I sighed in frustration, throwing my hands in the air. "Fine! We'll have dinner."
I slumped at the table, shooting them all looks of resentment, but they managed to ignore me, choosing to converse amicably with each other.
My mom was a victim to Rick's charms immediately when he held out a chair for her. Although my mom is a very hip feminist, she couldn't resist Rick's Casanova-like charisma. He smiled warmly at her, tilting his head towards the music flowing in from the living room. "Emmie, is this James Taylor?" Yep, she was smitten with him right then.
Adam, impressed by Rick's car, waxed on about the beauty of cars in general. They veered off into a chat about domestic versus foreign cars. It was interesting how boys tended to do that. I knew Adam was just grateful to have a conversation that didn't border around floral arrangements or seating charts.
Stevie drilled Rick like she worked for the flipping Homeland Security! She asked him all about where he'd grown up, places he'd worked, even his religious and political affiliations. I turned tomato red from embarrassment, but Rick answered every question, all the while resting his hand on my knee.
Billie asked him about living in New York. It was a dream of hers to live there, ever since she'd read Little Women. She wanted to be like Jo and move to New York to write. The answer to her questions made me the saddest, because it was obvious that despite his fondness for travelling, Rick also loved his hometown, and he would be returning to it soon.
When my mom and Stevie exited to the kitchen to get dessert and everyone else was busy in side conversations, I pulled Rick towards me and whispered into his ear, "Sorry about the inquisition, but you practically asked for it. I tried to save you from all this."
He smiled, shaking his head. "Your family is really nice, and I assume they're asking me so many questions because-like me-they get so few answers from you. It's okay, Marley. I'm enjoying myself."
How did he know me so well already? "You are?" I asked, assessing his gaze for any misgivings.
He nodded, smiling wistfully. "I haven't had dinner with a family in a long time."
I suddenly felt like an idiot. I took my family for granted and obsessed over the bad stuff, but Rick had lost his family, and he was appreciative of them like I should have been. My feelings shifted from embarrassment to remorse for my childish behaviour. However, all my thoughts soon turned to dread when my mom set down the dessert and Stevie announced, "Dish and dish."
This was bad. It was one thing to spend the evening diagnosing Rick-he was normal-but when my family started airing their own stuff, it was liable to be disastrous.
I immediately stood. "No dish tonight."
Stevie eyed me in that challenging way of hers. "Yes, we dish every night, Marley."
"We have company."
My mom looked at Rick with a smile. "Rick doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to."
"Yes, please don't let me intrude on your family traditions," Rick said pleasantly. I wanted to punch him.
"Fine, but I'm warning all of you-nothing personal." I trained my warning look towards Stevie, in particular, because I knew she would be the most likely to argue with me.
"Marley, dish is personal, or it would be called dish and nothing very important."
"That's it! Nothing personal, I'm warning you." I glared at Stevie, who glared right back at me.
"What are you going to do about it?" she retorted, narrowing her eyes.
Just then, Van Morrison decided to scratch my ankle as he always did when I was threatening Stevie. I freaking hated that cat. I picked up the stupid fur ball and held him in front of me. "Nothing personal or the pussy gets it." I didn't intend to hurt the oversized rodent, but I desperately hoped the ludicrous threat might work.
Stevie held one hand to her heart like she was about to faint in what I assumed was a Scarlet O'Hara impersonation. She clutched Adam's arm with her other hand. "Oh, Adam, don't let her hurt my pussy. You love that pussy as much as I do." Her voice rang out with a southern twang too. No wonder she always got the lead in the school play.
Adam, the attentive fiancé he was, stood up, holding his butter knife towards me. "Marley, if you so much as hurt a hair on my future wife's pussy, I'll kill you."
Suddenly, I didn't think we were talking about a cat anymore. I dropped Van Morrison straight to the ground and looked around for a napkin to wipe my hands. Everyone chuckled, except for me.
Adam sat back down next to Stevie, putting an arm around her and staring into her eyes lovingly. "I love that pussy. I would do anything for it."
Yep, we were definitely not talking about a cat and the crazy in my family was out of the box. It didn't matter though because everyone was cracking up, including Rick.
"Marley"-my mom choked between giggles-"we love animals in this house and would never harm them, especially innocent little pussies."
"It's not that innocent," Billie muttered under her breath. Everyone broke out in another gaggle of laughter, and I slumped back in my chair feeling defeated.
Rick leaned his arm across my chair and grazed my shoulder with his fingertips in a figure eight pattern. Strangely, it calmed me.
My mother cleared her throat. "Who's going to start?"
Adam started. "Dish … Stevie and I have been looking at houses."
Stevie cut him a look of horror that shut him up right away. She turned to me. "We're just checking online, but we're not moving out." It occurred to me that this, of all moments, felt the most uncomfortable of the meal.
Stevie's look at Adam was not the casual, fake, angry grimaces they shared. She was pissed off at him … and why was she addressing me with her explanation?
Billie cleared her throat. "Dish … I got into Columbia." Everyone started throwing around congratulations and well wishes. I didn't because I was staring at Billie, who wore a melancholy expression. Billie faced Stevie when the merriment died down. "I'm not going though. I'm going to stay home and commute." It didn't make any sense. That had always been Billie's dream. She'd spent the whole evening asking Rick a million questions about New York, and now she didn't want to go?
Suddenly, I had a revelation so clear and sharp that it pierced my heart in a million pieces. They both wanted to leave, but they couldn't. They felt they had to stay … because of me.
My mother sensed all the underlying meanings immediately. She cleared her throat, bringing our attention back to her. "We'll talk about it later, but I have some very pressing dish. I need to get my hair done, and I need serious advice."
"Well, Mom, I think you-" Stevie started, but stopped when my mom held up her hand.
"Stevie, you might be the fashion plate around here, but Dillon's definitely got the hair flair." She sat down, taking Dillon's hand. "If you love me, you'll help me through my crisis."
Well, if Rick didn't think I was fucked up before, he definitely would now. It was probably for the best, because I was a total ticking time bomb anyway.
I walked him out to his car afterwards. "Sorry, my family's insane. I tried to warn you."
He pulled me close. "Marley, I thought they were great and that really makes me happy."
It sounded peculiar, so I had to ask, "Why?"
"I'm glad you have so many people that care about you."
It was a relief he wasn't running for the hills, but it made me sad for him. I stood on my tiptoes against his car and drew him in for a kiss. When we broke apart, he asked me, "Do you think they liked me?"
I laughed, pleasantly surprised that he'd even want to impress them. "You won my mom over by having two helpings of vegan meatloaf-which contained no meat and wasn't even loaf shaped. Adam's just happy to have another guy at the table. You've already won Dillon by being so damn cute. You managed to pass Stevie's verbal inquest and Billie's just grateful to know someone from New York. So yeah, you impressed the hell out of them."
He smiled genuinely. "And what about you, Marley?"
"Rick, you impressed me when you managed to get me out of kidnapping charges at the airport."
He laughed, pulling me into his arms.
"So, am I going to get my fancy dinner tomorrow?" I asked, nuzzling his neck.
"Yes, but let's do some other stuff too."
"What did you have in mind, cowboy?" I asked huskily.
"Oh, baby, you know there's always that, but get your mind out of the gutter." Rick brushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "This is your city, what do you like to do?"
"You're asking a girl what she likes to do? Are you prepared to spend ten hours at a mall?"
He shook his head, smiling cynically. "Marley, is that really what you like to do?"
Rick knew me so well. "No."
"Then what, baby? Tell me."
"I like to go to the museums, the zoo, Navy Pier … " Once I got started, it was a lengthy list. "I want to jump out of a plane."