“Spencer this is my mom. Mom this is Spencer,” I sighed glumly.

“Nice to meet you,” Spencer tried to be friendly.

“Hardly,” she was shook off. “We’re going out, and when we come back she better not be here.” I guess I should have told Spencer that my parents didn’t really take well to the fact that I was gay.

“Christine,” Marie came out of the bathroom. “I can stay here if that’s what you’re worried about.” Marie was always quick to take my side. My mother always hated that.

“No, she needs to leave.”

“Christine it’s not that big of deal,” Marie tried to reason with my mother. We both knew it was pointless. My mother won just cause she was the one with the money.

“I don’t think this is really any of your business.”

“Well, seeing as I’m actually around, I’d say it is,” Marie was getting angry. I’d never seen her like this before. Part of me wanted to hug her for standing up for me, but the other wanted to get her to stop. Marie was a maid, and to my mother, she was replaceable.

“Then you don’t have to be around,” and there was the snap. I knew what was coming. It’s what happened every time I got close to someone. They left. Whether by choice or force, they would soon be gone.  They always promised they’d stay, but they never did.

“Don’t you think that’s being a little drastic? You can’t just have a civil conversation with me?”

“Listen sweetie, you’re an employee. I don’t pay you to tell me how raise my daughter. I pay you to clean my house, and after you finish up this week and collect you last pay check, I won’t be paying you at all,” she stated in that tone that I hated. The one that made me want to smack her upside the head. I resented her, and she knew it. Sometimes I think she gets a kick out of watching me become more miserable.

“Mom,” I needed to undue this. I can’t lose Marie. “Please just let her stay,” I begged.

“You should have thought of that before you brought her over,” she looked at Spencer and continued to walk away.