Three Lovers in Barcelona (BBW MMF Contemporary Romance) by Ava May

been so difficult.”
    Alissa scowled at her mother. “You have bought me everything,” she rolled her eyes as she spoke. “You have not done anything. When did you come to my school when I was being bullied? How many times can you remember tucking me in at night? Tell me, Mother. How old was I when I went on my first date? Or what was the name of the boy?”
    Alissa stood up and walked away from the table. She was not going to deal with her mother pretending to be Miss Perfect all summer. She knew that it was the last summer that she would ever have to deal with Angel and John and she planned on making sure they knew exactly what type of parents they were by the time it was over.
    As Alissa walked out and got into Mitch’s car Angel sat at the booth with her mouth gaping open. Alissa had never spoken to her like that before. Yes, she had been sarcastic and she had been a brat at times but she had never called her mother out like that and Angel could not believe that she had done so in front of Mitch.
    If there was one thing that Angel cared about, it was what other people thought of her and her family. She always made sure that they were dressed in the best clothes, that their house looked as if it should be in a magazine, she would go days without sleeping just to make sure all of the flowers she planted were perfectly manicured and if anyone said a bad word about the family Angel was quick to respond.
    Alissa had no idea how many times Angel had to respond to people saying bad things about her. It was Alissa that Angel spent most of her time cleaning up after. She had cleared up rumors about Alissa by purchasing other girls clothing, she had paid boys not to spread rumors. Angel did not want to believe that they were true and so she decided to ignore them, but deep inside she knew that her daughter was not the sweet little girl everyone pretended that she was.
    John paid the bill and Angel excused herself to wash her face. “Do you want Alissa to ride with you the rest of the way so Angel can talk to her,” Mitch asked hoping that John would say yes. He was already regretting what he had just done to his best friends daughter.
    “No,” John replied. “It is best if they stay away from each other for a while. I have a feeling this is how our entire summer is going to be.”
    Mitch nodded his head, agreeing with John and then walked to his own car. He had met both John and Angel long before Alissa was ever born. He knew that the two of them had not been the best parents. He had often wondered why they had even had a child.
    He had witnessed them leaving their little girl with many different baby sitters, hiring nannies to take care of her and sending her off to different programs just so they would not have to deal with her.
    In fact, he never even remembered either of them holding her when she was a baby or so much as showing off a picture to any of their friends. They had mutual friends that were surprised when they found out that John and Angel had a child. As Mitch opened his car door and climbed in he could see the anger on Alissa’s face.
    Mitch closed his door and started the car. After driving for about five minutes he looked over at Alissa. She looked like a broken girl. He realized that she probably had no idea what love was. The guilt grew in him as he began to understand what motivated Alissa to seek after men’s attention.
    “You’re really mad at her, aren’t you?” he asked her.
    “Mad?” Alissa huffed. “You actually have to care about someone to be mad at them. I hate her.”
    “You know, Alissa,” Mitch said, trying to figure out what he should say. “Hate is a very strong word and she is your mother.”
    “My mother,” Alissa jerked her head toward Mitch. “No, she is the incubator that I grew in. My mother was 30 different teenage girls who babysat me; my mother was the daycare, and day camps that I grew up in, or the different nannies that I had. Angel is just the woman that gave