I’d gotten tired of the maintenance.
Jake said he liked my natural brown.
His mother actually smiled when she saw it.
I thought we were finally getting somewhere.
Then came my birthday.
Both families came for dinner.
There was cake.
Too much food.
And a little pile of gifts beside my chair.
I planned to open them later.
But Jake’s mother pushed an envelope across the table.
“Open mine now.”
She looked delighted.
Inside was a card.
And a $500 certificate for laser tattoo removal.
I stared at it.
“What is this?”
“You’re married now,” she said. “You’ll probably have children soon. Time to get rid of some of those.”
Her eyes moved to my shoulder.
“You mean my mother?”
“That would be a good place to start.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Jake looked at the certificate and muttered, “Mom, this is not how we agreed to do it.”
I turned toward him.
