Just Desserts

by Kandle, Tawdra

  “You look gorgeous.” Liam met me in the narthex and kissed me, quickly and discreetly. “Are you okay? I saw you crying.”

  “Weddings always make me cry.” I smiled. “I’m fine. We’re doing pictures next. Do you want to come with us, or go ahead to the reception?”

  One side of mouth lifted. “I think I’ll stick with you, if it’s okay. I’m kind of afraid to be around the family without you to protect me.”

  Within about an hour, we were at the reception. Angela’s parents had rented a beautiful hall that used to be a theatre, and it was everything I knew Angela had wanted. I laughed when we all danced into the room as we were announced and took our places at the head table. Angela had kindly seated Liam next to me at the main table, so we were able to eat together.

  “I thought you were exaggerating about the food!” He held his stomach. “Every course is better than the last!”

  We had started with soup, then salad, a pasta course ... and then the main entrée, chicken or steak. Desserts was yet to be served, and I couldn’t even think about it.

  “Told you so.” I pointed to the empty shot glass next to his place. “What’s that?”

  Liam grimaced. “One of your uncles gave it to me. Told me all Italians had to drink grappa at a wedding. He had a shot, too, but he didn’t drink his when I did mine. I asked him why, and he said it was horrible stuff he’d never touch.”

  We both laughed. “You should try the limoncello, though. It’s really good. My uncle John bottles his own, and that’s what they’re serving tonight.”

  When the dancing began, I had to do one go-round with the groomsman who was my partner for the traditional wedding party dance. And then the music changed.

  “What’s this?” Liam had to shout to be heard over the music and the roar of approval from the entire crowd.

  “It’s the Tarantella!” I grabbed his hand. “Come on. It’s the traditional Italian wedding dance. Everyone has to do it.”

  We joined the circle, going around and then linking elbows to spin our partners. I laughed so hard my sides ached. Liam pulled me close to him and kissed me hard.

  “Is that the grappa?” I touched his face, looking up into those intoxicating blue eyes.

  “No, that’s you, making me drunk just watching you laugh and dance. I love seeing you like this. No worrying, no over thinking everything ... just perfect.”

  I slid my hand into his, smiling into his eyes. “Are you brave enough to come meet some more family? There are a few people I should say hello to.”

  He squeezed my hand. “Sure. Lead the way.”

  We made the rounds, visiting tables of friends and family. I introduced Liam, getting a little thrill each time I got to say the words ‘my boyfriend’.

  After the bouquet toss, the garter throw, the money dance and the cake cutting, everything slowed down. When I heard the strains of one of my favorite Sinatra songs, I smiled up at Liam at the same time that he looked down.

  “Dance with me?” He held out his hand.

  We moved onto the dance floor, our bodies pressed tight as Frank and his daughter Nancy sang about saying something stupid.

  “Would it be stupid?” Liam whispered in my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

  “Would what be stupid?”

  “If I said it. If I said ... I love you.”

  I held my breath, leaning my ear against his chest. His arms tightened around me.

  “It would only be stupid if you didn’t mean it.” I tilted my head up a little so that he could hear me.

  “And if I do?”

  “Then ... I guess it would be stupid not to say it.”

  His fingers came down to caress my chin, lift my eyes to his. “I love you, Ava.”

  I caught my lip between my teeth and smiled, letting every bit of yearning and love flow through me. “I love you, Liam.”

  He leaned over, covering my mouth with a kiss that was full of every promise I’d ever wanted.

  ***

  MY PARENTS HOSTED a post-wedding buffet breakfast at the restaurant on Sunday. Liam and I stayed until about noon.

  “Be careful driving back.” My mother hugged Liam. “And text me the minute you get there.” She kissed my cheek.

  “Don’t forget. You know how your mother worries.” My father wrapped me in a bear hug and shook Liam’s hand.

  “I will. I promise. It was all so beautiful, Ma, Daddy. Thank you for making this weekend so wonderful for Carl and Ange. For all of us.”

