Sweet Caroline

#46 Feminism and the future

"That was..."

"One hell of a first meeting," I finish Nathan's sentence. "Yeah, it really was. This is not at all how I thought this night would turn out."

"I'm so sorry about this, Caroline." Nathan pulls me closer to him so I can snuggle up to him on the couch. "I had no idea he was gonna show up here. I mean, sure, I gave him a key and told him to crash here whenever he wants to, but I swear I didn't know-"

"I know," I interrupt him. "It's fine. He's a nice guy, although I'm not a fan of his timing. So now tell me, Nathan... Am I accepted? Or did he tell you to dump my ass?"

Nathan grunts and pulls me in for a kiss. "Like anyone could ever convince me to break things off with you. Not even Sean could do that, Caroline. And as a matter of fact, he seems to approve."

"What did he say?" I sit up straight so I can look him in the eye. Sean may not be like my friends, but every single human being gossips. I know for a fact that the moment I left the room, Nathan and Sean started talking about me.

"You don't want to know," Nathan replies with a grin.

"Now I really need you to tell me!" I gave him my stern teacher look. "Spit it out, Nathanial."

He laughs when I use his full name on him. "He said you have a great rack and that I must be serious about you to bring you here."

"Oh God," I grunt, hiding my face in my hands. "You talked about my boobs?"

"You were standing in front of him without a bra on, wearing a revealing shirt. Of course we talked about you breasts," he teases. "Only for a minute though. He mostly talked about his fight with Jillian's father."

"Tell me about that." I grab my glass to take a sip of wine and settle in for him to tell me more about Sean.

We spend another half hour downstairs while Nathan fills me in on the highlights. Sean works at the same law-firm that Nathan does. They met in college, back when Nathan had no idea what he wanted to do with his life after just getting back on his feet. Sean's dad was a realtor and Sean wanted to join him at his firm. The way he talked about it got Nathan excited as well, so Sean's dad offered to let Nathan tag along for a week so he could figure out if that was a career he wanted to pursue. That's how Nathan ended up working as a real estate agent at Cullen & Parker Realty. Sean's dad has retired since, leaving Sean as the big boss, since the other owner, 'old man Parker' as Nathan calls him, only works a few hours a week since he's technically retired.

That's all nice to know, of course, but I'm more interested about the fight with his father-in-law. Apparently, Jillian's parents are filthy rich. Her father is a corporate lawyer and managing partner at his firm. All he ever wanted was for his daughter to follow in his footsteps. Instead, Jillian met Sean in college, fell in love, got pregnant when they'd only been together for a few months and decided to drop out of college to take care of her kid. Her parents had offered to pay for everything from the baby's needs to Jillian's school, as long as she promised to break off her engagement to Sean. Jillian did no such thing and stopped talking to her parents when they didn't even show up to the wedding.

Jillian made things right with her parents when she got pregnant with their second child years ago, but her father never accepted Sean as a part of the family. He likes to show up unannounced, stay over for a full week and make Sean's life a living hell every single second he's in town. Since Jillian wants their four kids to have a good relationship with their grandparents, Sean usually bites his tongue, but it's always a matter of days before Sean ends up at Nathan's place to hide out until the in-laws are gone.

"So Jillian is a stay-at-home mother?" I ask, trying to keep the judgement out of my voice. The feminist in me doesn't approve of women giving up their career to take care of the kids while the husband makes the big bucks.