November 25, 2021
Thanksgiving with the Stevens/Rhodens was scheduled for 2pm at Marc's cousin Susie's house. The migrant from Milwaukee and his lovely girlfriend left Harrisonburg at Noon to make the hour drive to Lexington so they would have a chance to socialize with his extended family prior to everyone sitting down for the meal. Once Marc had gotten onto I-81, Sarah asked him for a quick primer on his kinfolk.
Marc: Today's gathering is three of my cousins and their families, their mom, who is my aunt Louise, and my aunt Mable. The first one I will run you through is my cousin Ricky and his family. There's him, his wife Linda, and their three kids are Jason, Paige, and Devin. Jason's a senior in Civil Engineering at Va Tech, or as the natives still refer to it, VPI (Virginia Polytechnic Institute), Paige is in her second year at the local community college, and Devin's in eighth grade.
Sarah: You're not kidding when you say the kids are closer to our age than the parents.
Marc: Next is my cousin Susie, the one whose daughter Christy played with Jaydyn last year at Rockbridge County High School. Her husband's name is David, and their other two children are Willie and Scott, which are actually their middle names. They're 22 and 20, respectively, and Christy is a sophomore now at RCHS.
Sarah took down what Marc was saying so she had some points of reference in her head when they arrived and she met his relatives.
Marc: The third is my cousin Steve, who you met on the sly a couple of weeks ago at his restaurant in Staunton.
Sarah: I was telling Caroline on the bus down to Elon that I suspected you were behind us getting the royal treatment when we stopped for lunch there, which he confirmed.
Marc: He has two kids, Allen, who's a freshman at Radford, and Charity, who's a junior at Bath County High.
Sarah: Think I've got it down.
Marc: Bringing you with me today is an important step in our relationship's development, and I am happy that you chose to join me.
Sarah: I'm happy to be able to actually attend a normal Thanksgiving celebration, as last year we were in Columbia getting ready to face Missouri on the gridiron.
Marc reached over and grasped Sarah's hand, with her threading her fingers through his.
Sarah: I hope to be celebrating many more holidays alongside you, and I can't wait for you to meet my family in a few weeks.
Marc: We're going to need to wait until we get to Susie and David's before I can properly respond to your statement, but know that both of those sentiments are very much mutual. If you had been a little bit more sober, I might have wanted to go beyond the kissing and over-the-clothes fondling last night.
Sarah: I wish you had. Why didn't you?
Marc thought carefully about how to word his response. "I guess....I don't want to be accused of taking advantage of you in a vulnerable state. There is just so much miscommunication that happens when alcohol and physical intimacy collide that I don't want something like that to occur between us."
Sarah: Sophia told me that that was your reason for not kissing me the night of the Virginia match, even though I desperately wanted you to do so.
Marc: Again, I want the physical advances between us to happen naturally and because both of us consciously want to move things in that direction as opposed to acting because of lowered inhibitions and doing something we wouldn't have with a fuller set of our faculties intact.
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