"So, what do you think?"
Dianne nervously leant across the table as she overlooked the pond in the middle of the park. As it was quite a warm day, it was filled with families on the pedalos and people on picnics-
She and her family included who had come out to peer tree cafe in battersea Park that morning.
"About what? The parks beautiful my dear, very different from the beach but theres still water"
Her dad cluelessly looked up from the menu, making dianne smile innocently.
"No dad....I mean about joe. What do you think of joe?"
She asked more quietly this time, obviously very anxious by her own question leading Mark to give a somewhat generic answer.
"He's nice. He's got a cool flat and I like his computer room"
Dianne could only laugh again as she realised just how serious her dad was being. At times he could be a man not of many words so had to accept his answer.
"He is really lovely dot. I can see now why you go so well together"
Her mum joined, giving dianne something more to work with which made her smile.
The last time she had seen her mum, and any of her family had been 6 months before at Christmas when she had only just got with joe. Now though, she had felt as if it was time that her boyfriend met the two most important people in her life- her parents. So far it had been good and dianne finally felt complete as she reunited with her parents but their opinions had been playing on her mind since they had arrived the day before. This had been the first time she had got them alone and all she wanted to know was whether they liked him.
"So you like him?"
"Yes sweety, of course we do. He's lovely and I can see he makes you happy"
Rina contuined, her words reminding dianne of how she had been not that long before at Christmas. She had talked alot about how happy she had felt and she was no different now, except that each day since then she had fallen more and more for joe.
They had come so far in such a small amount of time and eveything she had said to her mum back then had been true. Rina could see it. Joe treated her like there was nobody else. She was the light in his life that didn't stop shining and she felt the same way about him. It was very clear to the older woman, and her husband too, that the younger couple clearly were very fond of eachother and even just the way they looked at one another confirmed eveything dianne had told her mum at Christmas about him being kind, and funny, and selfless.
"I'm glad you like him. It sort of means alot to me that you do because...."
"Its serious?"
Rina finished her sentence for her, seeing how her daughter was struggling to find the words.
She nodded, noticing how her boyfriend who had just been ordering their breakfast, came back to the table with a tray of their drinks setting them all out.
Rina couldn't help but notice how joe handed over diannes coffee and once she had taken her first sip, his hand came over to her leg and rested there, diannes hand soon moving over to sit onto of his, both of their finger tips running lightly over the others knuckles, the two taking it in turns to provide the other with the same amount of affection they had just received from the other. Rina hadn't really expected it. She thought when she met joe, him and dianne would be this somewhat shy couple and present in a way dianne had shown up as back in December as this much calmer more relaxed girl who she had never seen before. They seemed completely differnt in real life than in rinas imagination. They were definitely chilled out in a way and carefree but not in a reserved sort of way. They just seemed really at ease with eachother. It looked as if they liked to have alot of fun and just laugh with eachother. Rina couldn't point out a moment over the past 24 hours where she hadn't seen dianne smile and she knew even though she was happy to have her parents with her in England, that was all joe. She could see from her eyes that they had this special way of looking at eachother. It was sort of a lingering look where diannes eyelashes fluttered. They also seemed to have a constant need to want to touch eachother. Not necessarily in a sexual way but they always sat close and held hands, and she could see how joe often played with the ends of her hair or their feet overlapped as they sat together. It didn't seem showy though. It felt normal. Almost natural. Like they were always like this. This looked as if they were like this all the time and it wasn't just a display for joe to impress herself and her husband. It wasn't what rina had thought but she was enjoying watching a young couple be in love, esepcially since it was her daughter and she looked so happy.
