It's The Hard-Knock Life

 Nori was furious when her mother told her in the kitchen on Thanksgiving that she deserved better. Of course, she couldn't lash out about it then. She would not make a scene, especially with Jared around.

"You don't even know him," Nori said over the phone to her mother the next day.

"Oh, I know what you see in him," Her mother came back with. "Is he that good in bed?"

Nori was shocked. She was practically shaking when her mother said those words. She could hardly breathe. Where had her mother learned to talk that way? If she called Mel, she would just laugh about the matter, but Nori was serious about Jared. And it hurt that all her mother could say was something nasty.

Finally, she called her cousin Roman, who was there for Thanksgiving dinner with his significant other, Eddie.  She blurted out her troubles with her mother over Jared. She couldn't even nurse her cup of tea. She felt like she might be coming down with something. "Momma doesn't like my choices in men."

"Lil' Sis, you could have brought home Jesus Christ, and she still wouldn't be satisfied. Don't pay attention to her. You're the one who needs to be happy." Roman's little pep talk did her good. She was coming to her senses. She was not going to let her mother have the last say.

After the last phone call, she took some deep breaths on the couch and stared at the ceiling for a minute or two. Of course, she sniffed back a tear or two, wondering if this would work or not. On one hand, she hadn't been serious about anyone in a good long time. She'd tried the dating apps, but it was different with Jared. The moment she'd laid eyes on him, the chemistry was there, and she thought it kind of funny how he stammered around her, but was always full of smiles. Yes, he'd made her a little dizzy, and she liked the idea that he was up for whatever she wanted to do. Although she didn't think of herself as being that bossy. 

It took her a good twenty minutes to think it through, but then she made the call. 

"How about you move in with me?" She could hardly keep from laughing. Not a thought in her head was thinking of rejection.

"Really?" She could hear the laugh in his throat.

"Really." She told him he had better hurry before the Arctic blast got here. After all, it would be nice to have someone snow shovel the driveway.