Canon

‘Babe, you’re pacing.’ I tease as Niall walks in front of me for the fifth time in thirty seconds. ‘Are you worried that it’ll be a bad trip?’

‘I wasn’t until you mentioned it so thank you for that, baby.’

‘Niall, I love you but you need to calm down, it’s going to be just fine.’ He mutters his disbelief under his breath while chewing at the skin on his index finger. One of his nervous habits.

Niall’s mom was finally coming in today, any minute actually. She was only in the states for a mere three days but she already had a list of a thousand things she wanted to do with Niall the moment she gets here. Including having dinner with my parents. I ran the idea past them and to my surprise, my dad made it his mission to make sure he was free tonight. On the phone this morning, I could hear just how excited she was when Niall had her on speaker. If this trip was a success, she would be coming back for the graduation in a matter of weeks with her husband and their daughter Ginny. ‘I think that’s her.’ He murmurs pulling me from the lobby’s chair. I slip my arm through his while he leads the way towards the bright, yellow taxi. Maura steps out of the taxi dressed in a navy blazer and jeans cuffed at the ankles. Her blonde hair was pushed out of her face with another pair of designer sunglasses, almost like the ones she wore at Niall’s grandma’s birthday party. She appeared like she just stepped off someone’s runway. ‘C’mere – let me look at you.’ Maura muses extending her thin arms out to her much taller son. ‘Have you gotten bigger since the last I saw you?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Niall speaks back nervously, ‘you remember Lizette.’

‘Of course, I remember the gorgeous Lizette! How are you, love?’ Maura pulls me into a tight embrace, ‘How has this one over here been treating you?’

‘It’s so nice to see you again! He treats me very well.’ I smile up at her son as Niall gently pulls me into him, ‘did you already drop your luggage off at the hotel?’

‘I did. I wanted to freshen up a bit before we had dinner, so are you going to give me the tour?’

‘Sure.’ Niall nods opening the door for his mom while intertwining his fingers with mine. I hold onto his hand tightly, giving it several small squeezes. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’ I repeat stepping onto the elevator behind Maura. Maura eyes the two of us knowingly, clearly hearing the brief exchange of I love you’s. She grins but she doesn’t say anything.

The moment she steps into the door, I sneak in a quick kiss causing him to offer up one of his rare smiles. Maura quietly and carefully walks throughout Niall’s apartment, peeking in his cabinets to make sure he has enough food – just like a mother would. She comments warmly on his hamper full of dirty clothes that was neatly tucked away near the washing machine. She happily gets onto him about the lack of pillows on his sofa. Maura sniffles down the hallway causing me and Niall to glance at each other nervously. I nudge him, silently advising him to see what’s wrong. ‘Everything alright?’

‘I just regret not being there for you boys. Clearly, I’ve missed out on so much. You have your own apartment, you don’t need to call me about how to wash your clothes or how long you should unthaw a chicken.’ Maura blurts covering her face with her perfectly manicured hands, ‘I’m sorry. I should not be having a pity party right now. I could never, ever tell you how sorry I am Ni. You missed out on certain things that a mother is supposed to be around to teach you. I’m truly sorry.’

‘It’s in the past.’ Niall’s deep blue eyes find my face, almost begging for help. I could see just how uncomfortable he was. He was already on pins and needles about his mom’s visit and how she’s sobbing in his living room.

‘Maura, you have not missed out on everything. Niall still needs you around for plenty of things. College, his career, marriage, babies. He’ll come to you for advice.’ I could practically feel Niall tense up from the mention of babies from where I stood but it seemed to make Maura feel better.

‘Thank you, Lizette. She’s quite the keeper, Niall.’ She walks over to wrap her arms around me, ‘If you two would excuse me, I’m just going to collect myself in the other room for a second.’

‘Marriage, babies?’ Niall inquires, scrunching his nose up at me. ‘Could this be your way of dropping little hints at me? I thought we were being pretty thorough all of those times.’ He wonders with open arms.

‘Your mom is right in the other room. I don’t think she needs to hear that,’ I whisper feeling my skin grow warm, ‘besides, you just started calling me your girlfriend. I can’t imagine how long it would take you to come around to the idea of having a wife.’ I taunt causing him to tilt his head back with laughter. ‘Maybe after 10 years together, you’d start to come around to it.’

