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“Was it?”
“You’re going to have sex with me later, right?” he asked.
“Well...yeah.”
“Then clearly it worked.” Ian bent and kissed her lightly on the lips. She wanted more of a kiss than that but she saw a flash when their lips met—someone in a suit had just taken their picture.
“What was that?” she asked as the man in the suit with the camera slipped into another room.
“Reporter from the Portland Mercury,” Ian said as if she should have known. “Drink up, we need to go meet the fam. Also, you look incredible.” He held out his arm and together they walked from the front room down a hall toward the sound of voices coming from a back room.
“You don’t look so bad yourself. I’m glad you like the dress.”
“I love the dress. I love the lady in the dress even more. And I will love the lady out of the dress most of all.”
“You’re already trying to get me naked?” she asked.
“Yes. My old bedroom’s upstairs,” he said. “We will make a pilgrimage to it before this night is over.”
“Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
“Just in case I never told you,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to whisper in her ear. “I love your orders.”
Ian kissed her again in the darkened hallway before leading her through the door. He’d brought her to a large ebony wood paneled library where young women in red and silver sequined dresses sat on the arms of leather sofas chatting to men in tuxedos. An older couple sat on the sofa with a baby between them kicking her feet in shiny new baby girl shoes.
The chitchat quieted as Ian cleared his throat.
“Everybody, I want you to meet Flash, my girlfriend. Real name Veronica, everybody calls her Flash. She’s a metal sculptor and a welder and the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So be nice or you’re all out of the will.”
“Whose will?” asked a girl who was obviously a teenager and trying very hard not to look like it tonight. “Yours or Uncle Dean’s? Because I’ll behave for Uncle Dean’s will. Probably not yours, though.”
“That’s fair,” Ian said. “Flash, this is my cousin Angie. Angie, Flash.”
“Hi, Flash. Cool ink,” Angie said with a bright smile, and Flash thanked her very sincerely. So far tonight she’d had her truck and her tattoos complimented. She might survive this party, after all.
She met Ian’s grandparents, John and Marianne, and the baby was Penny, his cousin Jake’s daughter. The introductions rolled on for a few minutes until she was dizzy with names, relations and connections. But so far so good. Everyone was friendly, especially Ian’s grandparents.
Her tension started to ease as she fell into comfortable conversation with Ian’s aunt Lacey and her daughter Petra. They talked about Portland’s art scene, a topic Flash could handle with ease. Petra was an aspiring writer who was heading into an MFA program in the fall. Flash talked about the handful of art classes she’d taken, and when she casually mentioned she’d sold a piece recently, Petra high-fived her. She had a novel on submission and knew what it was like waiting for that all-important phone call.
“How you doing?” Ian whispered into her ear as they walked to the large formal living room for his father’s announcement. Flash braced herself for more photographs.
“Good. I like your family.”
“They like you.”
“They’re drunk,” she said. “Of course they like me.”
“There are benefits to being in a Catholic family,” he said.
“You have three uncles and four aunts and that’s just on your dad’s side of the family.”
“There are downsides to being in a Catholic family.”
“I’m never going to remember all their names.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Ian said under his breath. “I don’t even remember them.”