  My mother dabbed at her eyes, and my father cleared his throat. “Family is everything. You know that. These days ... they’re good days. Days when we get to celebrate. They’re what get us through the not-so-good days.” He pulled my mother toward him in a side hug.

  Liam helped me into the car and gave my parents one last wave as we drove away.

  “That’s what I want.” He grabbed at my hand. “This weekend ... it was real. I’ve been to lots of weddings. Big fancy ones. And none of them felt real like Carl and Angela’s did.”

  I held tight to his hand. “I know. I forget sometimes. . you know, being away. The family seems like a burden. Like something I don’t need. Then a weekend like this happens, and I remember it all. I know why it’s important. All of them, my grandparents, my aunts and uncle and cousins, my parents ... they made me who I am.”

  A buzzing sounded, and Liam reached into his back pocket. He tossed me his phone. “Can you check on that?”

  I looked at the screen. “It’s your father.”

  Liam scowled. “Hit ignore, please.”

  “Are you sure? You don’t want to talk to him?”

  “I’m sure.”

  I hit the button and handed it back to him.

  “Liam, this thing with your parents ... you’ve got to figure it out.”

  His mouth tightened. “Not much to figure out. As long as I do what my father wants, he’s happy. If I don’t ...” He shrugged. “He always gets his way.”

  “But you don’t know that. If you just talk to him, tell him that you don’t want to go into politics, maybe he’ll listen.”

  “I’ve been saying it one way or another for a while now. He thinks he knows what’s best.”

  I stared out my window. “Liam, I’d like to meet them. I think I should.”

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  I swallowed. “Why? Are you ashamed of me?”

  “Hell, no. Never. I’m ashamed of them.”

  “But we’re part of each other’s lives now, Liam. That’s the good, the bad and ugly. You met my whole family. Shouldn’t I at least meet your parents?”

  He gripped the steering wheel. “Ava, you are the one good and pure thing in my life. You’re the real. I don’t want to fuck that up by letting my parents torture you.”

  I drew in a deep breath. “Am I temporary?”

  “What? No, of course not. Why would you ask that?”

  “Because if you expect me to be part of your life for any length of time, I’m going to have to have interaction with your family.”

  “Not if I don’t.”

  I screwed together my forehead. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Maybe I won’t see my parents again. Maybe ... I make my own decisions and I live my own life, and I just cut them out.”

  My mouth opened in shock. “How on earth can you even consider that? Liam, they might be screwed up, but they’re your mother and father.”

  “Ava, I told you. They’re not like your parents. You have no idea.” He shot me a glance. “I don’t want to talk about them anymore. Just leave it alone.”

  AND I DID. For a solid week, I didn’t mention Liam’s parents or suggest that he reach out to them. We settled into our normal routine of classes, track meets and hours spent just being with each other. Finals were underway, and I was stressed, trying to balance my new life with studying, homework and internship applications. Liam had decided to stay at Birch for the summer, and I desperately wanted to do the same.r />
  The day I took my Behavior Disorders final, I met Liam for a run after the test. I still wasn’t hooked on running, but I was hooked on Liam ... particularly in his running shorts and tight shirts. That was all the inspiration I needed. It even made up for the pain of putting on the running bra, since Liam was always happy to help me take it off.

  We went a little longer, ran a little harder that day. Liam spent the last leg of the run telling me what he liked about my boobs.

  “I like it when you wear a low-cut top, and you bend over to get something. And I like it when you’ve just gotten up in the morning, and you’re not wearing a bra under your t-shirt, and your nipples pucker against the cloth. And I like when we’re making love, and I just touch my mouth to the tip, and you go crazy.”

  I stopped, leaning over, panting. “Speaking of being crazy. Are you doing this on purpose? To make me run faster?”

  “No.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me close. “I’m just giving you helpful information. But now that you mention it, we’re right here by my room. I think we’ve run long enough.”