‘Such a smartass.’ He shakes his head with the slightest smile as I fall into his arms. ‘Not to sound all cheesy and shit, but I can’t imagine a life where you’re not in it. So, if that’s something that you want down the road, it’s what I want. You are my entire world Liz and I’m not letting you go any time soon.’

‘Next I’ll be the one crying.’ I whisper burying my face into his shirt, instantly feeling at home. ‘How do you think this dinner is about to go?’

‘I’m pretty sure that it’ll be fine. It’s my mom they’re meeting, not Bobby.’

‘Bobby?’ I raise an eyebrow, pulling away to look up at him, ‘when’d you start calling him that?’

He opens his mouth when his mom comes from the bathroom, repositioning her purse on her shoulder. ‘You two ready for dinner?’

I slide into the back of the Mustang behind Niall while Maura takes the passenger seat. He places one hand on the steering wheel while the other rested crookedly on the center console allowing him to hold my hand. ‘Your dad picked me up for our first date in this car.’ Maura glances around, briefly leaving us to go into some sort of a daydream. ‘Things were a lot of simpler back then. I know that this is last thing that you want to hear probably but I can’t help but see you with Lizette, it just takes me back to those nights.’

‘It’s a good thing that we’re not you two then, huh?’ Niall replies causing an awkward wave to wash over the car. Maura begins to fumble around with the watch on her wrist while I eye him through the rearview mirror, dropping his hand. ‘That came out harsher than intended.’ He speaks up after a while but the car stays silent. I was thankful when we pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot.

Niall stops me as I go to get out of the back seat. ‘Don’t be mad at me, please.’ He crouches down in front of me, holding my hands in his. ‘Listen, I’m not used to her being around so I’m gonna screw up and say dumb shit. I’m not gonna lie, there’s a bit of anger there but I’m trying.’

‘I think that you should tell her that.’

I go inside to meet my parents while Niall pulls Maura aside. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but she was nodding her head. Niall uses his hands to talk as he usually did. ‘There she is!’ My dad stands to his feet, ‘My daughter has always been on her own time.’

‘Hey, I’m not even that late.’ I defend sitting down in the chair across from him. ‘Despite what you may believe, I was not the hold up this time. We were waiting for Niall’s mom to get to his apartment.’

Niall comes in with Maura in front of him, the two of them seemed less tense which was a relief. Maura and my parents exchange hello’s while Niall slides in beside me. He places a hand on my thigh shaking my dad’s hand from across the table. He draws careful circles against my skin comfortingly. During dinner, my mom has a thousand questions about Ireland and Maura answered all of them kindly. I know that I’ve only met Maura a couple of times but I adored her. She enthusiastically listens to my dad’s never-ending case stories. Her and my mom make plans to go some farmer’s market before she leaves town.

‘Lizette before midnight, alright?’ My dad comments after paying the bill.

‘Got it. I’ll see you guys in a bit.’ Niall places his jacket over my shoulders as we follow Maura out to the car.

‘Niall, I want to see them.’ Maura speaks up once we were out of the parking lot. I watch as Niall glances over at her and back to the road without saying a word, ‘Bobby and Greg. I know that you’re still rightfully upset with them but I would feel terrible if I went all the way back home without saying hello.’

‘I’m not sure that would be the best idea, besides, you’re not missing anything with them. They’re probably passed out on the floor drunk so they wouldn’t be able to comprehend what you were saying.’

‘I want you to take me over there before I leave. You don’t have to stay or you can sit in the car, but I’m going.’

Niall doesn’t fight her on the subject anymore. Once she’s out of the car, I climb up into the passenger seat and fasten my seatbelt. He throws his head back against the leather material and groans. ‘What the hell am I going to do? Her showing up to that house unannounced would probably send him into some sort of spiral. I mean, she’s not exactly subtle. She casually has on pearls and smells like drowned herself Chanel.’

‘Maybe you could be the buffer. That way if either of them starts being a little too much, you’ll be there to ease the situation.’

‘There’s no way in hell I’m voluntarily sitting in on that. It’s a disaster waiting to happen so I’ll just let her find out on her own.’ Niall rants on for about five more minutes before looking over at me, ‘something tells me that we’re going to actually sit down with my twisted family.’