Misery Company

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Mac woke up so nervous about Dean’s mom coming to visit and plan the wedding that she didn’t even register his kiss goodbye that morning. It had been a quick peck on the lips for Megan’s benefit, nothing to frit over. It was Saturday but the daycare still opened for parents that worked weekends or in Dean’s case parents who had weekend classes to graduate faster.

Alone in the apartment she made sure everything looked in order and clean. She didn’t want to give Mrs. Chandler anymore reasons to hate her.

Dean returned home an hour ahead of time. “What happened?” she asked, surprised to see him.

“I wanted to talk to you alone before I went to the airport.” He glanced around the tidy apartment, it hadn’t been dirty when he left but the difference was noticeable. “You’re freaking out.”

“No I’m not, maybe a little bit. I’ve never ‘met the parents’ before and now it’s going to be based on a lie.” She ran her hands through her hair and sighed, there was no point in trying to hide it; she was freaking out.

Dean’s brows came together in thought. “You never met Jake’s parents?”

Mac froze and met his eyes. “Don’t bring him up.” She whispered, pleaded as memories started to come back she’d rather forget.

“Why?”

“Obviously we’re not together and leave it to you to mention the one thing to make this day harder. I don’t want to talk about him ok?” she felt emotion rush to her eyes but she managed to hide it well before the tears showed.

“Ok!” he raised his hands in surrender. “My mom is going to give you a hard time no matter what and she’d give any girl a hard time. Don’t take it personal and relax because now you’re freaking me out.”

Mac chuckled. “You should be. What if we fail and they see right through this?” no matter how much they talked and planned that one fear never eased.

“They won’t, in five days this will all be over and they’ll be gone. Are you going to be ok?”

“Yeah sure. The more we wait the more I think and that doesn’t help. Just go pick her up and I’ll be here.” Mac said that to convince herself more then him. With a nod Dean turned around and left the apartment. Alone she slumped down onto the couch. She was making herself sick by being this bratty worried little girl. So what if the Chandler’s didn’t like her, screw them, she was doing their family a favor even if they didn’t know it.

If she didn’t stress over her own family it didn’t make sense to stress over his. With that in mind she sat straighter and waited, let the games begin.

IIII

Five minutes after driving away from the airport Dean wanted to turn around and take his mother back. She got in the car and started with nonstop questions about Mackenzie.

“I can’t understand why you are marrying this girl, why the rush?” she didn’t wait for an answer because she didn’t want to hear his reasoning. “Please tell me she has at least looks like a woman?”

Dean made an ugly face of confusion and annoyance then glanced at his mother. “What? She’s a beautiful woman.” Years ago he wouldn’t be caught dead admitting that but now she was going to be his wife, he was supposed to be attracted to her and complicating matters he was.

“She has her moments but her style of dress makes her look like a kid gone bad and let’s not forget her attitude.”

“Don’t worry mom she’s grown up, it’s been years since you saw her.”