A notification dings, and he pulls out his phone from his pocket right beside me. Without a thought, I casually glimpse at the screen when he checks it. Since I notice the sender is our mother, I feel comfortable enough to check on the message as well. The words written on the screen chill me to the bone, blood draining from my face.
Vivienne
Traffic was horrendous, but we’re nearly there.
He doesn’t bother to reply and returns the phone to his pocket.
“What was that?” I ask, fearing I already know the answer.
“The parents canceled their trip to DC and are coming here instead.”
“What?! Ger, tell me this is a joke.”
“Didn’t you know? Mal was supposed to text you.”
“I think I’d remember if I’d been warned. I’m not ready to introduce Jake to them!”
“Shit, maybe I was supposed to text you. I’m sorry, Gen. I didn’t know he was covered in tattoos, so I didn’t realize it would be tricky.”
“Tattoos or not, this is bad, Gerry. So bad.”
I try to assess the situation, wondering if we can make a break for it and be gone before my parents arrive. To make sure we don’t cross their path, we can take the stairs down the forty-seven floors. I’d rather do that in these shoes than face my parents meeting Jake.
“Do they know we’re here?” I question.
“I told them, yeah.” Gerry then looks like something clicks in his mind, and his eyebrows twitch. “Come to think of it, they canceled their DC plans shortly after I told them you were coming with someone.”
Crap, so they’re coming to meet Jake. An escape would only delay the inevitable. They will eventually meet him, one way or another.
“Do you think maybe they won’t mind?” I try, not even believing it myself.
“Of course they’ll mind. But he is your choice, Gen. You have to stick to it. If I’d listened to them, I would never have married the small-town nurse. But here I am.”
“It’s not the same, Ger. We all owe Malory for saving your life. But Jake, he’s…”
“It doesn’t matter. He’s the person you’re choosing.”
He is, and I have no doubt about it. But there’s no way they’ll ever accept him, and the strained relationship I have with them will only worsen. Things are hard enough as they are, and I don’t think I can handle more resentment and disappointment on their part.
What am I supposed to do when they insist Jake is a mistake and demand that I fix it?
My hands tremble as I set the two cocktails on the coffee table. “Excuse us for a second,” I tell Mal, grabbing Jake and tugging to force him up.
He’s understandably confused as I drag him to my brother’s home office, but he complies without protest. When the door closes behind us, he smoothly wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me in.
“No, this isn’t that kind of private moment,” I correct him, pushing against his chest.
It takes me a few seconds to gather the courage to break it to him. He’ll be as torn as I am and return to his earlier state of anxiousness. “I-I’m so sorry,” I stammer at first. “I didn’t realize this would be happening, but my parents are coming.”
“Your parents?” he echoes. I nod. “Here?” Another silent confirmation. “Fucking hell.”
“We can leave,” I suggest. “We can take our stuff and go wait it out in the stairwell until Gerry texts me that the coast is clear. But they know we’re here, so it might look bad.”
“I was already stressed about meeting your brother, red, but this…”
“I know, I’m so sorry, wombat. That’s why you get to decide. Either we leave before they arrive, or we come to terms with the fact that it’ll happen either way, so we rip it off like a Band-Aid.”
He intently thinks about it for several seconds, and I gnaw at my lower lip, my turmoil matching his. “What do you want?” he ends up asking.
