“Mom…”
“When can we meet him? Tomorrow night? Yes, you will bring him to family dinner tomorrow.”
“Kai has to work tomorrow night,” I said, which wasn’t entirely untrue. “It’s nothing serious yet. We only started dating.”
“If it is serious enough forthis,” she tapped the papers in my hand, “then it is serious enough to meet us! Unless there is something you do not want us to know about this man…”
“Everything’s fine! There’s nothing unusual about him at all. I’ll talk to him and see when he wants to come by.”
As my mother hugged me and babbled about how excited she was, I wondered what on earth I was going to do.
25
Ginny
Friday evening, I went to my parents’ house for our usual family dinner. I had already mentally prepared myself for questions about my new boyfriend, but I wasn’t prepared for the outright interrogation that took place.
“What’s he do for a living?”
“Is he older than you?”
“What color is his hair?”
“Red like yours? That’s not a good thing, Ginny. People will think you’re brother and sister.”
“How did you meet?”
“Where did you go on your first date?”
“Did he pick you up? What kind of car does he drive?”
“Did he hold the door for you?”
“How did he treat the waitress? You can tell a lot by the way a man treats wait staff.”
“When are you seeing him next?”
The questions came so rapidly that I barely had time to answer one before the next. I was beginning to wish I had thought of a different story to tell my mom about why I was getting an STD test.
“When do we get to meet him?” my dad asked.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “He has a very busy schedule.”
“Then why won’t you tell us what he does for a living?” Mom replied. “Is it something he is ashamed of?”
“I’ll let him explain it when you meet him,” I said hastily. “He’s a really good story-teller.”
“How about tomorrow night?”
“We’re busy tomorrow,” I replied. “He’s taking me to that nice restaurant downtown. The one on the first floor of the hotel.”
“Is he one of your coworkers?” Dad asked.
“Of course not,” I replied.
Dad nodded. “Good. That’s a dangerous game, dating someone you work with. If it goes poorly, then it ruins the workplace dynamic.” He leaned across the table. “We had a girl at work. Started dating the operations manager. Whole big mess.”
“I remember that,” Mom chimed in. “She was a little hussy.”