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“Maybe I should have changed my shirt before...” Chase started to say as he drove and Cameron rolled her eyes and giggled in a playful manner.
“You changed like four times!” She commented, “besides, I like that shirt. It brings out the blue in your eyes.” There are a nervousness in the air coming from Robert as he drove down the narrow, shaded streets. Allison could feel the anxiety practically surrounding him, and decided she needed to ease his mind.
“We’re just going to my parents house for Thanksgiving you know? There’s really nothing to be nervous about.”
“I’m not nervous,” Chase lied, “I just...want to be prepared. I want them to...you know...”
“Like you?”
“Yeah. I guess so.” Allison giggled again. As Chase drove, he kept glancing down at his tie and shirt and felt the self consciousness rise. Some things never changed no matter how old he got.
“Make a left on Berkley Street and they are the second house on the left,” Allison instructed. She felt a ping of excitement in her chest as they neared her parents house, a home they’d lived in for over thirty years. She couldn’t wait for Robert to see her childhood home and meet the people she called family.
“This house?” Robert pointed, a hint of a smile on his bright face.
“That’s it!”
As they pulled into the driveway, Robert observed the typical happy New Jersey dwelling. It had white siding, black shudders, a red door, and he swore he could feel an inviting warmth just by parking in the driveway. Mrs. Cameron had decorated it perfectly for the holiday with various hay bails, pumpkins, and a wreath to tie it all together. Robert took a deep breath as the nervous feeling came back.
“Your dad’s name is Paul...right?” He asked to avoid getting out of the car.
“Yes, and my mom is Elizabeth and my brother is Brian.”
“Elizabeth...that was my mom’s name too.”
“Everyone calls my mom Liz,” Allison reminded him as she opened the car door.
Together they gleefully wandered to the front door and lightly knocked just below the festive autumn wreath.
“Are you sure this shirt doesn’t-.”
“Hello!” The door swung open and there in the threshold stood two slender older people with the biggest smiles Robert had ever seen.
“Hi!” Allison beamed and immediately embraced her parents.
“Hello,” Robert spoke slightly quieter than normal. Paul noticed the nervous man and grabbed him for a tight hug.
“This must be that cute Australian doctor Allison has been going on about for three years!” Paul excitedly spoke as he hugged the young doctor.
“We’re so happy you could make it,” Liz revealed as she too hugged Robert.
“Thanks for having me Mr. and Mrs. Cameron.” He felt a little awkward, calling them by their last name but he didn’t quite know yet how to address his girlfriends parents.
“Please, call us Paul and Liz!” Paul allowed.
“Alright.” They stood in the meticulously decorated foyer in silence for a few moments before Allison spoke up.
“Where’s Brian?” She questioned.
“Oh he’s down in the basement grabbing the boxes of Christmas decorations. He thinks your dad and I can’t carry them up the stairs anymore,” Liz informed her daughter, annoyance in her tone.
“Come on,” Allison directed at Robert, “Well go say hi to my brother.”
Behind Allison he followed, taking in the scenery as they made their way to the basement stairs and descended into a less decorated part of the house. In the corner of the dark cellar stood a slightly more built man with Chesnut hair digging deep into a box marked ‘Christmas’.
Allison quietly snuck up behind him and put her hands around his eyes.
“Who’s the best older sister ever?” Allison joked.
“Defiantly not my sister Allison who skipped out on Halloween!” Allison released her hands and Brian spun around and embraced his sister.
“What’s up? I haven’t seen you in a while!” Brian happily conversed.
“I know, it’s been very busy at work,” she replied as she released him.
“Still saving the world one patient at a time and working for that ass hole boss of yours?”
“Ha ha, Yeap.” Brian looked over to see Robert awkwardly standing a few paces back.
“Hey so I want you to meet Robert, my boyfriend,” Allison directed. Robert stepped forward and extended his hand which Brian firmly grasped.
“Hey Robert, I’m Brian...I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Robert joked.
“It is, I promise.”
“So mom says you won’t let her or dad bring up any on the decoration boxes,” Allison spoke up. Brian rolled his eyes.
“They’re both so ridiculous. These boxes weigh like fifty pounds and they’re both like sixty years old. One of them is gonna end up breaking a hip and visiting you guys at the hospital.”
....
The family gathered around the elegant dinning room table, complete with all the typical Thanksgiving trimmings. Liz has outdone herself with her honey maple glazed turkey, slow roasted carrots, sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows (her son’s favorite since birth), garlic mashed potatoes, and sausage stuffing. It was clear just by the appearance of the spread that Liz loved to cook. The smell of the food was intoxicating as the family selected their seats and glanced at Liz’s hard work.
