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shit this guy had going on? I didn’t know him from a bar of soap, and I didn’t trust him one bit. At least not yet.
    “Wonderful to meet you, Bradley.” Michael’s voice boomed out as he reached across and extended a hand to me. “This is my daughter, Mia.”
    I shook his hand and said hi, barely able to take my eyes off Mia the entire time.
    My Mom’s sharp gaze spotted the flicker of recognition in Mia’s eyes as she stared back at me across the table, and she raised her eyebrows.
    “Have you two met before?”
    Mia’s eyes widened as she took a sip of water to buy some time, and my pulse doubled. I wanted to lie, but my Mom had put up with enough of my bullshit when I was a teenager to know what I sounded like when I lied. I guess I could tell the truth…just not the whole truth.
    “Err…yes,” I said. “We met at the pool earlier.”
    Mia almost choked on her water and lapsed into a coughing fit as I spoke.
    “Well, that’s great!” Michael said, patting Mia on the back as she recovered from the coughing. “You two already know each other! I suppose that helps make this whole thing a little less awkward for everyone.”
    No, it didn’t. It made it a hell of a lot more awkward. Besides, I didn’t exactly know Mia. I knew what her lips felt like on mine. I knew what she tasted like. I knew what her glorious body pressed up against my chest felt like. But I barely knew her as a person, other than what she’d briefly told me about herself earlier.
    Shit. This was gonna be a long evening.
    The dinner didn’t get much less awkward after that. I’d been aware of the fact that my Mom had met a guy recently, but I’d had no idea they were already so committed. Seriously, what on earth were they thinking? It was never a good idea to spring shit like this on your kids, even if they were technically adults like Mia and I were. A little warning would have been nice.
    Ah well. At least we had a full twenty-three hours to get to know each other a bit more before the wedding ceremony the next day…
                  ***             
    I woke up early the next morning, hoping to catch a moment with Mia to apologize for yesterday’s behavior before our parents tied the knot in the early evening. Unfortunately, she made sure I never got that chance. Every time I tried to get her alone, she said she needed the bathroom and scurried away, or she would suddenly feign an intense interest in a conversation about cross-stitching or gardening with my mother, leaving me awkwardly standing around waiting.
    I couldn’t blame her. She probably couldn’t stand me after what I’d said to her yesterday. On top of that, this wedding was a huge shock for both of us, and I was willing to bet her mind was reeling from our parents’ announcement in the same way mine was. I had no idea why they’d thought it was a good idea to hide their relationship from us for so long, but there was nothing we could do about that now.
    By the late afternoon, I still hadn’t talked to her, but I had managed to spend some time with Michael. So far we’d only chatted about casual things like sport and the weather. He hadn’t displayed any red-flag behaviors yet, but I still wished I had more time to get to know him before my Mom committed herself to him like this. I knew it sounded horrible that I distrusted my mother’s judgment so much, but I was like this from experience. One shitty long-term partner was unfortunate, but two was the beginning of a pattern.
    Hopefully Michael would break that pattern. Still, if he turned out to be a prick, I was gonna be there to support her.
    At six, I straightened my shirt collar and stepped out of the hotel and onto a deck that led right down to the beach. The large square end of the deck had been done up with decorations; white and lavender-colored balloons, pale yellow fairy lights, and an assortment of flowers. Soft classical music played from large outdoor speakers, setting a