Family For The Holidays

Christmas Eve- December 24th, Part 2: Brian

My father jumped out of his recliner as his favorite football team scored. "Go, go, go....yes! See, Brian, I told you! Pay up!"

Beside me, my future father-in-law shook his head. "That was just luck." He dug into his wallet and pulled out the money to pay his debt.

"No, that was an athlete who knows how to play the game," Dad said, laughing as he collected his winnings.

I dug into my pocket and gave my dad a dollar before glancing at Clarence. He appeared calm, even though his team was losing. The good-natured bets going back and forth between us was an easy way to study the temperament of my future father-in-law. After last night's handshake, I was still on edge.

He sipped his beer and studied my father's movie posters on the wall during the commercial break. "Nice man cave you've got here, Winfred. I've tried to get Anita to let me have one inside the house." He shook his head. "You'd think after thirty years of paying the mortgage I would have earned a room. Instead, I got pushed out to the garage."

Both men laughed.

"What we won't do for the women we love, eh?" My dad supplied.

Clarence raised his bottle. "Here, here."

Both men looked at me. I held my bottle up in agreement then gulped.

A soft knock on the door drew everyone's attention. Ebony peeked into the room. "Excuse me, Brian, your mom would like you to run to the store before they close." She held up a sheet of paper.

I tried to hide my relief. "Sure."

If I was lucky, Ebony would be able to sneak away with me. After my mother's invitation to spend the week at the house with everyone else, Ebony and I had gone to our respective homes and grabbed enough clothes for the week. Our original plan had been to spend the rest of the holiday at our new home.

Three weeks had passed since we signed the lease. Ebony came by periodically to help unpack and set things up. A few of her personal items had made their way over. Her official move-in date was a few days after Christmas. Regardless, my attempt to convince her to spend at least one night at our new home and come back in the morning hadn't worked. She insisted on not disappointing our parents. In the end, not only had I slept alone, I slept in my childhood bed.

My mother insisted we sleep in separate rooms because we weren't married. She knew we had sex, but my parents were old fashioned. 'Unwed? No sex in my beds!' was her motto.

Imagining my fiancée sleeping down the hall in addition to the intimidation of being in the same room with her father made a good night's sleep hard to come by.

I joined Ebony in the hallway. "How are things in the kitchen?"

She walked over, slipped her arms around my waist, and laid her head against my chest. "Up until twenty minutes ago, fine."

I caught the change in her voice; she was no longer as excited as she'd been at breakfast.

In need of physical connection as much as she apparently did, I held her tight. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

Before she could reply, I heard the door to the man-cave open behind me.

"Hey, Brian, do you mind if I ride with you? I could use a bit of fresh air."

Clarence's booming voice forced me to jump away from Ebony as if we were teenagers caught red handed. My back was turned to him so he couldn't see my initial cringe as I squeezed my eyes shut. "Sure. I'll be ready to leave in five minutes."