Translucent

Partner

"Mama, Papa, this is Jai McAlister" Rhiannon smiled confidently even as her hand shook in his.

He had never been to her home, he had only meant her mother once (in a passing conversation), he'd been off touring the East Coast for 6 months before coming back to this stupid little suburb and proposing to her.

Jai was a character, that was for sure.

His smile was as sweet as ever as he bowed down to kiss her mother's hand and shake her father's. She looked hard into her father's eyes to find some hint of acceptance or rejection. She found a blank, emotionless wall.

"It's an absolute pleasure to meet both of ya, I've heard so much" his accent was an amalgamation of all the places he had been.

"Oh, really?" her mother voiced concerned and Rhiannon immediately interjected.

"All good, flattering things, Mama" she hinted a warning in her voice, something that says 'Just trust me on this' or 'Please be nice'.

"Exceptionally flattering things" Jai added, noting the tone of Rhiannon's voice "Including Ms Hightower's skill in the kitchen?".

Rhiannon saw that the flush that crept onto her mother's face as she gestured for them to come inside. Jai did have a way with women of all ages.

He was also vocal, as Rhiannon was so thankful for as he entertained more than her parents were entertaining them for dinner. He spoke graciously to her mother and respectfully toward her father and waited for everyone else to drink the French vintage he had gifted before drinking himself.

The perfect gentleman.

Rhiannon watched him throughout dinner, his smile never faltering and poise never flattening. She envied that kind of acting. She knew this man more personally. Behind that facade was a gentle, nervous boy that just wanted to succeed. 

She phased through her cutlery several times during their meal, the nerves showing far more on her than on him but he was still so gracious, offering his own hands to cut the food on her plate.

She declined naturally, her stubborn independence getting the better of her. Her mother smiled in response to the gesture, Rhiannon watching her hand reached for her father's. Rhiannon thought to herself that they had definitely succeeded in winning their blessing.

She remembers how he had asked how her condition worked, where it came from, how she copes. 

"It's a response to stress, like fear or anxiety".

Rhiannon had few answers for him.

"It's inherited" she continued, bedsheets intertwined with her fingers "My grandmother had it, as did my aunt. They disappeared entirely long before I was born".

"That's awful" he replied, "That you never got to meet ya granny".

"I try not to think about it" she was so quiet "But maybe, they could have helped me?"

She shook her head of the thought. 

She had said to Jai that there was no way on Earth that they were going to marry without her parents' permission. Jai agreed, suggesting that she should probably meet his mother as well. Jai was one of 8 brothers, so he was always less pressured by the presence of parents.

Rhiannon felt a weak jealousy of a life that simple.

They spent a few hours after the meal chatting in the sitting room exchanging stories. Rhiannon had never heard her father so talkative before. 

"You found a very interesting young man, my dear" he mused, patting Jai a little too hard on the back. She smiled at his desperate attempt to recover from the blow.

In a natural lull in the conversation, Jai excused himself for a cigarette, leaving Rhiannon with Evelyn and Dennis.

"He's a charmer, Rhiannon" Evelyn spoke proudly "Handsome, too". Rhiannon blushed profusely. 

"When did you tell him about your condition?" Dennis asked, still displaying a credible poker face. Rhiannon immediately groaned, frustrated with her father's paranoia.

"A while ago" she replied, her tone steely "I phased through a table or something and he saw. He couldn't look away". She had softened into the chair now, the realisation that he was almost afraid of her in that moment.

"And he's not..." he mumbled but Rhiannon was already prepared with a retort.

"He asked, I told, he stayed" she was a little spiteful in her response and she could see the annoyance in her father's eyes "In fact, he proposed".

This shocked the pair of them.

"He what?" Evelyn gasped, though she tried to hide the enthusiasm in her voice. Dennis and Evelyn glanced at each other for a moment and the tension built to a place that Rhiannon couldn't deal with anymore.

"Yes, he proposed because he thinks I'm a talented, intelligent woman" she confirmed, rising from her seat and walking away from the chair "I'll leave you to process that information".

She left the room without another thought, rushing to the back door and leaping through it, the phasing both unintentional and useful. She took a breath to try and control something in her life without her parents coming and clamping down on it.

"You seem... tense" Jai's voice was cool against the heat in the sitting room. She turned to him, his relaxed lean against the back wall of the house with another hideous shirt, and smiled. 

"I am perfectly well, thank you, sir" she smoothed her hair back but it immediately bounced back into her natural curl pattern.

"Talkin' to your folks alone stressed you out or somethin'?" he asked, taking the last drag of his cigarette. She could feel the heat left in her cheeks.

"They can just be so..." she couldn't find the words.

"Overbearing?" Jai always found the right words.

"Yeah..." Rhiannon's hands were pressed up against her cheeks now like somehow they were going to pull the heat from them. The corners of his mouth curled up as he stamped out the lit but of the cigarette and stepped towards Rhiannon, placing his hands over hers ever-so-gently.

Rhiannon could feel her knees buckle at the sensation.

"Can I tell you somethin'?" he asked, guiding her hands into his. She was glancing back and forth between their hands and his light eyes.

"What?" she agreed, letting her hands relax into his grip.

"You use the back of your hand to make sure your coffee is strong enough" he stated simply but Rhiannon didn't know what to make of it, chuckling nervously.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. He chuckled back.

"You use your hand like a colour chart to make sure that your coffee is just right" he explained, "I don't even think ya notice"

He was right. She had no idea. But he didn't stop there.

"I think you're too serious because I love it when you laugh" he continued, his smiled wide but soft "And you hog the blankets in bed, but it's alright because you hold me so tight". One hand moved to her shoulder and she relished the contact, the physical feeling of his skin on her skin.

"I also think you're beautiful an' kind an' smart but ya already knew that" he joked, making her laugh again and he smiled so brightly Rhiannon thought she might be sick.

"I love you" Rhiannon didn't realise she'd said it until she did.

"And I, you, my beautiful coffee bean" he pressed his forehead against her and she pressed back, wishing that she could be like this forever, pressed against Jai's skin and ever-present.

"Shall we go an' get their blessing?" he asked, all hands and smiles and no fear.

"We shall" she could almost feel the light radiant into her eyes.