Anissa wiped her hands on her jeans. Again. She could not believe how nervous she had become at the prospect of meeting her parents. Not just her mother but the father who had abandoned them both.

David looked even more tense than she, which was some consolation. His friends were present as well, and she knew they felt entirely out of place. She would have preferred to have this meeting without an audience but she understood David's reasoning. He did not know her mother, could ...