Playing for Rya

50. More

Song: Halo by Beyoncé; Cover by Madilyn Bailey.

Rya focused her gaze outside the tinted windows of the dark grey sedan as it passed through the neighborhood her parents had lived in for years.

The familiar streets and houses in her old neighborhood, which usually dredged up a warm feeling within her at being back home, now caused her to tense with nervousness and she fiddled with her fingers as the vehicle turned into her street.

Two months had passed since her mother's birthday, during which her parents had been gone on a cruise that her father had planned as a surprise gift for her mother. Both of them had returned during the week and so far had managed to wrangle the attendance of both their children at a belated birthday family dinner scheduled for that weekend.

At the time she had told her mother over the phone that she would be bringing Derek, it had seemed like a good idea and the perfect opportunity to introduce him to her family. Yet, now, as their vehicle pulled up in front of her parent's house, she caught herself worrying about what the interaction between Derek and her parents would be like.

Would they think he was just another man out to take advantage of their daughter? She had been brief in her description of him, over the phone; of what he did and who he was, but like Kris had said, men like him had women throwing themselves at him at every turn. It was common knowledge, something to be expected even, for a man of Derek's means and Rya worried that for her parents, her father especially, both Derek's vast wealth and the age difference between him and her, would be a mark against him.

"What is it?" Derek's deep staid voice spoke beside her. "You've been quiet the entire drive here."

Rya met his gaze, reluctant to voice her reservations about her parents meeting him for the first time.

"Do you think it's too soon?" She asked instead as her brows creased in a small frown. "I feel like I should have waited a little longer before making any introductions..."

He stemmed the flow of words from her lips as his thumb came up to smooth the lines on her forehead. His eyes captured hers within their depths.

"It's my responsibility to make a good impression on your family," he said gently, "let me."

She nodded, her mother had sounded excited to meet him, so maybe there was some hope to be had.

It was that thought she kept in her mind as she rang the doorbell. She smoothed her hands down the front of the grey sleeveless jumpsuit she wore thinking to herself that she couldn't remember ever being this nervous to meet her own family!

It took several long moments before someone came to the door, but when they did, it was with surprise and a rising sense of doom that she greeted the older woman who answered the bell.

"Gran?!" she gasped.

The spark of hope that had begun to rise within her in the past few minutes dwindled to nothing and she gave a resigned sigh in anticipation of the disaster that was to be the dinner ahead.

✦✦✦

Grandma Madeline was an eighty-nine-year-old woman, smallish in stature but with character the size of the Mississippi. There were two things she despised: Being called Madeline, and People.

Besides her family, there were very few outsiders she took to, and she made it a point to let them know, by her words or actions, that they were privileged to be in her company. If you weren't one of the lucky few that caught her attention, the blatant disdain plastered across her face and her nose which she would stick high in the air would surely alert you to the fact that, to her, you didn't exist.