I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 77 - Not Going to Apologize

Abe popped the cork on a bottle of champagne, passing a flute to Janine and Rose before filling his own.

"To our first adult meal together with our daughter," Abe said, putting his arm around Janine and brushing his lips against hers. It was the first time Rose had seen her parents kiss, but she was determined not to embarrass them by making a big deal about it. "I never dreamed this day would come, but here we are. To family!" Abe toasted. "I thought you ladies might be hungry after the day's exertions, so I've ordered us filet mignon."

"Um, that's steak isn't it?" Rose asked.

"Yes Rosemarie, it's a lovely tender cut of steak," Janine commented.

"Is that alright, Rose? I can ask them to make something else if you'd prefer?" Abe asked anxiously.

"Are you kidding? I love steak! It must be expensive because they've never served it on campus. I've only had it a few times. I had it at our first dinner together in Russia, remember Baba? And once or twice before Lissa's family died I had steak at a barbeque at their place."

Rose looked up to see a look of profound sadness cross Abe's face.

"Well now I know you like it, let's go to a steak restaurant before I go back to Turkey shall we?" he said with an attempt at joviality.

A knock at the door heralded the arrival of their meals. Pavel answered the door and helped place the plates onto the table before excusing himself for the evening. As well as the steak, there was steamed asparagus spears, buttered baby potatoes, and honeyed carrots.

"Well, this looks delicious. Thank you for organizing it, darling," Janine said to Abe.

"Yeah thanks, Baba!" Rose agreed, reminding herself to use her table manners and not guzzle her food like a pig.

"Next family dinner we have, hopefully, Dimitri can join us," Abe said. "Although your mother and I did want to have a private chat with you tonight." Janine and Abe looked at one another. She nodded and took over.

"Well, you know your father and I have been getting to know one another again," Janine started. "We've realized how special our relationship was to both of us, and we think there might be a chance we could perhaps rekindle things. Now you and Dimitri are settled back in, your father and I thought we might go away for a week or two together on a little holiday and see how things go."

"That's great!" Rose said, not exactly surprised by the news thanks to her mother's pre-warning, but pleased nonetheless. "Have you decided where to go?"

"Mexico!" Abe announced, obviously relieved Rose had taken their news so well. "There's a nice resort there we thought we'd stay at for a week, and then I've hired us a house for the second week. Your mother and I have wasted enough time – we need to work out whether there's a future for us and that's what we intend to do."

"I think that's wonderful," Rose told them sincerely.

"We'll only be gone a couple of weeks, and if there's any problem then we're just a flight away," Janine promised.

"I'll be fine. No offense, but I managed for years without you guys around, and that was before I had a big scary Russian to keep an eye on me," Rose assured them.

"So you're still happy with him? He's treating you well?" Janine asked. "I know last night must have been a shock?"

"Still madly in love," Rose laughed. "And he treats me like a princess. Yes, last night was disturbing, but I'm glad Dimitri and Pavel were there to stop things before anything else happened." Rose shuddered. She didn't want to dwell on that. "So are you going to take all the Guardians with you to Mexico?" she asked, changing the subject.