Chapter Twelve
The insistent knocking at her door showed no sign of stopping. Even with the comforter pulled up over her head, the sound still reverberated around the bedroom. “Shit!” Jumping out of bed, she stomped through her condominium and jerked the front door open without bothering to look through the peephole. She took a step back in surprise when she saw her immaculately dressed mother standing on the other side. She could count the number of times her mother had visited her at home on one hand, and she had never just shown up without making a formal appointment.
“Mom, what are you doing here?” She had to give her credit. She barely noticed the slight grimace that she made as she took in her daughter’s disheveled appearance.
“Mia, darling, I was worried about you. I have been calling you since last week and you haven’t returned any of my calls. I even called your office and they said that you were taking some vacation time this week. I’m used to you never answering your phone, but you do usually call me back within a day. I could only assume that you must be gravely ill.”
Being scolded by her mother was like being in grade school and being called to the principal’s office. “Sorry, Mom. I haven’t been checking my messages for the past few days. I needed some downtime. Was there something you needed?”
Her mother raised a perfectly plucked brow saying, “Well, you could invite me in and then we can go from there.”
Mia stepped aside and waved her inside. Crap, why didn’t I return her call? Her mother then did something else strange. She settled on the sofa as if she intended to stay for a while. Hadn’t she been through enough lately? Was she going to be forced to play caring family now? This whole visit was starting to seem suspicious. Shit, surely there wasn’t more bad news coming? “Is there . . . um . . . something you want to talk about?” she asked cautiously.
“Well, of course,” her mother replied, looking surprised. “I wanted to see what was happening with Seth Jackson. When we spoke after your dinner with him, you said that you would be seeing him again after your business there ended in a few weeks. When I hadn’t been able to reach you for several days, I assumed you were together, but Margie says that isn’t the case.”
Mia’s mouth dropped. “You called Seth’s assistant to ask if I was dating him? Mom!”
Her mother looked surprised at her shock. “What? Margie and I are on friendly terms. I called to thank Seth again for his contribution to our charity auction and since I hadn’t spoken to you recently, I asked her if you were still working there and she informed me that your job ran long, but was finished now.”
“God, please tell me you didn’t ask her if Seth and I were together,” Mia groaned.
“Darling, I don’t remember our exact conversation. I believe she just confirmed that he was in the office and in a terribly poor mood.”
Damn, she knew it. When her mother hadn’t been able to get answers anywhere else, she had called Margie to press her for information. There was no way she was calling Seth weeks later to thank him again. She would have had her secretary do that if she even thought of it. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been forced to discuss her dating life with her mother and she didn’t relish doing it now. God, she still felt too raw to talk about him. She had done nothing but lie around for days throwing herself an outstanding pity party. She had been fortunate that there was a lull in installations at work and Hank had been fine with her taking a vacation week while things were relatively quiet. After seeing her moping around the office, he was probably thrilled to be rid of her for a while, and she had needed time to process what had happened that night at Seth’s penthouse.