"Why?" asked Patricia in confusion. "What would you have done if she told you?" Tom didn't answer while Patricia continued. "Would you have joined us for shopping? Is that it?" Her brows creased into a beautiful frown. She didn't understand why Tom was serious about it. After all, it was the first time she saw him act in such a way. A consistent frown on his face made him appear more intimidating than usual.

  "Did you really think I'd want to join you? That's ridiculous," huffed Tom, looking at her weirdly. Patricia merely shrugged. "You silly girl. Why didn't you tell mom that your leg was hurting? She would have understood," scolded Tom as he massaged her leg with a gentle hand. He didn't like the idea of her leg hurting.

  "I just couldn't tell her at the time. Do you have any idea how excited she was?" asked Patricia, glancing at him. "She really enjoyed shopping with me. I just didn't have the heart to let her down, that's all. I was trying to get on her good side." She sighed in delight. "If I could just make her like me, I guess we won't have a difficult daughter-and-mother-in-law relationship in the future," Patricia reasoned with Tom, who had been silent this entire time. She recounted all the times her leg hurt, and why she felt it was best to keep it to herself. While she knew deep in her heart that Tom's mother wasn't unreasonable like other mothers-in-law, she still couldn't help it. Even though her mother-in-law would have understood, she just didn't want to cause any friction between them. It was better to be cautious.

  "You make it sound like my mom's unreasonable. Can you stop worrying? She is very kind and considerate. She is easy to get along with. She would never give you a hard time." Tom was really c.

  It wasn't a big deal, so she might as well come out with the truth.

  "Ha ha," chuckled Tom, relaxing upon hearing her explanation. "I think I know what you mean. Were they mom's so-called friends? They're not her real friends, to be honest. Somehow, she just has to socialize with them." Tom explained to Patricia and felt amused by her reaction. Though he didn't like the old ladies himself, he knew how to ignore them. Patricia, on the other hand, was easily fazed by such type of people.

  "You know about this?" Patricia asked in surprise. "To be honest, I'm really impressed by your mother. I just can't understand how a nice and kind person like her can be friends with those pretentious and obnoxious women." Patricia was amazed by her mother-in-law's tenacity around such a difficult group of women. She could stand being friends with them despite their nosiness and, in her books, that was truly impressive. If it were Patricia who had to socialize with them, she would have given up a long time ago and run away as soon as possible. She wasn't the kind of woman who could easily deal with people she didn't like, and quite frankly, she was fine by that.