A month later

"What's the big deal?! I think it's fine." Justin stood in the kitchen, talking to his mother Lynn. "You asked my opinion and I gave it." Lynn stood in front of the sink, washing off some tomatoes.

"Well, I didn't think you would say it like that?" he took a seat at the table, never taking his eyes off his phone. He was texting Tara, making arrangements for tonight. "What are you doing over there? You haven't looked up from that phone since you've been in here."

"Oh..." he chuckled, quickly looking up to stare at his mom. "I'm just talking to Tara. I'm practically begging her to come over for dinner." she laughed in response. "She's nervous about meeting you."

"Tell her not to be nervous. I'm a fun person to be around." she assured. "Where did you meet her any way?"

"Um..." he peeled his eyes from off his cell phone to gaze at her.

"We met at that night club a few miles from here. The day Miss Mildred was buried." her eyes lit up interestingly.

"Really?" she paused, slowly turning to face him. "You're dating someone you met at a night club?" he nodded, putting all of his focus back on his cell phone.

"She's not like that, mom. Trust me. She didn't even wanna be there. She went because her friend begged her." he explained, finally sitting his phone on the kitchen table. "She agreed to come over tonight so...you will be meeting her after all."

Tara sat in the lunch room at her work place talking on the phone. "I'm so tired. What I really wanted to do was go home and get some sleep but Justin asked me to come over for dinner. His mom is in town and he wants me to meet her but...I'm kinda hesitant about it. I don't know what she'll think when she finds out that I work for Wal-Mart. I'm sure she's one of the parents who wants the best for her son but she doesn't want him dating a loser." she sat back in her seat. "I don't know. I'm not so sure but I agreed to go. So when I leave here at seven, I'm gonna head straight there." she glanced at her watch, realizing what time it was. "I gotta go. My lunch is over. Yeah, talk to you later. Bye." she ended her call, slipping the phone in her pocket.

7:34pm

Tara slid the key in the door slot and twisted the knob, pulling the door open. She entered the house, shutting the door behind her. She immediately heard voices coming from somewhere in the room. When she stepped further inside the house, her eyes instantly focused in on Justin and a woman sitting on the sofa in the living room. They both froze, quickly looking her direction. "There she is." he stood up, ambling towards her. "Hey." he leaned in, pecking her on the lips.

"Hey. Sorry I'm late. It got so busy at the last minute." she explained.

"It's okay." he placed his hand on her lower back, leading her further inside. "I want you to meet someone." Lynn stood up, extending her hand out to shake hers. "This is my mother, Lynn. Mom, this is my beautiful girlfriend, Tara." he watched the two shake hands.

"Hello, how are you?" Lynn spoke.

"I'm good. How are you? It's a pleasure to meet you." she smiled kindly.

"You too." she gazed in on Justin who was grinning from ear to ear. "I've never seen my son so happy. Not in awhile." she shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess that's a good thing. Ha-Ha." he reached out, grabbing her hand firmly.

"I'm gonna take Tara upstairs to get undressed." he caught himself. "I meant, get prepared for dinner." she bit her lip, holding back her laughter.

"Okay. I need to check on the food any way. So take your time." they both headed up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Nice going there, cowboy." she teased, following him in the room.

"I didn't mean it like that." he turned, watching her sit her things on the floor by the door. "The shower is ready for you. And by the way..." he moved in closer to her. "...you look good in that uniform." she rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Please, Justin." she ambled towards the door, her eyes instantly focusing on a small gift wrapped box sitting on the counter next to the sink. "What's that?" she asked, quickly glancing at him. He shrugged his shoulders, pretending as if he had no clue what she as talking about.

"I dunno. Why don't you go and see for yourself." she sucked her teeth in aggravation.

"What did I tell you about buying me stuff?" she entered the bathroom and grabbed the box from off the counter. "What is it?" he followed her in the bathroom.

"Open it." he watched carefully as she unwrapped the paper, coming face to face with a jewelry box.

"Justin..." she slowly looked up to peer in his eyes. She felt like a midget whenever she was around him because she always had to look up to gaze in his eyes being that he was much taller than her. "I don't know if I should..."

"Don't." he spoke up. "I bought it for you so please take it. I won't accept it back." she bit her lip as she hesitated to lift the top to it. "Go on." she finally pulled the top off, her eyes instantly zooming in on a diamond necklace.

"Jesus, Justin." she stepped back, taking a seat on top of the toilet. "This is beautiful." she examined the necklace, having no idea what to say. She found herself completely absentminded. "I'm sorry, I..." she shielded her face with her hand as she fought back the tears begging to pour.

"You don't like it?" he asked, kneeling down in front of her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, I just..." she bit her trembling lip. "I don't know what to say because..." she looked up, meeting eyes with his. "...no one has ever bought me something like this. Especially something this expensive. I don't understand. We haven't been together for no more than a month and you're already buying me stuff like this. This isn't right." he watched as a tear escaped her eye. "What am I supposed to do now. I can't buy you something expensive." he shook his head.

