My mother was waiting for me to do something that would give her reason to call my bluff. I could see it in her eyes. She was waiting for me to do something that would give her reason to think that I wasn’t serious. And I was doing everything that I could to make sure that she wasn’t able to do so. It wouldn’t do me any good if she somehow thought me incapable of doing what I had just threatened to do. And it would undoubtedly be a blow to my ego, on top of it all.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Try me.”
I could hear the way that her heart was beating, hear the accelerated pace at which is was slamming against her rib cage, and I knew, without a doubt, that she was nervous about what was happening.
Maybe even scared.
I couldn’t deny that the thought of that gave me hope, gave me reason to b
