“Hey.” I waved my hand in the air and then internally died at the thought that I was waving to everyone like a nervous child being introduced to a class of people she didn’t know.
Margaret moved her gaze to where Greg’s and my hands were still intertwined.
“Oh…” Her word was drawn out. She was finally understanding.
David got up from his seat, bellowing with laughter and came to grab his wife.
“Why don’t you two fix up a plate and join us.”
“But, David—” Margaret tried to interject.
“Let the children be, darling.” He led her back to the table and Greg placed a kiss on my cheek when he left me to fix our plates. I stood there awkwardly but Delilah came to grab me and placed me in the seat right next to her. Jack tossed a bread roll at my plate as his way of saying hello. I was sitting at the farthest end of the table away from where I normally sat.
Greg walked back into the dining room and just shook his head as he set a plateful of spaghetti in front of me and made his way to the other end of the table, next to his father. The table was silent as we all ate our dinner. I was almost thankful for when Delilah spoke up first, until she wanted to talk about Greg and me.
“So, are we going to talk about this or just pretend like it’s not even happening?”
I looked up to Greg, who was about to shovel a forkful into his mouth but put it back down and looked over to his mother, who was waiting for him to answer Delilah’s question. He looked to me before he answered.
“We’re seeing each other.” He said nonchalantly with a shrug and filled his mouth with spaghetti.
“That’s it?!” Delilah was bouncing in her seat.
“We haven’t even hit the surface.” Jack chuckled as he took a sip of his beer.
“Delilah.” David scolded her and then turned towards Jack. “Jack.”
“Son?” Margaret questioned Greg.
“We’re dating.” He said with a full mouth, but his answer could be heard by everyone.
“Lilly?” Margaret’s next question came next to me.
“What he said.” I pointed towards Greg with my fork in the most awkward way and then proceeded to shovel food into my mouth, too. This was the only way not to talk about it at the dinner table.
“But you two are married, it’s more than just dating!” I choked on a noodle that was going down the wrong pipe and Greg threw a piece of bread in Delilah’s direction. The room quickly became silent again.
“Excuse. Me.” Margaret’s words sounded like venom and all I wanted to do was run from the room before that snake tried to bite me.
“Mom, it isn’t what you—”
“It isn’t? Because what your sister just said is that you two are married.” Margaret put down her silverware and backed up from the table. “We’ll discuss this later. I need a moment.”
“Mom.” Margaret stormed out towards the back patio. Greg tried to get up from the table, but David sat him back down with a hand on his shoulder.
“Is it true?” David looked from me to Greg and then back to me.
“Yes.” I said truthfully once I had swallowed. That’s all I wanted from here on out. The truth and that’s what I wanted to tell Margaret. I wanted her to know we only kept it from them so that we could figure out what was going on before we let everyone know. In fact, even though we were telling them, I still wasn’t sure what the outcome would be on Monday morning.
David nodded his head, taking in what I had said and then a smile crossed his face. He turned towards Greg and patted him on the back.
“Thank you for making her officially a part of this family.” My heart filled with love in just those words. Jack and Delilah raised their glasses to congratulate us, but I looked over to where Margaret’s seat was still empty and silently excused myself from the table. I made my way onto the patio, where she was sitting alone.
I opened and closed the door as quietly as possible, but she still heard me.
“Come sit next to me, darling.”
I made my way around the small group of chairs and sat in the one next to her but she wouldn’t have it. She patted next to herself on the loveseat she was occupying. I snuck under the blanket that she held up and made myself comfortable. She laid a hand on my thigh and we sat there. I didn’t try to figure out which one of us was going to talk first because it didn’t matter.
