedding invitations soon now, so we pretty much have to tell her."
"She'll figure it out when she gets her invitation then."

"Yeah, and then she'll probably pass out from shock," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "That's no better than your first idea of just publishing the announcement on the cover of her Aggressive Parenting magazine! Come on, we're both adults, we're in love, we're getting married. It's simple. She'll realize that this is just the next step for us."

"But she doesn't even know we've been living together for the past year," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, and, um, it's probably best to leave that out," Freddie said. "But I think she'll be happy for us."

"I dunno," Sam said. "We could always turn around now and go out for a couple of steaks."

"We can get dinner after we tell my mom," Freddie said. "And who knows, maybe she'll be so excited for us she'll want to tag along and join us!"

"Now you're just being naïve," Sam said.

"It'll be fine," Freddie said again, leaning down to give her a kiss. "Trust me."

The couple took the elevator up to the eighth floor and walked down the hall to apartment 8D.

"Last chance to run," Sam said as Freddie knocked.

"Sam…" Freddie said warningly as the door opened up.

"Freddie!" Marissa exclaimed, throwing her arms around her son, nearly knocking him to the ground. "Oh, I've missed you so much! I haven't seen you in ages."

"We got lunch last week mom, remember?" Freddie smiled as they pulled apart.

"Yes, that's when I realized I, your mother who carried you for eleven months, had been reduced to nothing more than a weekly obligation," Marissa snipped. She then noticed Sam standing awkwardly behind Freddie.

"Oh," she said, he smile dropping. "You brought Samantha. How lovely."

"Yeah mom," Freddie said brightly, taking Sam's hand, clearly missing his mother's tone. "I thought it would be nice for the three of us to hang out this afternoon. Me and Sam have some pretty big news to tell you. Right, Sam?"

"Er, right," Sam nodded. "Hi, Mrs. Benson."

"Samantha," Marissa greeted her simply as the couple entered the apartment. "Shoes off!"

"I can already feel her excitement," Sam mumbled under her breath.

"So mom, how's work at the hospital been?" Freddie asked, sitting down on the plastic-covered sofa.

"I've seen eight cases of head lice this past week," Marissa said, shaking her head. "There must be an outbreak in Seattle. Freddie, before you leave today, I'm going to scrub you head with a special shampoo I got from Protectivepoos . com!"

"Um…no thanks, mom," Freddie said as Sam tried not to laugh about the name of the website. "I actually just washed my hair this morning."

Marissa gasped. "What happened to you, Freddie? You never used to defy me like this! But we know who did this to you, isn't that right, Samantha?"

"Fine, fine, I'll use the special shampoo!" Freddie said quickly before a fight could break out between his mom and fiancé. "Anyway, like I said earlier, Sam and I have some really big news to tell you."

"Are you moving back into your own room?" Marissa gasped excitedly. "Oh, Freddie! I can't wait to have you-"

"No, mom," Freddie said, trying hard not to roll his eyes. "That's not what I was going to tell you at all."

He took Sam's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Mom," he began. "Sam and I are going to get married. We're engaged!"
Marissa nearly dropped the cup of tea in her hand.

"You-You-You're what?"

"We're getting married," Freddie repeated. "Isn't that exciting? We just picked a date for the wedding last night, actually. It's going to be on October fifteenth, probably in the afternoon. We're thinking of having it at the Parker-Nichols hotel, or maybe somewhere a little more fancy. We're not sure about that yet, but we have time to-"

"You two can't get married!" Marissa exclaimed, cutting her son off.

Freddie frowned. "Um…yes we can."

"No, you can't marry her, Freddie!" Marissa cried, apparently forgetting that Sam was still in the room.

"Mom, I love Sam," Freddie said firmly. "So I am going to marry her."

"Did she pressure you into this?" Marissa demanded. "You just got that big promotion at work, who's to say she doesn't just want to marry you for all the money you'll be earning?"

Sam looked down at her lap. Even she hadn't expected Marissa to react this way.

"That's not even close to true!" Freddie snapped, his voice raising. "Sam didn't pressure me into anything. I proposed to her! It had nothing to do with me getting a promotion! We're getting married because we're in love, and that's that!"

"Don't you see how much she's changed you?" Marissa said. "You never used to raise your voice to me! She's nothing but bad news for you, Freddie. If you marry her she's just going to ruin you even more!"

That was all Sam could take.

Without a word, she quickly got up off the couch and rushed to the door. Freddie could see she had tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Sam, wait-" Freddie started, but the door had already slammed shut. He turned back to his mother. "Look what you did!"

