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I glance at Nathan and bug my eyes out, but my dad has roped him into a conversation. We didn’t discuss when we’d tell my family, but it very well might be in the next few minutes. Suddenly, I don’t feel prepared. My blasé attitude toward the situation is a farce I can no longer hide. He attempts an encouraging smile, but the overstretched cheeks appear cartoonish rather than comforting. I don’t think he’s ready either.
What choice do we have?
I suck in an extra lungful of fresh air before entering the house. I’m thirty-seven, dammit. Anyone close to their parents knows that age doesn’t matter. Even now, Mom can deliver one of her looks, and I’ll feel the need to send myself to my room. Merely the thought of disappointing my dad makes me want to cry.
Anxiety tangles me in its sticky web as I remove my shoes in their foyer. The thump behind me tells me Nathan’s close behind with our things. A part of me wishes I’d told him to leave our stuff in the truck in case we needed to make a quick getaway. Now that we’re here, ready to face my parents and grandparents, I’m not sure what I was thinking by dragging him along.
Too late. Mom continues to pull me around the corner, and Mimi sees us. My eighty-two-year-old grandmother struggles up from the sofa, and I spring into action to stop her.
“Hi, Mimi, let me come to you.” I wrap her tightly in a hug, but not so tight that she starts griping about her delicate bones. “It’s so good to see you.”
Her answering hug is frail. “Child, an eternity has passed since you’ve come to see me. I don’t have many days left, you know.”
Mimi’s superpower is reminding me that any effort is never enough. Two hours away isn’t across the world, but with a full-time career, it might as well be. The few trips I make a year don’t cut it. “I know, Mimi. I wish I could come more often too.”
Her lips purse, and a disapproving glare reduces me to dust in my parents’ living room. All is forgotten when she spots the handsome man behind me, and she beams in his direction as I greet my papa.
“Hi, Papa.” He returns my embrace with a light pat on the back. Papa’s a rigid man of few words, but I know he loves me in his own quiet way. When I was younger, he’d sneak me chocolates from his pockets when my parents weren’t looking. I like to think he started my love affair with all things food.
He returns to his chair near Mimi, so I cross to the gray leather recliner on the left side of the fireplace. This is my father’s favorite chair. Memories of him watching sports and curling up on his lap as a child flitter through my head and warm me from the inside out. I hope he doesn’t mind me borrowing it for the next few minutes and lending strength from its comfort. The only other available seat is on the loveseat where Mimi forces Nathan to sit. There doesn’t appear to be enough room left.
Mom takes off her apron and squishes herself next to Mimi, proving me wrong. Regret wells up inside because I feel as if I threw Nathan right into the lion’s den. I jolt from the recliner as if my ass is on fire. “Mom, you can sit here. I need a minute to freshen up anyway.”
She easily waves me off. “Psh, I’m fine right here.”
I grimace at Nathan as I pass on my way to the half bath. His expression is unreadable, but I can tell he isn’t pleased. “I’m sorry,” I mouth. The best I can manage in the present company.
I take care of business, wash my hands, and contemplate my reflection in the mirror while I gather my courage. The dark purple circles under my eyes are becoming permanent from exhaustion, and a faint bruise remains beneath my eye from the coffee table debacle. I splash water on my face to cool off and slap my cheeks a little to bring some color back into them. I hope they can’t hear all the noise I’m making, or my entire family is going to wonder what part of me I’m really freshening up.
After waiting what feels like an appropriate amount of time, I walk woodenly to what could be my funeral. Dad and Papa sound like they’re discussing some game—probably baseball as we’re at the end of summer—and Nathan is stuck with Mom and Mimi firing questions at him. As soon as my mother spots me sneaking back in the room, he loses her attention, and she hollers, “K, what is this news you said you had to share with us today?”
“You remember that, but you don’t remember to tell Dad I’m bringing a friend,” I mutter beneath my breath frozen in the middle of the room. My feet are rooted, and I can’t seem to force them to propel me back into the safety of my seat.
“What was that, dear?” Mom calls. I paste a smile onto my frozen face.
“I said that I thought it could wait until we were having dinner.”
Mom looks puzzled. “Why wait? We’re all here now.” She gestures around the room with both hands as though she’s a game show host presenting the grand prize.
Nathan pops out of his chair like his ass is on fire, and I shoot lasers at him with my eyes and start mouthing unintelligible words. He joins me in the middle of the room, takes my hand, and tugs me not-so-gently back to the recliner and pushes me down. Is he trying to get out of my parents’ immediate vicinity, or what the hell was that? I want to laugh and also cry because time’s up.
“Um, so, Nathan and I, we’re, uh, friends, as you know, and recently, we’ve become something more.”
“More? You’ve got to be more specific than that, dear,” Mimi grouses from her spot where she turns to watch the spectacle. At least now, her disapproving glare points at Nathan rather than me. Speaking of the man who got me into this position in the first place, he reaches over and clenches my hand.
“Lovers,” I blurt. The rising cacophony in the room blocks out any attempts I make at correcting my blunder.
Joy seems to be the winning emotion from my mom although my father’s booming question of, “Come again?” rises above the din.
“That’s what she said,” I whisper to Nathan. His elbow digs between my ribs.
“Lovers?” he mumbles from the side of his mouth. I push out my lips and raise my eyebrows.
“I panicked.”
“You didn’t even tell
them yet,” he says.
