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It’s been a long time since I last had dinner with my parents.
Though I want to see Dad, I don’t know what Mom is going to say.
“You look like you’re about to pass out,” Christian says as he walks into the room and tightens his black tie.
I glance at him, taking in the way his black dress shirt and slacks hug his figure.
He looks like he stepped off the cover of a magazine while I’m standing in nothing but a towel.
My hair might be curled, and my makeup is done, but those are the only things about me that are ready for this dinner.
“I am freaking out. You don’t know my parents. Well, I guess you know my dad, but you don’t know them like I do. There is a certain expectation that they will have with this dinner, and I’m sure that I’m only going to disappoint them again.”
Christian sits on the edge of my bed.
He leans back, bracing himself on his forearms. “I don’t think that you’re capable of disappointing anyone.”
I scoff and sift through the dresses in front of me. “You would be wrong about that. My parents wish that I would go to school to become a lawyer or a doctor. Something that would make sense for the daughter of a politician. They think that music is a waste of time. Hell, my mother will say that to my face.”
“Mild offense intended, but your mother sounds like a raging bitch. What kind of parent makes their child feel like they’re anything less than amazing?”
I glance at him over my shoulder and shrug. “You’ll see what they’re really like tonight. They might not be happy with Ava’s job, but at least she is working as a nurse. When songwriting comes up, which it always does, then it will become shit on Zoe hour.”
His nose wrinkles. “That sounds disgusting.”
Despite the nervous feeling coursing through my body, I laugh. “It is disgusting. You would have to wonder about what they do when I’m not around to criticize.”
As I turn back to sorting through the dresses, I try to calm the anxiety.
I know that this dinner is going to be awful.
Going into the dinner as prepared as possible to be insulted and humiliated is the only way to handle things.
I love my parents, but they love their public image more. They want to look like the perfect family, and I don’t fit into that idea for them.
“For what it’s worth, I can start a distraction if you want to get out of there.”
“I might take you up on that,” I say as I pull out a mauve dress with long bell sleeves. “Do you think this is the kind of thing that the daughter of the Head of State would wear to dinner?”
The bed squeaks as I hold the dress in one hand and continue to search through my closet with the other.
Christian’s hands settle on my hips.
I lean back into him for a moment.
In the week since he showed me the music studio, the energy between us has changed.
It feels more like we’re a real couple and less like two people who were forced together.
It’s easy to be with him, even on the days that he is driving me insane. Being with him gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling deep in my stomach.
It terrifies me.
“You would look amazing in your dress. Fuck what your father and the rest of the damn state thinks about it.”
My cheeks warm as I turn to face him, holding the dress a little higher. “It’s short, though. I don’t know if I should go with something a little longer or not.”
Christian rolls his eyes. “Wear what you feel comfortable and confident in, Zoe. Don’t let these people make you feel like you’re anything less than amazing.”