"Freddie, as your mother, I have to put my foot down when I see you making rash decisions about-"

"Marrying Sam isn't a rash decision!" Freddie yelled. "I've wanted to marry her for years! But I waited until we both finished college and got settled in our jobs! I spent weeks finding her the perfect engagement ring and planning the perfect way to ask her to marry me! When she said yes, I had never been happier!"

"But Freddie," Marissa sighed. "She's-She's a hoodlum!"

"She's perfect," Freddie said firmly. "She's not the same girl who used to get arrested every other weekend back when we were thirteen. She grew up. Sure, she still has a spark in her, but that's what I love. She has a great job at a television studio and she hasn't gotten arrested once in the past ten years."

"Yes, but-"

"Sam's the love of my life," Freddie said. "And I am going to marry her. Nothing you say or do is going to stop that. If you choose not to accept that, then, well, I guess you can choose not to come to our wedding or-or be involved in our lives anymore."
"Freddie!" Marissa gasped. "I'm your mother!"

"And Sam's going to be my wife," Freddie said. "I love you, mom, but I'm marrying Sam. I hope you decide to accept that, I really do. But I don't need your approval about who I choose to spend the rest of my life with."

He turned to leave the apartment and find Sam, but before he did, he turned and looked over his shoulder.

"You know, Sam was afraid to even tell you we were engaged," he said. "But I told her that you'd put aside your differences with her and just be happy for us. Looks like I was wrong."

He turned back to the door, but his mother suddenly spoke.

"Wait, Freddie…" she sighed.

"Yes?"

"Are you absolutely certain that you love Samantha?" Marissa asked, her voice defeated.

"More certain than I've been about anything in my life," Freddie nodded.

"And nothing I say will ever change that, will it?" Marissa questioned.

Freddie shook his head. "No. It won't."

Marissa pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. "Will you please bring her back here then?"

"Are you going to verbally assault her again?" Freddie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Marissa sighed. "If this is how it's going to be…then I suppose I should get to know my future daughter-in-law a little bit better."

Freddie gave her a small smile. "Thanks mom."

Freddie found Sam in the lobby of the building, leaning against a wall in a hidden corner.

"Can we go now?" Sam asked when Freddie approached her, her voice shaky. "I told you your mom wasn't going to be happy. She clearly hates me and thinks I'm no good for her precious son."

"She was wrong to say those things, baby," Freddie said gently, pulling her into his embrace. "And I'm sorry she did. You're perfect for me. You know that, right?"

"Let's just go," Sam sniffed.

"Sam," Freddie said, hugging her tightly. "I-I talked to her. I told her that if she couldn't learn to accept the fact that we were getting married, then she wasn't going to be involved in our lives anymore. Simple as that."

"You said that to her?" Sam said softly, looking up at him.

"Yes," Freddie replied. "I did."

"I don't want you to cut your mom out of your life for me," Sam mumbled.

"I don't want her to make you feel like she did just now either," Freddie said. "But…after I said that, she agreed to talk to you."

Sam frowned. "What? You want me to go back up there?"

"It's your choice," Freddie said. "If you want to go now, we can go. But I do think she really wants to apologize to you."

Sam sighed. "You're killing me here, Benson."

"So what do you want to do?"

Sam bit the corner of her lip. "Fine," she finally said. "But if she starts any of that again, I'm leaving."

"And I'll be right behind you," Freddie agreed. He took her hand. "Come on, let's go see her."

The couple went back up to the eighth floor. Freddie gave Sam one quick kiss before opening up the door of his mother's apartment again.

"Okay, mom," Freddie said. "Here's Sam. You wanted to say something to her?"

Marissa crossed her arms.

"Congratulations on your engagement," she said, barely making eye contact with Sam.

"Isn't there more you'd like to say to her?" Freddie asked. "You know, something along the lines of an apology?"

Marissa sighed. "I'm sorry if anything I said to you earlier may have been considered offensive."

Sam said nothing.

"Go on…" Freddie said.

She pursed her lips, and then, somewhat reluctantly, said, "I know you and I have had our differences, but, well, Freddie really does seem to love you, so-so you must have some good traits deep down. And, well," she took a deep breath. "I look forward to having you in our family."

Freddie smiled, satisfied at his mother's apology. He turned to Sam. "Sam? Um, would-would you like to say anything?"

Sam looked at him, and could tell by the expression on his face that he wasn't going to give this up. So swallowing every smart comment she wanted to hurl at this woman, she plastered on a fake smile. "Thank you."

Freddie knew better than to push the two any further. The only thing he could now hope for was for them to at least grow a little closer over time. But, well, for now at least he had made a little progress.