A Love Like Ours

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Mama!" I cried out before flushing red. It always embarrassed me to call my mum 'Mama' in public, but old habits die hard. She'd been Mama all throughout my growing years and 'mum' didn't feel quite right.

I wrapped my arms around her plump frame even as she smothered me in a loving hug. Looking past her shoulders, I realised she was not alone. Dad had come with her and my little brother, Tom, and older sister, Janet, too. The whole damn family was here.

I really shouldn't have been so surprised. News of my pending nuptials was bound to stir up the family circus, rousing them out of their couch-potato lifestyle long enough to bounce happily with some excitement. My family loved me as I loved them. But they were mad.

There was no other name for it.

"Dad!" I allowed him to smother me too before I passed him on toward the unsuspecting Justin, who was even now being choked for breath by my mum.

Mum and I sadly shared the same plump genes. Only my more slender form, at 38-34-40, not Justin's bizarre measurements of my proportions, was not quite up to her standards but only because her waist was really non-existent. Still, she was a good preview of what I would eventually become. I turned to peer over my shoulders at Justin's unguarded reactions. He'd known my parents since we were kids, but I doubted he ever evaluated the implications of my mother's proportions with regards to his future wife. My being in that role was fairly new and all.

My dad, however, was not fat. Large and tall, he made Mama and me feel unnaturally small.

I moved to embrace both Tom and Janet together. Tom was still at university, but he already had the build that showed he would be taking after Dad. Janet, while being of my height, was disappointingly thin. As for coloring, we were all dark haired but for Janet. Janet inherited her light-blonde hair and pretty, gray eyes from my mum's side of the family. It was odd that she was deemed fit to inherit the best of everything from both sides of the family.

But I never gave it much thought before. Not 'til now, ... when I saw Justin beam a smile of greeting at my pretty sister. At twenty-six, she was single and not too young for him.

An acute sense of Deja Vu assailed my senses, sending me reeling back into the past to a pivotal point in time where I introduced my pretty cousin, also from my mother's side of the family, to my then fiancé Dale.

"Congratulations, darling! I am so excited for you."

I looked on at Mama's enthusiasm with some reservations.

"Thank you, Mrs Longbottom," Justin replied for me, beaming widely. Looking up at him, one would think he was glad of our upcoming wedding. I wasn't exactly sure if he were or why he was if he were.

"What's for dinner, Aria? I'm starving!" Tom didn't wait for my reply, but instead, he hurried off to the kitchen to ransack it for food. I felt my own stomach rumble.

"We were just heading out for dinner. I made reservations at Nasties." Once again, Justin rose valiantly to the rescue.

"The Nasties! Oh my God! That's the place to be seen. I heard the waiting list to get a table is at least six months!" exclaimed my all-knowing sister excitedly. I turned clueless eyes to Justin at that. This was his ball. He rolled it, so he should field it. And he did.

"What can I say?" He shrugged his broad shoulders with false modesty. "I am a man of vast influence."

I couldn't help my unladylike snort at that and was rewarded, strangely enough, by Mama's frown. Her very severest from her repertoire of well-deserving frowns. I lifted a brow at her in a 'what did I do' look, but Mama ignored it to move into the living room and settle down on the chaises with a determined look. I turned to Dad, but he only shrugged his shoulders, as clueless as me.