“Isn’t this funny?” Hayley says to me. “It’s like déjà-vu. You and I spent the week at the mall back in July before Auntie Sue’s party. You were so afraid Jenson was going to show up.” She laughs. “Guess he showed, huh?”
I smile. “Guess he did.”
She pulls a pink top off the rack. “This may work. It’s pretty.”
I try on the top and decide it will work. Thank God because this is our fourth shopping trip, and I have to be at the hall in three hours.
“I haven’t talked to my mother since her hypnosis class,” I say to Hayley. “She left me a message, and I didn’t have the strength to call her back. Now I’m regretting it because I’m scared she’s going to scream to me from across the room about all the amazing sexual fantasies she discovered were lurking within her.”
“I thought your Mom could hardly handle your naked sculpture being seen in public. What happened?”
“Apparently, that sculpture class set off fireworks within Mom. She went from that to sex yoga to this.”
“So your mother’s stopped worrying about others?” Hayley suggests. “Inspired by her daughter?”
I make a face. “I don’t know about that. My mother’s always been a bit of a wildflower inside. Kind of like Daphne, actually.”
“You’d better go home and get ready,” Hayley advises. “Let me know how the next big reveal goes. I really wish I could have witnessed the moment you and Jenson kissed in front of your families. Too bad no one videoed it.”
“Just be glad you don’t have to come to this thing,” I say as I hug her good-bye and hurry to my car.
* * *
As Jenson and I walk into the banquet hall together, he grabs my hand just as we round the corner to face everybody. The air noticeably goes out of the room when our relatives look up and see us standing there as a couple. Patsy frowns and mutters something under her breath, and Matilda sighs so loudly I hear her even though her table is quite a distance away.
And Glenn is here with a cameraman.
“Reporters?” I murmur to Jenson.
“Mom said it was go big or go home,” he says. “She couldn’t be talked out of it. Your father knows something’s going down. She had the good sense to warn him, but he doesn’t know quite what it is.”
Keeping my hand in his, Jenson walks with determination toward Sheldon and Cara’s table. Daphne and Todd are sitting with Mom and Dad at an adjoining table, and I wave as we pass by. Before we make it to the table, Matilda calls out to my father to make sure his daughter “shows some manners.”
I catch Dad’s eye. He stands up and comes over to give me a kiss. He greets Jenson warmly, who says hi and lets go of my hand to sit down next to Sheldon.
I stop next to my father, knowing he wants to say something.
“I see it now, honey,” he says to me quietly. “I see the love between the two of you. I’m just kicking myself I missed it. I suppose I should have realized…”
“Dad, no you shouldn’t have. It’s not exactly the first thing that would come to your mind.”
I hear Matilda call out to my father again in a rude way, and I turn further away from her.
“Ignorance can hurt,” he whispers in my ear. “But I know you and Jenson are stronger than that.”
I look up at him. “We’re working on it. But your campaign…”
“Means absolutely nothing compared to my daughter’s happiness.” He gives me a kiss and then turns to Matilda. “My daughter has delightful manners. If only everyone in this room had them, too, we may not be having any problems.”
Matilda turns red and slumps back into her seat.
As I take my seat next to Jenson, Sheldon immediately starts talking about a fat ostrich in a zoo, “or maybe a neckless giraffe.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I say to him as I lean across Jenson. “If it were neckless, it wouldn’t be a giraffe.”
“I’m just saying that you guys are being ogled,” he says.
I catch Cybil’s eye. She harrumphs and turns away from me. I frown and try not to make eye contact with anyone outside of our table.
