Read the Room
"I made myself very clear with you." AJ said calmly, looking across at her mother who she could see was holding a gift bag.
"You had the baby." Jeanette nodded with a smile, looking down at AJ's stomach, "I thought you might have. Last time I saw you… I did the calculating." She nodded to herself, "You're still a little bloated." She observed as AJ nodded.
"Yeah, that's pretty normal." AJ assured her.
"It could be baby weight. You gotta work to get rid of that." Jeanette nodded with a smile as AJ looked at her unhappily.
"I'm too tired to do this." AJ shook her head.
"April, please. I want to see my grandchild. This is my first." Jeanette said, "And I want to help you. Being a new mom is wonderful but it's… it's hard-"
"You do not want to help me." AJ laughed, "I don't know what it is you want, but it's not that." AJ said. She knew that for sure.
"I do. I don't know why I'm such a villain in your life. We… We were close before-"
"Before you didn't contact me for two years." AJ nodded, "And we weren't close. You only ever bothered with me because I was getting married to Jason. And that's all you'd talk about with me." She said.
"That's not true." Jeanette shook her head, "You're being unfair to me."
"No, mom. I'm not." AJ shook her head, running her hand through her hair tiredly, "Look, I'm not doing this right now. I am exhausted. I do not want your gifts and I don't want you here. So please, just go." AJ pleaded as Jeanette looked at her, listening as Matteo began to cry from upstairs.
"Oh, listen." Jeanette smiled as AJ sighed to herself, walking off upstairs to go get Matteo whilst Jeanette made her way into the house on her own accord, closing the door behind her as she walked into the living room.
AJ walked into Matteo's nursery, lifting him up from the crib and into her arms, "Hi, baby." AJ nodded, bouncing him ever so lightly in her arms as she left the nursery, "I know you're hungry. I know." She hummed, walking back downstairs.
She noticed the door had been closed over, relieved that her mother had left, only to walk into the living room to find her wandering around.
"What are you doing?" AJ shook her head angrily.
"Oh, it's a boy." Jeanette smiled, making her way over to AJ right away, "I knew it'd be a boy." She nodded as AJ watched her, "What's his name?" She asked, caressing the back of Matteo's head.
"Matteo." AJ said, sitting down on the couch to deliberately get her mother's touch away from her son.
"Matteo?" Jeanette asked as AJ nodded, "That's very sweet. He's very sweet." She smiled as AJ nodded.
"Yeah and he's very hungry so… I need to feed him." AJ said. When she fed her son, she always made sure she was relaxed. She felt like Matteo could sense when she was stressed, which normally would then cause him to not feed as well. She was definitely stressed right now.
"Ok, go on then." Jeanette waved her hand, taking a seat on the chair as AJ looked over.
AJ just shook her head, lifting her t-shirt discretely to feed her son as Matteo immediately latched on.
"That's brave. Breastfeeding." Jeanette took her jacket off as AJ watched, "They won't be as perky anymore." She laughed a little.
"I don't care. This is good for him." AJ nodded as Jeanette looked over.
"April, I'm so proud of you." Jeanette shook her head as AJ looked over at her, "Look at you. You're a mom." She smiled as AJ nodded, "How are you feeling? How are you finding it?" She asked as AJ looked over at her. Believe it or not, it was the first time someone had asked her how she was feeling since Matteo arrived. She didn't expect it to come from her mother.
"I'm just tired." AJ shook her head, "I'm tired but when I hold him I just… I don't care." She shook her head, tracing her finger down the side of Matteo's head as Jeanette smiled.
"You look so comfortable with him." Jeanette nodded, "That's good. Not all women adjust to being mother's well. It takes some time for some people." She said.
"I think I'm doing ok." AJ nodded, "He's a good baby. He's not fussy." She said as Jeanette smiled.
"I can see that." Jeanette smiled, "I got you a few things." She said, opening up the gift bag as AJ looked over.
"Mom, I just-"
"Look, you can throw me out after I'm done." Jeanette snapped, "Now I didn't know the gender so these baby grows are just plain and simple, but they're adorable." She showed AJ who looked over, "I got you two packs of pacifiers because they go missing so easily." She nodded to AJ, "And this… this is a miracle worker. He'll probably get a diaper rash at some point-"
"He already has a little bit of a rash, actually." AJ nodded.
"Ok, well this works like a charm. I used it on you when you were a baby and can you believe it? They still sell it. Must be a best seller or something." Jeanette nodded, sitting the cream on the coffee table as AJ watched, trying to keep up.
"Ok." AJ nodded slowly.
"Do you have a breast pump?" Jeanette asked as AJ nodded, "Ok, well here's a spare. I didn't know if you'd be breastfeeding but I guess I figured you would. You should really wait six weeks to start expressing milk-"
"I know." AJ nodded, "I've read books."
