The Art of Loving

[14] Monster-in-Law and Other Relatives

Ellie watched Ruth get out a surprisingly big photo album from one of the cabinets, smiling to herself. She liked her, it wasn't as bad as she had feared at all. From what she had heard to other people meeting the partner's mother was always terrible, but actually Ruth was such a lovely person - just like her son. She had heard people coming up with terrible nicknames for their partner's family such as monster-in-law, but it would have been more than unfair to call Ruth that. Instead it seemed to turn out that Harold was the monster-in-law in this case.

That thought painted a small smile on Ellie's face, but luckily Ruth couldn't tell what was making her smile because something told her sharing that she considered her husband a monster wouldn't keep the atmosphere so relaxed. She took a deep breath, fiddling with her hands when Ruth turned around to her again.

"Would you like to sit on the couch? Make yourself comfortable, dear," Ruth said, a warm smile on her face.

Ellie nodded a little and followed her over to the couch. "Okay, yes, thank you very much," she said and sat on the couch beside her, leaving a polite amount of space between them. She let her eyes wander over the photo album and smiled. It was a typical old album with a red leather cover and it was easy to tell that it was full of photos, hopefully a lot of adorable photos from all throughout Brian's childhood.

Ruth really took her time going through the photos and made sure to share many adorable stories about little Brian with her, something that put her even more at ease. She enjoyed seeing little Brian and hearing stories about what he used to get up to as a little boy. He really had been an adorable child as far as she could tell. Ellie didn't really know what it was, she never found babies cute, but Brian as a baby was simply adorable.

It was funny how the time passed so quickly without Ellie even realising it. It felt like it had only been a few minutes but when Ruth gently closed the photo album again it was nearly 3pm already. Ellie looked at her with a genuine smile. "Thank you for showing me all these photos, and sharing the stories."

"I'm glad you enjoyed that," she said with a smile and got up to put the photo album away properly. "I can tell you really care about him a lot."

"I do," Ellie admitted, and strangely enough it didn't feel weird to say that even though normally she knew she had a huge problem with admitting those things. But not in front of Ruth for some reason.

"Maybe I can show you the second album later, now I have to get the table ready because Brian's aunt and uncle and grandma will be getting here soon," Ruth explained to her.

Ellie nodded a little. "That's fine, don't worry. Can I help with anything? I really wouldn't mind that."

"If you would rather do something than just sit around then you could set the table," Ruth suggested with a smile. "I wanted to use the plates with the red flowers, in that cupboard here," she pointed out and showed Ellie which ones she meant.

Ellie paid close attention to what Ruth explained to her how she wanted the table to be set and got to work while Ruth disappeared into the kitchen. Humming happily to herself, Ellie got to work, making sure she set the table as neatly and perfectly as possible. She knew everything she did would be judged - not necessarily with bad intentions but she still wanted to make sure there was no reason for bad opinions about her - or at least no reason to worsen the opinions a certain monster-in-law seemed to have.

However, that plan was nearly ruined when Ellie almost dropped one of the expensive looking plates because a certain someone surprised her with his hands grabbing her waist gently.

"Whoa careful there," Brian said softly and helped Ellie catch the plate. "Mum loves those."

"Yes, I gathered that," Ellie exclaimed and carefully placed the plate on the table. "You can't startle me that much, Brian, honestly." She sounded a lot more upset than she had intented to but she didn't notice because in her mind she was going over how narrowly she had escaped a huge disaster on the first time of meeting the family.