Olivia felt her heart rate increase tenfold.  “Um…wh-what do you mean, Mrs. Cabot?” she stammered.

 

“I think you know very well what I mean, Olivia.  My daughter’s behavior over the past few weeks has been very erratic and I think you know exactly why,” Madeline responded, staring her down.

 

Olivia tried to swallow the lump in her throat.  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cabot.  I don’t think I do.”

 

“Don’t lie to me, Olivia,” she snapped coldly.  She looked down briefly and shook her head.  “Why Alex couldn’t just come forward and tell me herself, I don’t understand.  I’m her mother for crying out loud.”

 

“Tell you what?” Olivia asked nervously.

 

“Who she was involved with,” Madeline answered, looking Olivia straight in the eye.  “And in what sickening, absolutely perverted ways.  My daughter is 15 years old, Olivia.  I will not have her mind corrupted in such a despicable manner.”

 

Olivia wanted to disappear into thin air.  She started to cry.  “Mrs. Cabot, we couldn’t—”

 

“Couldn’t what?” she interrupted.  “Couldn’t tell me that she’s secretly engaging in activities inappropriate for her age?  And to think you just let her without trying to stop her.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Olivia sobbed.  “We didn’t mean—”

 

“Who is he, Olivia?” Madeline interrupted again.  “Who has my daughter been seeing that she must keep hidden away from her father and myself?  Who is the good for nothing male degenerate that has taken away my daughter’s innocence?”

 

Olivia’s mouth clearly dropped open in shock.  She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.  I thought we were fucked, she thought.  “Mrs. Cabot, I’ve never actually seen her with this…guy.  I don’t know that much about him.  She didn’t even tell me his name.  But I know she’s in love.”

 

Madeline scoffed.  “In lust is more like it.  I was rearranging her drawers when I came across some skimpy lingerie and sensual massage oils.  And don’t tell me she just had these things stored away for a rainy day.”

 

Shit, Olivia thought.  I must’ve forgotten to take those oils back home.  “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“If some grown man has deflowered my little girl…” Madeline began, her voice rising.  She took a moment to compose herself.  “I will have him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

 

“Mrs. Cabot…” Olivia began.

 

Madeline put her hand up to silence her.  “I need to find out who he is, where he comes from, and what he’s about.  And you’re going to help me.”

 

Olivia’s mouth dropped open.  “What?”

 

Madeline continued, “Olivia, I don’t like having to ask you to spy on my daughter, but this is very important to me.  If you find out anything—any information at all—I want you to report to me immediately.  Do you understand?”

 

“Mrs. Cabot, with all due respect, I’m not going—”

 

Madeline glared at her.  “Yes you are.  If you do not, I will no longer allow my daughter to associate with you.”

 

“Ok,” Olivia said in a small voice.

 

“Then it’s settled.  You are excused,” Madeline informed her, turning her back to the door.

 

Olivia hurried out and ran upstairs.  She burst into Alex’s room and locked the door.  “What’s going on?  Does she know?” Alex asked her in a panicked voice, regarding Olivia’s tear-streaked face.

 

Olivia shook her head.  “She doesn’t know about us, but she knows you’re having sex.”

 

Alex’s mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide.  “Oh my god, Liv!  How does she know?”

 

Olivia sat down on the bed.  “Well…she said she was rearranging your drawers when she came across lingerie and massage oils.”

 

Alex put a hand to her mouth.  “Oh god…”

 

“Bu the good news is that she thinks it’s a guy.  Possibly even an older one.  When she started going off about your weird behavior and talking about how she wouldn’t have you engaged in such perverted, disgusting activities, I thought for sure she was talking about us.”  Olivia wiped away a tear.  “I was so scared, Alex.  Then she asked who he was…I’d never been more relieved in my life.”

 

Alex wrapped her in a comforting hug.  “It’s ok, Liv.  Everything will be ok.”

 

“I sure hope so,” Olivia replied, sniffling.  “She totally gave me the third degree.  I felt like I was a criminal being interrogated for withholding info from the cops!”

 

“What all did she say?” Alex asked, soothingly rubbing her back.

 

“She accused me of lying to her when I told her I didn’t know what was going on with you.  And she blamed me for not trying to stop you from being sexually active.  At first I started apologizing but she interrupted me before I could say anything revealing about us.”

 

Alex let out the breath she had been holding.  “Good.  So what did you tell her when she thought it was a guy?”

 

Olivia looked down.  “I told her I’d never seen you with the guy, and I didn’t know much about him.  I said you didn’t even tell me his name, but you were in love.”

 

Alex gaped at Olivia in horror.  She moved away from her on the bed.  “Olivia, you what?  You let her think I was fucking some guy?  How could you?”

 

Olivia’s facial expression mirrored Alex’s.  “How could I?  Alex, I was trying to protect us!  If she thinks you’re fucking a guy, then that throws her off our trail!”

 

“Why didn’t you just tell her you didn’t know, Liv?”

