Little Red

Family Dinner

C H A P T E R   S E V E N 

FAMILY DINNER

Oh. My. God. Mom. The thought kept repeating itself in my head over and over when she invited Alexander to come to dinner. This woman was going to be the death of me. I felt my heart rate pick up with my anxiety; I gripped Alexander's hand for support. 

He intertwined his fingers with mine, giving me a reassuring squeeze that made my nerves calm almost instantly. But he wasn’t there the last time I had a boy over at my house. He wasn’t even my boyfriend but they treated him like he asked for my hand in marriage. Poor David. As soon as we sat down My mom bombarded him with questions like “what do your parents do for a living” and “what do you plan to do when you grow up” but what really made me want to go crawl under a rock and die a slow and painful death was when Trevor and Joshua asked in unison “do you plan on having sex with Amber?”

                At that moment, David turned bright red from the top of his head to his toes. The food that he was chewing got stuck in his throat and I had to help him cough it out right in front of my family. He was so embarrassed that he excused himself and cried in our bathroom. It was later I found out that he had a crush on me and was going to ask my parents if he could date me. After that incident though, he wouldn’t talk to me.

"I would love to Ms. Jones." He flashed my mom a perfect smile that could calm a raging bear. 

Dearest Alexander, you have just signed your death warrant… I thought to myself absent-mindedly.

A rosy blush spread on her cheeks, "W-well, do come in." Her tone was quite flustered and embarrassed. I totally understood. Alexander's smile does that to people. 

With yet another superstar smile, Alexander followed my mother to my house. My mother’s eyes bulged when she took in Alexander’s 6’5” frame. I feel you mom. I really do. I thought, Alexander was huge and intimidating to others. But to me he was like a giant fluffy teddy bear. Huggable and warm.

 I followed soundlessly behind them with my eyes glued to my feet while my hand was still surrounded in the warmth of Alexander’s own hand. I knew that this dinner was going to go swimmingly with lots of smiles, laughs and the outcome of my family actually liking Alexander or it would be a train wreck and my parents would forbid me from seeing my mate again – that was not possible though. I was really hoping the dinner would be a success. I did not really want to elope, but I would if I had to.

When we reached the front porch, I stole a glance up and saw Trevor at the door. His thick arms were crossed over his solid chest as he leaned in the doorway (that was his signature pose, if you haven’t noticed) looking intently on Alexander with his piercing emerald eyes. Trevor might not have been as tall as Alexander (he’s about 5’11”) but he didn’t back down when Alexander returned his gaze with a warm, chocolate one. I didn’t know why, but Trevor had always been very protective of me; I was happy about that because I thought he’d be like one of those douche bag step-fathers who would just ignore me whenever my mom wasn’t around.

Joshua peeked around the opposite side of the door frame, his brown hair was messy and in his eyes. He looked at Alexander for a second before disappearing behind the door frame again.

This was all eerily familiar to how the dinner with David started…

“Hello, Mr. Jones. I’m Alexander Grey.” He reached out his hand, the one that wasn’t holding mine, to my step-father.

 Trevor looked at his hand for a second before his eyes traveled up to Alexander’s smiling face.  He was definitely sizing Alexander up. After what seemed like an eternity of staring between my werewolf boyfriend’s hand and face, Trevor took his hand in a firm grip and shook it roughly. “Please call me, Trevor. ‘Mr. Jones’ makes me feel old.”