  When we got back to his room, we were on fire for each other; we didn’t wait to open the door before he shoved me up against it, grinding his erection against me as I wrapped my legs around his waist. His hand was on my breast, pinching hard at my nipple through the running bra.

  “Open the door.” I growled it against his lips.

  “Trying.” He groped blindly for the doorknob, and when he finally turned it, we half-fell into the room, laughing.

  I saw him first. A man sat in the room on Liam’s wooden desk chair. He was older and well-dressed, and above his pristine, perfectly-pressed collar, he wore an expression of surprise and distaste.

  Shit.

  I struggled to get down, and Liam, still not seeing, grabbed my ass. “Where do you think you’re going? I’m going to take you up against that wall, right now.” He finally saw my face and turned to follow the direction of my stare.

  Liam lowered me slowly to the ground and moved to stand between his father and me. He glanced at him and then spoke without any expression in his voice.

  “Dad. What are you doing here?”

  “Well, Liam, considering that you haven’t taken any of our telephone calls or returned any messages in over a month, your mother and I were concerned about you.” Mr. Bailey’s eyes flickered over me. “I can see you’re well. Maybe you should have had some consideration for your mother. She worries.”

  I closed my eyes, remembering just a few weeks ago when we were leaving my parents’ house, my father saying almost those same words.

  Don’t forget to text your mother when you get home. You know how she worries.

  But what Liam’s father just said didn’t have any truth or emotion behind it. It was just another way to make his son feel guilty, to manipulate him. I closed my hands around Liam’s arm and leaned into his back. If I couldn’t do anything else in this situation, I could at least remind him that he wasn’t alone.

  “I’ve been ... busy.” Liam’s voice was still neutral. “And frankly, I didn’t have anything to say to either of you.”

  His father raised one eyebrow.

  “I don’t know what that’s supposed mean. Did something happen that I’m not aware of, son? Did your mother and I commit some sort of parental faux pas that you’re punishing us for? Because all I can remember is that we’ve raised you with every advantage and given you every opportunity.” He let his eyes wander past his son to rake over me. “Something’s been different about you the past few months. I thought maybe it was just a phase, just growing pains that all children go through, but now I’m beginning to wonder if it might be the company you’ve been keeping.”

  Ah. That was me. The company he was keeping. I tried to keep my breathing even and remember that this man didn’t know me. He had no idea that Liam and I were dating, because Liam had never told his parents about me; to him, I was just the girl who came into the room with her legs wrapped around his son. I had to admit that my own parents wouldn’t be very understanding under those circumstances either.

  Liam’s hand, resting against mine, flinched. I felt him take a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m being rude. Dad, this is Ava DiMartino. My girlfriend. Ava, babe, this is my father. The senator.” I couldn’t see Liam’s face, but I felt his body stiffen as he continued to speak. “My father, who has given me every opportunity and advantage growing up, as long as they were the ones that he felt were worthwhile.”

  I peeked out from behind his back, though I could feel that he didn’t want me moving any closer. I cleared my throat.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Senator Bailey. Liam has told me so much about you.”

  His lips stretched into a parody of a smile. “I wish I could say the same. My son has neglected to mention much about his life lately.” The tone in his voice implied that perhaps in me, he’d found the reason for that lacking. I stiffened my spine.

  “Why should I talk, Dad, when no one’s listening?” Liam was calm, but I recognized it as the quiet that meant he was incredibly angry and barely holding onto control.

  The senator sighed and shook his head. “Liam, you have this imagined sense of neglect. I want you to remember how often your mother and I have made the trip down here to see you at school. The track meets we’ve attended. You are and have always been our chief priority. And I’m here today to let you know that I was able to pull some strings, work my magic, and I got you that internship in Washington. The one you were supposed to apply for two months ago. So I’d like you to tell me, when have I not listened to you, son?”

