Wait For Me

Chapter 9

"Are you ready?" My mom asks me as she enters my room, wearing a long dark dress.

"You look nice." I nod at her.

"I know, thanks." She smiles. "We should get going. We wouldn't want to be late."

My mom's heals click down the stairs as I follow her.

The drive didn't take as long as it has when we went to the city to buy the dresses. I'm a little less nervous and a little more excited now, probably because I'm going to see Ron again. I expected my mom to have trouble finding the house but she didn't have any. She parks the car on the driveway and we look upon the house.

"They must have renovated it." My mom says as she climbs out the car. The Conroy's always renovate their house every year and it seems to get better with every year that passes. This time, the house is made out of bricks giving the house a reddish brown color instead of the traditional white color that they always used. We walk down the narrow path, surrounded by pine trees, that lead to the front door.

My mom rings the doorbell. The door is opened after a few seconds by Abby, who welcomes my mom with a hug. "Marisa!" She says. "How are you? It's been so long."

"It has been and I am very good." My mom smiles at her. "What about you?"

"I've been the same." She shrugs. "Come in."

We walk in and follow Abby to the kitchen. "I like what you've done to the house." My mom says as she takes in everything and so do I.

"It's amazing isn't it? Oh, Tiffany, you have grown so much." Abby has the same energy that April has that welcomes everyone, but that's how she is around people. Ron has told me the 'bad side' to Abby. "How have you been?"

"I've been good." I give her a smile.

"That's good. Sit down." She gestures to the small round table and my mom and I sit on the chairs. "Do you want something to drink, Marisa?"

"Yes, please."

"Francis!" Abby calls and an old woman enters the kitchen. "Can you give us some red wine, please. Just for Marisa and I. I suppose you don't drink, right Tiffany?"

"No, mam." I say. I never felt comfortable calling Abby by her name so I always called her 'mam'. I knew she hated being called and she tried to stop me into calling her that, but I couldn't and she just got used to it.

"That's what I thought." She smiles.

"Hey, girls." April comes in and check if Ron is behind her but he's not. We greet her and she takes a sit with us. "Shouldn't we start? I'm really hungry."

"We're still waiting on Ed." Abby says.

I didn't know my dad is coming.

"He always arrives late." My mom jokes.

"Where's my dad?" April says.

"Richard is always in his study. He never gets out of there."

"Well, he has to run his business." My mom says.

"Please. He does a poor job at managing his business." Abby says. "We've lost a lot of money due to his failure decisions. He does nothing but ruin things for us. Thank God that Ron is taking over soon."

We all fall silent for a while. Abby is always talking bad about her husband, Richard. I don't think that he runs his business in a bad way, I always thought that he was good at what he did. At least that's what my dad says, since he works for him.

"Speaking of Ron, where is he?" My mom asks.

"He's probably upstairs in his room." Abby says. "Francis, will you get him, please?"