Page 30 of Four Letter Feelings

Chapter 12

“You nervous?”

“Me? Nervous? What the hell do I have to be nervous about? It’s your family, man, not Sting or Bono.”

“You wouldn’t be nervous meeting them either, would you?”

“Nope!”

“My mom is gonna fuckin’ love you, man. You’re cooking. She’s gonna shit her pants. Neither of her kids can cook; a fact she despairs about regularly.”

AJ sounded almost jealous as he watched Jeremy pull the insulated bag of ingredients off the backseat of his car and close the door.

“Can’t show up to Thanksgiving dinner as a first-timer without any offering; my mom would disown me, man! Hell, even if I was part of the furniture in your folks’ place a few years down the line, mom would still kick my ass if I turned up empty handed! Hell, she’d kick your ass for showing up to your own mother’s house empty handed, too.”

As they walked up the path to AJ’s parents’ house, Jeremy took a deep and audible breath.

“Sup?” AJ paused and turned to look at him.

“Nothing, man. A moment of realization, I guess. I just can’t believe it’s freakin’ Thanksgiving is all. I feel like this year is going past in a blur, wasn’t Halloween like, yesterday? I can’t believe we’re at the end of November already!”

AJ chuckled and climbed the steps to his parents’ porch. “You’re starting to sound like an old man, Jer, you know that, right? I’m not surprised your semester is flying by, though, all that partying… time flies when you’re having fun, isn’t that what they say?”

Jeremy stifled a yawn with his shoulder, not having a free hand to cover his mouth. “Absolutely! Now who’s sounding like an old freakin’ man, though? Speaking of curmudgeonly and boring… You should live a little more, Age. We’re only at college once — gotta make the best of it.”

Shaking his head and clearly very much over having this conversation almost weekly with Jeremy, AJ pulled open the porch door and pushed open the green wooden door into the house. “Anyone home?” he called, dropping his duffle bag in the hall and kicking off his shoes.

“In here!” A woman’s voice called from towards the back of the house.

“Shoes off,” AJ instructed. “She’ll hate you from the get-go if you don’t take your shoes off, no matter what the hell you cooked. Drop your bag next to mine, bring the food, though.”

“Yes sir,” Jeremy replied with a grin. “This is a niiiiice house,” he added with a low whistle.

“Isn’t it? I love it here.”

“Looks like something out of a Steve Martin movie. They split their time, right? They have another house up north?”

“Yeah, though Michigan is pretty far north.” He chuckled. “Mom’s law firm has two offices. One here in Michigan and one up in Canada. It’s why we moved down here, so she could open up another practice, she had to qualify in both countries, too. We call her the overachiever in the family. Neither Ana nor I got that gene, either, and she’s pretty pissed about that, too. They travel back and forth a fair bit. I prefer this house, though. There’s just something about it.”

“Did you get lost on your way to the kitchen, AJ?” The woman’s voice called again a little louder.

“No, Mom, I remember the way. Just making sure Jeremy doesn’t trail leaves and dirt through the house.”

“Oh, never mind all that, I don’t care about a little dirt! Get in here already, I’ve missed you!”

“Don’t let her fool ya. Believe me when I tell you that she absolutely cares about ‘a little dirt’,” he said quietly, chuckling as he led the way into the kitchen.

“Hey Mom,” he said, as he walked around the huge island in the middle of the kitchen, to where Cindy was peeling potatoes and dropping them into a pot of water. He leaned over and kissed his mom on the cheek as she put the potato and the peeler down, wiped her hands on her apron and turned to wrap him in a hug.

“Oh, Pim. How are you? Let me get a look at you.” She held both of his arms and took a step back as if to examine him. “Well, you smell clean, your hair is tidy, you’re wearing clean clothes that don’t have holes in them and you aren’t fading away to nothing; I feel like you might be doing pretty well at this adulting thing, AJ.” She added a playful wink in Jeremy’s direction.

“Wow, thanks, Mom. Y’know, I am perfectly capable of keeping myself clean and tidy.”

“Maybe so,” she said, turning her attention to Jeremy. “But we both know you can’t cook to save your life. I’m guessing you’re the answer to that particular problem for my darling son, Jeremy.”

“Yes ma’am,” he answered with a grin. “I’m definitely the chef in the relationship. Speaking of…” Jeremy put the thermal bag on the island and slid it away from the edge. “I brought some ingredients to make some things to add to dinner tomorrow night. It’s nice to finally meet you Mrs. Williams,” he said, holding out his hand.

“It’s lovely to finally meet you too, Jeremy, and it’s Cindy.” She ignored his outstretched hand and pulled him in for a quick hug. Jeremy smiled, AJ had told him that he was more like his father, but he could already tell that he’d inherited plenty from his mother as well.

---