 

Olivia reached for Alex’s hand.  Surprisingly, Alex didn’t pull back.  “Alex, I wanted to.  I really did.  But I couldn’t because of the way I had reacted when she was demanding to know what was going on with you.  I made it seem like I was guilty of knowing you were sneaking around in this secret relationship and having sex behind her back because like I said, I thought she was talking about us at first.  I almost started to say that we couldn’t tell her about us because we were afraid she’d split us up and that we didn’t mean to upset her.  But she interrupted me and interpreted it like I knew something was up and couldn’t tell her because I’d be breaking your trust.”

 

Alex sighed.  “But still, Liv.  Now she’s gonna grill me about some nonexistent guy and I’m gonna have to lie to her!”

 

“Well…we could concoct some type of feasible story.  You could tell her that you are in love with some guy but you’ve only slept with him once,” Olivia suggested.

 

Alex looked off to the side and shook her head.  “Liv…I think this will only make things worse.”

 

Olivia turned her chin back toward her.  “Baby, it’s our only option to keep your mom from going on a witch hunt.  Just make up a fake name, a fake age, and a fake description of him.  But don’t go over 18.  She said that if she finds out you’ve been sleeping with a grown man, she’ll have him prosecuted.  We don’t want the police involved in some false statutory mess.”

 

Alex slapped her hand to her forehead.  “God, Liv.  This is such a mess.  I don’t know if I can go through with it.”

 

Olivia took both Alex’s hands into her own.  “Sweetie, we’re gonna have to.  She told me to spy on you and come back to her and tell her everything.  I told her I wasn’t going to but she said if I didn’t, she wouldn’t let you associate with me anymore.”

 

Alex rolled her eyes.  “Great…so now you have to lie on me even more.”

 

“Alex, I was scared!  She could get a restraining order barring me from having any contact with you!  We have to play along with this, sweetie.  It’s the best thing right now.”

 

Alex stood up and started pacing back and forth across the room.  “Mom can’t stop me from seeing you.  No matter what she does.  There’s no way she can keep us apart.”  She turned to face Olivia and crossed her arms over her chest.  “So what’s the game plan?”

 

Olivia sighed.  “Well, we’ll say the guy’s name is…oh, I don’t know, Mike.  Tell her he lives about 45 minutes away and you met him at a party.  You’ve been seeing him for a couple months and he’s 17, but you were afraid to tell her about him because he’s a high school dropout and hangs out with a bad crowd.”

 

“And what are you gonna tell her?”

 

Olivia shrugged.  “I can just say I saw you guys making out or something and he looked like the ‘bad boy’ type.  I’ll say he has black shaggy hair, wears leather and chains, has a motorcycle, and he plans on taking you for a ride on it one day.”

 

Alex sat back down beside her.  “I just hope this doesn’t backfire on us.”

 

Olivia rubbed her back.  “Me too, sweetie.  Me too.”

 

Alex looked around her room.  “I’m gonna have to find better hiding places for my things.  I don’t want my mom coming across anything else.”

 

Olivia laughed for the first time since they’d gotten back to Alex’s house.  “Yeah.  That might be a good idea.”  Giving Alex a teasing grin, she said, “I should’ve asked her which set of lingerie she found.  I hope she didn’t confiscate the little pink and black number from Victoria’s Secret.”

 

Alex hit her with a pillow.  “Liv, this is serious.”  Still, she got off the bed and went over to examine her drawers.  “Son of a bitch!  It is gone!  So are the oils!  Dammit, I was so excited when I got you those for Christmas!”

 

Olivia gave her a lopsided grin.  “Hey well, at least we made good use of both the lingerie and the oils before she found them.”

 

Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head.  “Liv, you’re incorrigible.”

 

Olivia put her hands on her hips and said in her best imitation of Madeline’s voice, “‘If some grown man has deflowered my little girl, I’ll have him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’”

 

Alex burst into giggles.  “You’re so silly.”

 

Olivia smirked.  “I was planning on doing a little deflowering before we went to bed, but your mom kinda killed the mood.”

 

Alex shook her head again.  “You’re crazy, Liv.  Let’s just go to sleep.”

 

Olivia stifled a yawn.  “Yeah, I am kinda tired.  But I’m sure I’m gonna have to sleep with one eye open so your mom doesn’t try to kill me.”  Alex just laughed at her.

 

After they had changed into their pajamas and were settled in bed, Olivia asked, “Alex, are you mad at me?”

 

Alex stroked her arm.  “Not anymore.  I just wish there was an easier way to go about this.”

 

“Me, too,” Olivia agreed.  “But things have a way of working themselves out.”

 

“Yeah,” Alex answered, snuggling deeper into her pillow.  She closed her eyes and Olivia draped her arm across her and planted a kiss on her forehead.

 

After several minutes, Olivia asked, “Alex?”

 

“What?” Alex asked in a voice laden with sleep.

 

“I love you.”

 

“I love you too, Liv.”