"No better book than your own mother." Jeanette assured her as AJ looked over at her, "You know it really breaks my heart that you won't let me see him. This is my grandson, April." She sighed as AJ looked at her.
"Why do you even care? You don't care about me so why would you care about him?" AJ shook her head.
"I do care about you." Jeanette insisted.
"You don't. Because my happiness wasn't important to you. You didn't care if I was miserable whilst walking down the aisle to Jason. Any selfless mom would have… would have taken their daughter out of that situation." AJ shook her head.
"You wanted to marry him." Jeanette said.
"I told you I was in love with someone else and you let me carry on and marry Jason." AJ said, "If you cared about me you would have listened. But you never listen." AJ shrugged.
"Well can't we leave all of that in the past now? It's been two years. I'm aware you've very much moved on." Jeanette said, "So… let me be a part of that. Let me be in my grandson's life."
"It's not something you can just forget about. Two years, mom. You didn't think to check on me for two years. So no, I can't just let you waltz back into my life, into my son's life, when if I possibly disappoint you, you'll just take off again." She shook her head.
"You're going to want me around. Trust me." Jeanette said, "Where is your husband?" She asked curiously.
"He's sleeping." AJ said.
"Sleeping? He sounds very helpful." She scoffed.
"This is the problem. That right there." AJ said, "You don't know Phil and I… I don't even think I want you to know him because… you like guys like Jason, and Phil is nothing like him." She shook her head, "So if you can't accept my husband then… you can't be around me or my son."
"I just don't know him. Maybe if we sat down and talked." Jeanette shrugged as AJ looked over at her. Her mother was a liar. She knew there was no intention there to get to know her husband. All she seemed to be interested in was Matteo.
"No, I just… I want you to leave." AJ shook her head, feeling Matteo unlatch, beginning to cry unhappily.
"I can take him if you want-"
"No, just leave!" AJ yelled, "I'm trying to feed my son here and you're… you're just creating a very weird energy. I don't like it and he doesn't like it so please just leave." AJ said, feeling a lump in her throat.
"I just want to help you." Jeanette sighed, watching as AJ stood up stressfully, trying to soothe Matteo from crying.
"Just get out of my house." AJ made clear.
"April, we can work through this-"
"Get out of the house." Punk said as AJ turned around, noticing Punk at the living room door. Jeanette didn't say much else, looking over at Punk who stood behind AJ.
"Well… I think I'm beginning to see what the problem is here." Jeanette nodded to herself, putting her jacket on as AJ looked over.
"The problem is you aren't reading the room. April doesn't want you here. So get out." Punk said, "And don't come back." He nodded as Jeanette looked across at him.
"April, make sure you put those baby grows on him soon. He'll grow out of things very quickly." Jeanette said, walking past them both and leaving the house as AJ watched, rolling her head back and closing her eyes once she heard her mother leave and close the door behind her.
"How long was she here?" Punk asked, looking over at the gifts Jeanette had brought. He'd only come downstairs once he heard Matteo crying so excessively.
"I… I don't know, too long." AJ shook her head, sitting back down on the couch, hoping to feed Matteo in peace as Punk watched her, "She just comes in here and she… she acts like nothing is wrong. She acts like she's a good mom, who wants to give me tips and be there for me." AJ shook her head stressfully.
"Ok, just take a deep breath." Punk said, "He can probably sense you're stressed." He figured, looking on at Matteo who was refusing to feed now.
"I know." AJ sighed, "I know and I'm sorry, little guy." She looked down at Matteo, stroking his cheek, "Did you not like her?" She whispered as Punk smiled a little.
"Are you ok?" Punk asked her. It didn't matter how he was feeling right now, when he saw his wife was stressed by her own mother, that became his main priority to be there for her.
"Yeah." AJ nodded to him, "Yeah, now she's gone." She shook her head.
"If she comes back here again, just… close the door on her." Punk rolled his eyes as AJ nodded, feeling tears coming as Punk watched her, "April."
"She's still my mom." AJ cried, "And when she comes in and she… she says all these things and she buys Matteo all this stuff… I still want her to be my mom. I wanna believe she's really here for me but I know she's not." She cried, "And every time I have to say to her that I don't want her here or I don't want her to be in Matteo's life… it makes me feel sick to have to say that to my own mom." She cried as Punk sat down beside her.
"She's been no mom to you." He said softly as she nodded.
"I know." AJ sighed, resting her head on his shoulder, "And I know if I gave her a chance, I'd regret it." She nodded.
"You don't owe her anything." He said, kissing her head as AJ nodded.
"Can you please sleep in our bed tonight?" She cried as Punk sighed to himself, hating that she had to ask that.
"Yeah… Yeah, of course." He nodded, wrapping his arm around her as she leaned into him whilst feeding Matteo. He could get wrapped up in his grief, his guilt and his own personal feelings, but he realised his wife needed him right now, so he would be there.