"I'm not expecting you to. I just wanted to do something special for you. I like you...a lot." he reached out, running his hand over her hair. "Maybe too much and it kinda scares me." a soft chuckle escaped her lips. "I just want you to know that I think of you and I care about you. You're always on my mind when you're not around and I've never had this problem before. I've never felt this way before. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to buy your love, because I'm not. I just really..." she leaned in, pecking him on the lips.

"I feel the same way." she breathed between his lips.

"You do?" she nodded, giving him a teasing look.

"A lot. And it's not because I lost my virginity to you. I'm just...I really have to thank Sun because if she never begged me to go with her that night, I would've never met you." he smiled warmly, his arms now attached to her waist.

"I have to thank her as well. And Jim for making me take him. Ha-Ha." her smile slowly faded as she noticed how handsome he looked.

"How was your day? Did everything go okay with the surgery?"

"Um...yeah. I guess you can say that. I don't understand why some women can be so self conscious about themselves. I mean, you have a few babies and yet you expect for your vagina to look the same way it was before you gave birth. Let alone, after you HAD sex. Sometimes, I don't even see what's the problem. Most of the vaginas I see look perfectly normal to me. If we had any children, I wouldn't like your vagina any different than I do now." a smile slowly formed across her lips.

"Are you saying we're gonna have kids together?" he broke out laughing.

"That's the only part you heard? Ahaha. You're so cute sometimes, you know that?" she shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. I was just asking. I mean, I know we haven't been together long enough to even be thinking such things...I just thought that maybe if everything worked out between us..."

"Tara?" she hastily met eyes with his. "Whatever the circumstances maybe, I wanna let you know that I'm here for you and I don't wanna rush you into anything. Every moment we're together, I feel nothing but bliss. I've never felt this way about a woman before and I think that's a really good thing. I really hope we continue this route because things can be great for us. You just have to understand something. My career requires some sacrifices. Sometimes it can take me days or even months where I'm away on a business trip and I can't be here with you. This is what I do and I hope you understand that. This is what you have to look forward to if you wanna continue this. And I hope you do because..." she smiled excitedly. "...I sure as hell would love to pursue our relationship."

"And I sure as hell will like to pursue our relationship." she met lips with his once more. "Mmm ahaha."
_________

A half hour later

Lynn looked up from the table to focus in on Justin and Tara entering the kitchen with huge smiles on their faces. "Sorry we took so long. I was trying to..."

"No need to explain." she assured, automatically noticing the diamond necklace on Tara's neck. "What a gorgeous necklace. I'm guessing my son bought that." she looked away to gaze at Justin with this smirk on her face.

"Yeah. He just...gave it to me. It took me by surprise because I wasn't expecting it."

"Did you see what she bought?" he added, pointing at the shirt that she wore. "It says, I love my man. Isn't that awesome?" she blushed massively.

"Stop it." he pulled out a chair for her to sit on. "Thank you." she thanked, taking a seat in the specific chair.

"I always tell Justin he's too generous. He's always buying me things and no matter how many times I tell him not to, he just goes right ahead and does it any way. So I'm telling you now, once he has his mind made up, there's no stopping him. If he wants to buy you something, just accept it. Besides, that's how you know he really likes you." she looked away, meeting eyes with the handsome guy who sat next to her. "I can tell he's head over heels. It's in his eyes. I don't know what you're doing but keep doing it." she finally looked away, putting her focus on the delicious meal in front of her.

"Everything looks delicious. Did you cook this, Miss Lynn?"

"Some of it. Prince Charming over there did most of the work." she flashed him a surprised look.

"Really? You cooked all of this? Wow! Is there anything you can't do?" she teased.

"There's something I wanna ask you but I'll wait till after dinner." he implied, chewing on a piece of pork chop.

"Hmm okay." for some reason, that sentence made her a little nervous because most of the time--bad things happened whenever someone wanted to talk. "Any way..." she took a sip of her juice.

"So, are you from here, Tara?" she looked up to gaze at Lynn who had her attention on her.

"Um, yes ma'am. I was born and raised in California. Both my parents passed away and left me the house. It's fully paid for so I don't have to worry about any mortgage payments." she nodded timidly.

"You're so young. How old are you, if you mind me asking."

"No it's fine. I'll be twenty-five this April. It's funny because Sun and I were born on the same day. Aha." Justin flashed her an interesting look.

"Really? You never told me that."

"Who's Sun?" Lynn asked curiously.

"She's my best friend. Her father owns a bank and he's always traveling back and forth from China because the headquarters are based down there. She's Chinese and Caucasian. Her mother is Caucasian and her father is Chinese. She's really an ok girl and I love her too death. She's like a sister to me. I'm sorry, I'm just blabbering at the mouth." she looked down to stare at her food. "I'm just a little nervous. I've never been in a predicament like this. I never met any of my boyfriends mother before." she paused as thoughts wandered her mind. "Honestly, I've only had one boyfriend in my whole life. Before Justin, that is."

