"I'm going to regret this someday, but why don't we make a deal?"

I looked at her curiously. "What kind of deal?"

"We could help each other," she said bluntly. "I know it sounds absolutely horrible, but I think if we helped each other, then this situation would be a lot easier for us to deal with. What do you think?"

I couldn't believe what my mother had just said. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that she offered me a chance to sexually relieve her, and vice versa. It was the last thing I would have ever expected her to say.

"What do you mean?"...