Oh, puuulease. We all have dark brown hair and brown eyes. That’s about it. But to their credit, at least none of them look like deer in the headlights or psychotic killers.
“Please have a seat,” Malinda said. “We’re just waiting for one more family member, and then we can eat.”
Oh. My. God. She couldn’t possibly be referring to Drake as family already, could she?
The director yelled, “Cut.”
“What’s the matter?” Malinda said, anxiously. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, that was fine. I’d just like to get everyone together in the living room to talk. The kitchen is a little crowded already and if another relative arrives…”
“He’s not a relative.” Bliss glared at her mother.
She looked sheepish. “Not yet.”
“Oh, God, Ma. Do not blow this out of proportion!”
Bliss’s father blustered, “Malinda, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Bliss’s boyfriend, of course.”
Ricky’s and Emilio’s eyes lit up. Ricky laughed evilly. “The squirt’s got a boyfriend? Oh, I can’t wait…”
“So help me, God, if any of you…” Bliss trailed off when she noticed a camera aimed at her with the red light on.
***
Everyone was seated in the living room. Bliss fidgeted in the middle of the old-fashioned blue velvet sofa with her parents on either side. Brothers Emilio and Ricky slid the armchairs from beside the fireplace to a spot on each end of the sofa for easy camera viewing.
The host looked for a place to sit until Malinda said, “Ricky. Get up and give our guest your chair. You can take the ottoman.”
“Oh, Ma…”
She silenced him with a severe look.
“Sheesh.” Ricky got up and made a sweeping gesture toward the chair. “Please have a seat, Miss…”
“You can just call me Judith.” She smiled and took the vacated chair. “Is everyone ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Bliss muttered.
“Great.”
The director told the cameramen to resume filming. The host had just commented on the delicious dinner, which of course they hadn’t eaten yet. Anticipating her mother’s reaction, Bliss took her hand and gave it a slight squeeze. She’d set up the signal ahead of time. It meant, “shut the hell up,” but naturally she didn’t explain it that way to her mother. “Let me do the talking” is what Bliss had told her it meant.
“So, tell me what Bliss was like growing up, Mr. Russo.”
He laughed. Before he could tell the truth, his wife interjected, “Bliss was a perfect child.”
She was probably going to continue her “sweet and selfless” speech, but her father and two brothers roared with laughter.
The host grinned. “I take it that means she wasn’t so perfect after all?”
The three men grinned at each other, as if daring each other to go first.
Finally, Ricky said, “She was a little pest. She wanted to do whatever we were doing, and we couldn’t get rid of her no matter how hard we tried.”
Emilio chimed in, “Remember the time we put her in the rowboat with no oars and shoved her out to sea?”
Mrs. Russo looked horror stricken. “When did you do that? Why didn’t I know about it?”
“Because you’d have tanned our hides, Ma,” Ricky said.
Judith seemed delighted with the anecdote. “I take it Bliss didn’t tattle on the two of you?”
“Of course not,” Emilio said.
“Well, that’s quite something, isn’t it?”
Ricky laughed again. “Not really. If she’d said anything to our parents, we’d have made her life a living hell.”
“Hmmm.” Judith turned to Bliss. “So what did you do?”
Bliss rolled her eyes. “I dog-paddled my way to shore, then jumped on Emilio and pummeled the life out of him while Ricky laughed his ass off.”
Judith raised her eyebrows. “It sounds as if you learned to take care of yourself at an early age.”
“Oh, yeah. Having two older brothers was all kinds of fun, but at least they prepared me for whatever the rest of the world could throw my way.”
“That explains why you were so cool, calm, and collected throughout the show.”
Bliss snorted. In comparison to the drama queens. “Probably. It also explains why my cards are so snarky.”
Judith chuckled. “I imagine verbally is one way a youngest child could fight back. But your sister started the business. And I believe you said she moved to India. Is she in India right now?”
“Yes. I wish she could be here. She deserves a lot of the credit.”