"Tara, it's okay. You don't have to be nervous. Trust me when I say that. I trust my son to choose the right person for him so don't think for a second that I'm judging you because I'm not." she assured, placing her hand on top of hers. "Okay?" she nodded meekly.

"Yes ma'am." she stuffed a broccoli in her mouth. "This is really good."

Meanwhile...

"You need help with the dishes?" Tara asked Lynn while sitting a plate in the sink.

"Um, no. I'll be fine. Go keep Justin company. I'll take care of things here." she assured.

"You sure? I don't mind..."

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be fine." she returned a warm smile.

"Okay. I'll see you in the morning." she turned, proceeding out of the kitchen. "Goodnight." she added.

"Goodnight, sweetie." Lynn replied, never taking her gaze off the dishes in the sink. Tara ambled up the stairs and down the hall towards the bedroom. When she entered the spacious room, her eyes focused in on Justin who was making himself comfortable in bed. He laid back against the soft pillows with the phone to his ear.

"I was actually getting ready to call it a night." he spoke, his eyes following Tara as she climbed on bed next to him. "Okay, well you take care of yourself and don't drink too much. I know how hard it can be." she laid her head on his lap while putting her gaze on the TV screen. "No, just take it easy. I'm gonna go now. I will call you tomorrow. Yeah, okay. Goodnight." he pressed the end button, sitting the cordless phone back on the charger next to the bed.

"How's he doing?" she broke the silence in the room.

"He's okay. It's still gonna take some time." he skimmed her arm soothingly. "Do you work tomorrow?" she rolled over on her back, looking up to stare at him.

"I'm off, thank heavens." he looked down to meet eye contact with her.

"You wanna do something tomorrow? I happen to have no appointments scheduled." she smiled sweetly. "Maybe we can go out for dinner and a movie or something."

"That sounds like a plan." she sat up, turning to face him. "I think your mom is amazing. She's really down to earth. She reminds me of my mom."

"Which reminds me. Why didn't you tell me your parents died? What happened?" she chewed on her inner lip, hesitant to go into detail because she hated talking about it.

"It happened a long time ago. Right after I turned eighteen." she sat back, resting against the pillows. "I don't talk about it. It just brings back bad memories." he examined her closely, realizing how quiet she became. He didn't want to upset her but he DID really want to know what happened.

"Okay. Whenever you feel up for it, I'm here." she slid down, covering herself with the thick blanket.

"I think I'm gonna go to sleep. I'm really tired. Very busy day at work today." he slid closer to her, wrapping his arm around her.

"I wanted to talk to you about that." he spoke into her ear. She quickly looked over her shoulder to stare at him. "I know it's not my decision to make but I really don't think you should continue working there. I mean..." she rolled over on her other side, that way she'd be facing him.

"Are you asking me to quit my job?"

"Well..." he hesitated. "I just think you deserve better." she rolled her eyes, immediately sitting up in bed.

"Now you see why I didn't wanna tell you where I worked." he watched her throw the blanket back and step out of bed. "You're embarrassed about me working there!"

"Wh...no! Of coarse not! I just want you to be happy and I don't think you're happy there."

"How would you know? Can you read my mind now?" he stepped out of bed and approached her. "Don't..."

"Tara..." he reached out, grabbing a hold to her hand. "Don't act like this. I'm just...I thought this was what you wanted. You don't seem happy. You even said so yourself."

"Let me ask you one question. If I DID decide to quit, how will I take care of myself? And don't you dare say you will handle it because I refuse to have you take care of me. I can't and I won't. I don't know what you take me for. What? You think I'm this stupid girl who depend on people? Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're supposed to lavish me and spoil me and...and take care of me." she could feel the tears building up in her system. "I can't let you do that. I just can't." her voice was uneven because she was on the verge of crying. "I can't." she repeated while taking a seat on the bed.

"Baby, don't think for a second that I don't wanna do this. I would be honored to and I know you wanna be independent and do for yourself but this is who I am. I take care of the ones I love. I just wanna help, that's all." at this point, she was crying a river. All of this was too much for her to handle. This was not something she was used to. "Just think about it. You know I'm only here to help you." she sniffled inaudibly.

"What if I did decide to quit and what if we decided to break up, then what? What will I have to fall back on? I can't just do something like that. We've only been together for a month. Anything can happen and..." she sniffled once more. "...the only way I will consider something like that is if we were married. Other than that, I can't. I'm sorry." he licked his lips, never taking his eyes off her. She was definitely not like the other women he'd dated because any one of them would have quickly agreed to quit their job. Especially if they knew he was a rich plastic surgeon.

"I guess you're right. Who am I to try and get you to quit your job? That's your only income. I'm so selfish. I shouldn't have said anything. I should've just kept my mouth shut. I'm sorry." he held her hand in his. "I really am. Forgive me?" she gawked to the side to lock eyes with his.

"Can we just pretend like this never came up?" he nodded, leaning in to kiss her on the lips.

"You got it. Come on." he helped her in bed. She rested her head on his chest as he covered the both of them with the blanket. "Try to get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." he assured.

"Okay." she shut her eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep to the sound of his heart beat.