"Excuse me, Mrs. Smith, but I am not getting engaged to anyone. Deciding something like that for me is incredibly disrespectful. You can make decisions about your daughters if they allow it, but no one decides for me, and I don't give a damn… Don't interrupt me, Mom."

My mother was about to shut me up or try to persuade me, but I wasn't going to let her.

"As I was saying, I don't give a damn if the Smiths and the Kellers have been friends forever, or if they do business together, or whatever