“Everything looks amazing,” Robert complimented his girlfriend’s mother who beemed from the compliment.
“Thank you, Robert! Thanksgiving has always been my favorite!”
“You say that about every holiday, mom,” Brian rolled his eyes. Liz chuckled at the realization.
“Well any holiday is my favorite when I get to see my kids and their significant others. I wish that you could have brought Gabby today,” Liz replied.
“I know...but as the band director for the high school she was responsible for going to the parade with the marching band today. It’s their first year doing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” There was a moment of silence before Paul began carving the turkey and dishing food out to each hungry guest. When he finished and sat back down, he glanced at Robert.
“So Robert, do you have any family that lives in the US?” Paul questioned.
“No, just me. My other family members are split between Australia and Czech Republic.”
“You’re Czech?” Liz was surprised.
“Yeah, my dad and grandparents are all from there. Then my dad moved to Australia and met my mom and that was that.” His smile was contagious.
“What was it like growing up in Australia? Did you eat that vegimite stuff? And are there lots of kangaroos?” Brian interrogated the young doctor.
“Well, the kangaroos don’t really hang around where people live or anything. They sort of keep to themselves. There are a bunch of crocodiles though if you go into the woods. They’re pretty scary buggers if you don’t expect to see one. As for vegimite-.”
“He has like six jars of it in his apartment!” Allison laughed as she looked up into his ice blue eyes, “I’m pretty sure you live on that stuff!” Robert smiled and wished he and Allison were alone so he could kiss her smiling lips. God she was beautiful, her red-brown hair neatly draped over her blue and white patterned dress.
“It’s hard to get vegemite here in the states so I have to stock up a bit!” He teasingly replied, “as for growing up in Australia it’s pretty much the same as here. Go to school, do homework, sports.”
“What sports?” Brain was interested.
“Football...I did a lot of boxing too. That’s a pretty big activity among the male youth.”
Brian’s face lit up. “Hey I’ve been trying boxing out! You should come to the gym one day with me and show me how it’s done!”
“Yeah sure!” Robert excitedly replied. It felt good that Allison’s family seemed to be accepting of him and interested in who he was. Liz grinned at her daughter who had a sweet smile painted on her pale face.
“You and Allison should take a trip to Australia. She’s never been much of a traveler but I know she’d like the zoo there. Remember when you wanted to be a zoo keeper?” Liz remenised.
“Oh my gosh I remember that!” Paul exclaimed, “we had this orange cat named Beast and she used to bring him in the back yard and pretend to be a zoo keeper! We also had a plastic alligator see saw that she pretended was real. Poor Brian was scared for years that it would bite him!”
“I remember that!” Brian laughed.
“You’re a zookeeper of sorts now,” Robert snorted.
“I guess I am!” Allison grinned, “if you’re not careful, I’m going to steal your cat and bring her to the zoo!”
....
Dinner conversation remained light and playful. The Cameron family asked Robert various questions about his life and family, he revealed very little of the bad parts of his childhood and enjoyed regaling the family of stories of House. It was clear from the questions the asked, their body language, and the pleasant tone of the evening that Robert’s fears were all for nothing. The Cameron’s not only seemed to like him, but accepted him as a proper partner to their only daughter.
After dinner and dessert, the family retired to the living room where they plopped down onto the various couches.
“I’m stuffed,” Brian complained, “and tired. I have to start my shopping in a few hours and-.”
“You’re doing Black Friday shopping?” Allison questioned.
“Yeah. I don’t have time to shop otherwise. As a phys. Ed teacher and football coach, I’m a pretty busy man. Plus Gabby gave me a list.”
Allison laughed at her brother’s words. She was happy to see him, but even more elated at the fact that he seemed to really like Robert. It was important to her that her family like him because even though she hadn’t said anything to Robert or her family, she knew this was the man she wanted to marry and have children with. He was everything to her, and even though it took her a stupid amount of time to realize it, the love between them was unbreakable. He was the most passionate, mysterious, kind, loving, giving person she’d ever met.
“Have you shown Robert your childhood bedroom yet?” Liz asked her daughter as she sat down on a living room chair.
“No, I guess I didn’t. Want to go take a look?” Allison proposed.
“Sure!” He smiled.
The couple sprung up the stairs to the second level of the colonial style house and meandered past two doors before they reached Allison’s old bedroom. When she opened the door Robert immediately noticed that the walls were a happy shade of yellow which made him smile. The bed was in the middle of the room, neatly made and everything was in perfect order.
