Forever Is Now

Introducing Me

Wayne | pov

I can almost hear Mackenzie's heart beating. We're standing in the living room waiting for her mother to walk in. Mackenzie has been stuck in the same position since we got here 2 minutes ago, her head down and staring at her fingers.

"You should run," she says in a soft whisper, I almost didn't hear. I'm not sure why she's so nervous, is she not allowed to date? Does she not want her mother to know about me?

Don't get me wrong, I'm scared right now but there's nothing I can do. She saw us in the car together, waved and told me to come in and have dinner with them. I have too much respect for Mackenzie to walk out now.

I put my hand on hers, "No. It's going to be okay. I'm here," I whisper back in case her mother can hear us.

And right on cue, she walks in with boxes in her arms and I drop Mackenzie's hand before her mother could see. "I'm sorry, you two. I bought too much food. Guess it's a good thing we have an extra mouth to help us out," Mackenzie's mother says.

We watch her set the boxes on the kitchen island and she turns to look at me. I can finally observe her. Mackenzie looks a lot like her mother and the only difference I can truly see is the height, her mother is taller.

Taking steps foward, I extend my hand towards her, "Hello Mrs. Jones. My name is Wayne Hoskins," I clear my throat, nerves choking me.

Maintaining her big smile, she comes foward and shakes my hand, "Mine is Juliet Jones. Sit, help yourself. The big boxes are obviously pizza, the smaller is sushi. Mackenzie ask him what he wants to drink," she says in a loud voice, that's surprising isn't annoying but gives off humor.

Mackenzie walks up to me, after I've sat down at the kitchen island on one of the bar stolls. She is still looking down and hasn't made eye contact with me,"what would you like to drink?" She has left space between us and I know it's because her mom is here. I tell her that water will be fine and she nods and goes to get it.

"So you play football?" Juliet asks me, she is standing in front of me but on the other side of the island.

I grab a plate and slice of pepperoni pizza, "yes ma'am. Wide Receiver," I am going to assume she knows what that is, I don't want to sound like some sexist ass the first time I meet my girl's mother.

"Mackenzie!" Juliet is so loud, she makes Mackenzie slightly jump as she was getting water for me from the fridge. She turns around to look at her mother, " doesn't your tv crush play in the same position?" Juliet sounds very shocked, almost as though Mackenzie committed a sin.

I almost burst out laughing but hide my laugh in a cough. "MOM! Why? Are you serious?" Mackenzie shoves the bottle at me and by the look on her face, the nervousness she was feeling before has gone down by a lot. She takes a seat next to me, grabs my plate and puts a few sushi rolls on it, placing it back down. "Is this enough?" I look to my side and for the first time in about 15 minutes, she's looking at me.

Smiling at her, I nod my head. "Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you," she gives me a small smile back and quickly looks at her mother, who has been looking at us the entire time.

"I'm not going to grill you, I'm just curious about you. I have never seen you before and I know close to nothing about you, other than the fact that you have are one who was parked outside my house in the middle of the night a while ago," Juliet says and still has a friendly smile on her face. This is going a lot better than I thought it would. So far so good.

I take a sip of my water to clean my mouth before I speak. My mother would be proud of the training she's giving me when it came to behaviour in front of people, especially elders. "I am an only child, my parents got divorced almost a year ago and my dad and I relocated. My mom moved out of state and remarried but we talk as often as possible. I transferred to the school and immediately joined the football team," that's the most basic summary I could think of. I quickly look at Mackenzie and she seems consumed by the pizza, that I don't think she's even aware of the conversation happening in front of her.

The entire time I am talking, Juliet looks like she is paying attention and nods her head. "How did you two meet?" She uses her head to point between Mackenzie and I, as she eats.

I look to my side to see if Mackenzie intends on participating in the conversation and I can tell that she won't. "I was getting lost on the first day of school and we happened to be going to the same class. We were both late running up the stairs, she fell at some point," I smile thinking back to how she laughed and how her eyes are part of the reasons we are here right now.

Juliet looks at her daughter and the affection in her eyes is clear. "When she's eating pizza, we may as well not even be here," she smiles even wider and shakes her head. I turn to look at her and she has her eyes closed and is chewing in slow motion, I can't help the smile that comes on my face. "You've built a bond with her and I can see the fascination on your face. Is that all this is, you're amused by her?" The smile she had the entire time, is much smaller now.

I was not expecting that question and the kind of answer I give, will tell her what kind of guy I am.  "No, Mrs. Jones. I was at first but I'm getting to know her everyday and I understand why people love her so much," that's all I'm going to say. I don't know if Mackenzie wants her mother to know that we are in a relationship and are in as deep as we are. That's a decision she can make.

I've finished eating and it looks like Mackenzie has snapped out of her trance as well. I wait for a response from Juliet but she looks down at wrist watch and looks back up at me. "Son, your father must be wondering where you are. It's getting late now," and that's my cue, she's kicking me out. I don't know if she likes me or not, she's hard to read.

I nod my head and stand up, "it was nice meeting you, Mrs. Jones," I shake her hand again and wait for Mackenzie to walk me to the door.

Juliet walks towards us, as we move to the door, "it was great meeting you Wayne Hoskins. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

I tell her that I won't and say good night to her as she walks up the stairs. "That went well," trying to console myself. I would have to find out from Mackenzie if I impressed her mother or not.

"I'm proud of you, you did well," Mackenzie kisses me. I kiss her back, say good night and walk to my car.

As soon as I settle and start the car, I connect my phone to the car and make a serious call to some one I know is going to smile about what happened and finally needs to know about my Mackenzie.

"Ma, I have a lot to tell you..."
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