After my doctor’s appointment yesterday, Chris quickly rushed home to get to his next meeting. Since I was on the Upper East Side, I decided to text my friend who lives in the area for a quick coffee date, especially since the weather was so nice outside. We sat outside for a couple hours and caught up on life, health, and politics.

I eventually walked home and decided to call my mom to let her know how my appointment went. Pretty much every call we’ve had during the pandemic has included her warning me not to go anywhere by myself because “the world is getting worse” with all the hate crimes against Asians and the increased shootings since the beginning of this calendar year. When I told her I was walking home, she asked if Chris was with me, and I said no. She asked why not. I said I went to go meet a friend after my appointment.

Well, that was a mistake.

“What friend? Why are you meeting a friend? Is it (insert name of friend she knows in New York)?”

I wasn’t rolling my eyes, but I certainly was on the inside. I told her that the friend lived near the doctor’s office so we just met up for lemonade. No, it was not the one friend she is aware of.

She starts making the sound with her voice, indicating she’s annoyed and unhappy. “Who is this friend? Why are you meeting with them? How do you know them? You need to be careful! You don’t know who to trust!”

Yeah… I don’t have to answer any of her questions because I am no longer in elementary school, so I just said I was already home and had to go, so I hung up. Once upon a time, she used to revel in the fact that I lived under her roof and could control my every move, that she could get the phone number of all my friends and then check in and call them behind my back after I’d see them… to double check that I really was where I said I was. My friends always told me when she’d call. She’d even say dumb things to them like, “If Yvonne does anything bad, you let me know, okay?” She even did this a few times when I was in COLLEGE.

Now, as an adult, I’ve made sure to tell her as little as possible about any friends I’ve made as an adult so she knows as little as possible about my social circles. She is always so suspicious of pretty much anyone and is constantly, constantly saying, “You can’t trust anyone.” As far as I’m concerned, that may be true… but that also extends to her given all the stuff she’s done behind my back. It’s amazing that I haven’t ended up just as paranoid and distrusting as she is today.