Chapter 3

Eventually she put away her cosmetics and stood up, moving behind Ryan as she walked over to the closet. Ryan could hear the door opening and the scrape of hangars along the rail as she decided what she'd be wearing tonight, which would need to be different from what she was wearing tomorrow and the morning after the wedding. "What do you think of this dress?" she asked and Ryan had no choice but to turn around to look. She was still in her towel, but was holding a black dress over her body. It was one Ryan recognised, she often wore it when she was going out to a bar with girlfriends as a singleton. It wasn't hard to see why, as it was both short and low cut. "Think it'll do for tonight?"

"I don't know," he replied, not sounding too sure, "What do you think?"

She laughed, "You're supposed to be my boyfriend for the weekend, get off the fence and tell me."

"Um, yes," he said, not sounding any more certain than before.

It was enough however for his Mom, "I'm going for it," she replied, "Show everyone I've still got it, a hot body and a hot boyfriend." She grinned at her blushing son, "Turn away," she laughed, "I need to change."

He did so quickly. Behind him he heard the soft crump of the towel hitting the floor and then the swish of material on skin as his Mom slipped into the dress. "You can look again," she said and he automatically turned. "Ta-dah," she posed, her arms outstretched like she was modelling. The dress was even tighter and more revealing than he remembered; no wonder she wore it when she was out when single, and she was single now, even if she wouldn't show it tonight (at least he hoped not, if there was anything more embarrassing than pretending to be your Mom's lover, it was pretending to be her lover whilst she flirted with another guy). "What do you think? I come up pretty sexy don't I?"

"The sexiest," Ryan replied, it was what she wanted to hear and was also true, even if, as her son, it was theoretical to him.

She grinned, "You look pretty hunky yourself, I'll need to keep you close tonight if I don't want anyone to steal my toy boy away." He blushed, whether it was the compliment or his Mom's forwardness he couldn't tell — perhaps it was a mixture of both. She adjusted the dress a little, pulling it down so that it covered more of her thighs whilst exposing more of her cleavage, "Anyway let me finish getting ready and we can go down to dinner."

It didn't take long for her to finish, brushing her hair some more and putting on some earrings and necklace, as well as a dark jade coloured bracelet.

Several of his Mom's friends were already at a table with their partners, more women than men he noticed and his Mom introduced him (again as her boyfriend) introducing her old cheerleader squad in a blizzard of names he mainly forgot and leaving it to each woman to introduce a guy she was with. He sat down next to his Mom and she very deliberately placed her hand on top of his as soon as he laid it on the table, "Order what you want honey," she drawled, "Wine as well."

That was a bonus, whilst they weren't teetotal, his Mom seldom drank when he was around and it was difficult to get into bars unless he had some decent ID and his last card had been confiscated by a bouncer as not been good enough. The drink soon arrived, beers as well and the conversation was flowing as well as the food. Ryan remained mainly quiet, only speaking if asked a question, but the other men were in the same position as he was and also remained in listening mode. Luckily the women had a lot to catch up on and whilst they'd seen each other individually over the years, it was the first time they'd all been together as an old squad since graduation. It seemed the intervening years had resulted in a number of marriages, several divorces (which helped explain the male/female imbalance) and one coming out as a lesbian (which also help explain the ratio) and multiple children of varying ages (from toddlers to teens). It was definitely strange, when they were talking about their kids, to hear his Mom talk about him as if he wasn't there and use a name hadn't be used since he was knee-high. It was even stranger to hear her talk about his ex-girlfriends (she turned out not to think most of them were good enough for him) and his football skills (which she exaggerated tenfold) as well as how she was going to miss him when he went to college (she squeezed his hand tighter as she said that, but no-one else but him noticed).

The food came and more wine and beer, coffee afterwards, though more than one person had it Irish, including his mother, which surprised Ryan as he hadn't thought she was a hard liquor drinker. He skipped it himself, he didn't want to get too drunk and accidentally say 'Mom' instead of Brandi. The conversation continued and they went to the bar, with various rounds being charged to their rooms. Luckily he found himself with his Mom on a couch, where she was able to slip an arm round his shoulders without getting too close, as some of the others had ended up on smaller chairs and on each other's knees.