Fifty Shades Of Love, Sex And Tears

Chapter 9 - Past mixed with the Present

Charlotte's POV
He kept staring at me, the whole journey in the back of the SUV being driven by his driver. It was making me uncomfortable but I also couldn't help blushing. I was wearing a peach halter neck courtesy of Christian whilst he had a crisp black shirt, jacket along with black dress pants. Are we going to a funeral?

The car made a sharp turn off the road and not long later we had pulled up to a stop in front of a large house. Christian took my hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it gently. "Are you sure you want to do this, we can leave?" He was nervous and so was I. "Yes, we can't exactly leave when we are here already." I replied squeezing his hand, I hadn't met the family of a boyfriend since him, don't think about that now.

Christian rang the bell, and we didn't have to wait long before the door was quickly opened by Dr. Trevelyan. "Christian, Charlotte lovely to see you again." She welcomed us and stood next to her I'm guessing, was her husband.

"Charlotte this is my father, Carrick Grey and you remember my mother." Christian spoke calmly. "Of course lovely to meet you, Mr and Mrs Grey," I said shaking their hands whilst trying to hide that mine were already shaking. I then heard Grace whisper to Christian as he kissed her cheeks, "I'm so glad you came," like she was surprised we'd followed through.

Once we were finished with the pleasantries Carried led us through the large house, "We'll head straight to the dining room, dinner is about to be served." The fact it was being served made me smile which only got louder when I heard the familiar voices of Kate and Elliot along with another voice. The voice that belonged to the short girl, younger than me with bright blonde hair and who was running towards me.

And she was screaming, "Oh my God, look at you, Elliot said you were pretty, I can't believe you are here, Christian brought someone here." I was startled by the amount she was saying when Carrick stopped her, "Enough Mia. Charlotte this is my youngest Mia, Mia this is Charlotte. " She'd barrelled over to me embracing me in a hug, does everyone have to hug me, I thought to myself. Once Mia calmed down, I was able to greet to Elliot and Kate, giggling about how excited Mia was because they knew I wasn't used to people like her.

The Grey's certainly went full out with dinner, 3 courses plus coffee and it wasn't even a big event. Conversation flowed around the table from Paris to baseball easily then just before the coffee came through, the focus turned to me after it had been on Kate during dessert.

"So, Charlotte what do you do for a living?" Grace asked, "I work in Publishing," Christian squeezed my thigh. "Charlotte and Kate live together in Pike Market," Elliot added. "That's a nice area for two graduates to live in," Carrick said, I knew what he was hinting and so did Christian. "The apartment is owned by the Kavanagh family." Kate nodded to Christian's comment. Grace could feel the atmosphere shift around the room, so asked the next obvious question.

"How did you end up in Seattle Charlotte?" I had a sip of wine, "I went to Washington State University, then when we graduated Kate and I moved up here to work as there are more opportunities up here." I stopped just wanting the attention off me. "Why America, aren't there Universities in England?" Mia asked, it had been so long since I'd had to justify why I'm really here and I never thought it would be at a family dinner. "There are, I just wanted a change." There, that should answer your question.

"Oh, what about your family? They must miss you?" Carrick then asked, I could feel Kate's eyes as well as Elliot's, she must have told him the general story but it can't have been everything or he'd of stopped the conversation. Christian squeezed my hands gently reminding me where I was, which I hadn't realised were both shaking.

Kate mouthed across to me 'you ok?' I nodded back and took a deep breath. Just breathe, I kept repeating in my head. "My mum was an interior designer and my dad..." I took a deep breath, "he was a banker." Everyone smiled satisfied with my answers, "In London?" Christian asked curiously, I nodded. "Are they retired?" Carrick probed. I shook my head slowly and whispered almost silently...