Kaye:
My mom had been fixated on Maximus for the past five minutes. She hadn't looked away from him as he used his phone in front of her.
We had our casual dinners with her at the beginning of every month, but tonight was different. Norman didn't come.
He was usually the one trying his best to keep the peace between all of us. Now that he wasn't here, I wondered how the night would go.
"Maximus, did you speak to Emmet?" I knew Mom would ask him some kind of question just to get his attention.
"Hmm?" Maximus raised his head momentarily from his phone before looking down again. "When has he ever come?"
"I know that much. But did you ask him to start joining our dinners?" she insisted.
Emmet was a different breed. He had stopped coming to these dinners after the first few times, and eventually, he avoided meeting our mother altogether unless she bumped into him somewhere—or Norman dragged him to an event where she'd be present.