  “How about every single time I’ve told you I don’t think I want a life in politics? Every time I said I’d like to explore my other options. Every time I mentioned the idea of doing something other than what you’ve chosen for me to do? And this. Now. I don’t want the fucking internship in Washington. I didn’t apply because I have no intention of going down there. So you can un-pull your strings and work your magic again to get me out of it.”

  Senator Bailey shifted in the chair, and I heard it creak. “Liam, this is neither the time nor the place. We don’t air our misunderstandings in front of strangers.”

  Liam took one step forward, his hands clenched at his sides. “First of all, Dad, this is not a misunderstanding. Unless you’re saying you don’t remember me telling you that I didn’t want the gig in DC. Unless you mean you misunderstood me when I told you the last time you and Mother were here that there was no way in hell I was taking it.

  “And second, Ava is not a stranger. There’s nothing you can’t say in front of her, because I share everything with her. She already knows how screwed up our family is.”

  The senator’s mouth tightened into a thin, hard line. “Watch your mouth, son. I don’t expect to be spoken to like that. Keep in mind that I’m still your father, even if you’re going through some kind of delayed teen-age rebellion.”

  Liam ran his hand through his hair, still damp from our run. “I’m not a teen-ager, Dad. And this isn’t rebellion, it’s me taking charge of my own life, finally. About time, don’t you think? Oh, and don’t worry, Dad. I never forget who my father is.” He dropped his voice until it was dangerously low and hard. “He’s a fucking hypocrite.”

  His father shot to his feet. “That’s enough, Liam. You can stand there and throw accusations at me for whatever imagined offenses I’ve committed—”

  “No, Dad, it wasn’t an imagined offense. I didn’t imagine the woman you were fucking in my mother’s bed last December.”

  The senator’s face went from red to pale, and I caught the twitch in his left eye. “Liam, that is enough.” His angry stare shifted to me momentarily before returning to his son.

  “I told you, Dad, you can say anything you want in front of Ava. She knows everything. So why don’t you try to make sense of the whole thing to me again? I’m sure we’d all like to hear that explanation. I’m wonder if Mother might be interested, too. When she
asks you why I don’t call or come home anymore, do you tell her it’s because I never know what I’m going to find?”

  I ventured to step out behind Liam. “Why don’t we all take a minute to cool off before someone says something he doesn’t mean?”

  Liam grasped my arm and shoved me behind him again. “Stay out of this, Ava. Don’t worry, I mean everything I say. Every fucking word.”

  “Maybe this girl has a point, Liam. I’ll step out now, let you get a shower, think about what you’re saying here. What it is you really want. Then I’ll take you out to dinner, just the two of us. We’ll work this out. What we’re talking about isn’t an issue to be discussed in front of someone who ... may be putting the wrong kind of pressure on you.”

  “This girl, Dad, is Ava. She’s the kind of person who makes me want to be better than I am, to be my best. She makes me happy, just by being around her.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You might like to know that this girl is at the top of our class academically. She works harder than anyone I know. And believe it or not, she’s the one who’s been trying to get me to talk to you for the last few weeks. Because she can’t imagine a family where the parents and children don’t get along. So before you go laying the blame on this girl, you should stop and think about what you want our relationship to be in the future. Whether you expect to have any contact with me at all. Because this girl isn’t going anywhere.”

  The senator’s frosty glare landed on me before returning to his son. “You know, son, I’m trying to give you some latitude here, because it’s real easy to talk about hypocrisy and ideals from the vantage point of twenty-one years old. I’m human, Liam. When I was your age, I liked to have my fun, too. I sowed my share of wild oats with girls who weren’t ... long-term material.” This time, his eyes stayed on me as he continued. “I’m happy that I listened to my own father’s advice. The same words I passed down to you. There are girls you marry. Nice girls, from good families, who know how to act in public, girls who will give you connections and never embarrass you. And then there are the girls you fuck. Those are the ones who give you a good time, but they can’t give you anything else. They’re the ones you leave behind.”