There were a few photos in frames scattered around the room of Allison and her brother, or her friends, or other family members. Robert picked one up of Allison when she was four holding her new baby brother. His heart seemed to grow seeing his girlfriend with a baby and felt in his heart that he wanted one of his own someday. He wondered how Allison would feel about being a mother.
“It’s nothing special, but it’s where I spent most of my time as a kid,” Allison explained. Robert was speechless until he picked up another old photo, one not in a frame, of Allison as a young kid in a ballet costume.
“You did ballet?” He laughed so hard he snorted, and her face seemed to be a mix of offense and humor.
“Yes I did! Every girl in America is forced to do ballet when they’re little!” Robert couldn’t contain his laughter.
“But you’re...so...how do I put this nicely...clumsy. You trip all the time!” Allison pulled the picture out of his large hands and turned her back to him.
“I wasn’t that bad...” she pathetically mumbled. Robert grabbed her from behind with his hands around her waist and pressed a kiss onto the side of her neck, a place that he knew turned her on.
“I like your room,” he softly spoke in her ear.
“I wish I could see yours!” She joked.
“You probably wouldn’t like the Sports Illustrated models that were on the walls...or the magazines under the bed...or the hidden bottle of gin in the closet,” he revealed in a laughing tone. Allison broke out of his arms and gave him a playful slap on the arm.
“So you’ve basically always been a pervert?”
“No, I wasn’t. I was a healthy young man interested in beautiful women. And the bottle of gin, well, that was just to keep it away from my mum.”
Allison looked into Robert’s deep eyes, grabbed his cheeks and kissed him deeply. If it her parents weren’t home, she knew exactly what she would have done with him in that moment, and it most likely would have involved them sharing her small twin bed. She deepened the kiss further and further.
“Allison! Can you help me set up for dessert?” She heard her mother call from the landing of the staircase. She broke apart the kiss so she could answer “okay” before placing another, softer kiss on his plump lips.
“We better go downstairs,” Robert whispered against her lips.
“Yeah,” she sadly muttered.
“But later we could-.”
“Yes! Yes yes yes, god yes we should,” she couldn’t help herself, she was addicted to the way he made her feel. Sex with Robert was the best she’d ever had.
The two rushed down the stairs before going their separate ways, Allison to the kitchen and Robert to the living room where he found Paul sitting on a nearby chair reading a book. Robert could feel the anxiety churning in his stomach once more. There were reasons he had anxiety about this evening, and he was about to face the issue head on.
“Paul,” Robert shyly spoke, looking around to make sure the two men were alone.
“Hey Robert!” Paul looked up from his book to see the young man hesitantly walk into the room and sit on the couch nearby, “did Allison show you the stacks of college textbooks she has cluttering up her closet? She must have one hundred books up there!” He laughed.
“Oh yeah...ha ha,” Robert seemed to forget how to speak, “I wanted to...ask you something.”
Paul raised an eyebrow and looked at the young doctor suspiciously.
“Sure, anything,” Paul sounded concerned.
Robert took a deep, soothing breath before speaking.
“I was thinking of...I wanted to ask you...before I...uh...” he stumbled, “I want to ask Allison to marry me, but I wanted to ask for your blessing first. I know we haven’t really gotten to know each other yet and I wouldn’t be proposing very soon but I-.”
“Yes, absolutely yes,” Paul beamed, “you make my daughter so happy. She’s been talking about this ‘cute Australian doctor’ for years, always says what a good man you are, how you’re great with patients, and how you take care of her. I am happy to give you my blessing.”
Robert couldn’t contain the enormous smile that spread across his face. The anxiety that seemed to plague him simply faded away.
“What are you smiling for?” Allison grilled him as she walked into the living room with various pies and desserts.
“Nothing...we were just-.”
“I was telling him about that time you tripped during your ballet recital and took down three other ballerinas.” Robert nearly died of laughter.
...
After the events of the evening, Robert and Allison said their goodbyes to her parents and headed back to Robert’s apartment. Once they curled up on the couch, Allison’s head nearly tucked into Robert’s arm, she began running her fingers down the front of his chest.
“So what do you think? Do you like them?” Allison asked.
“Yeah, they’re awesome! Your mom begged me to come back with or without you!” He laughed.
“When I was helping my mom in the kitchen , she kept saying how much she likes you and that you’re cute. Then she started asking when she’s getting grandchildren,” Allison hinted. Her fingers traced down the front of his shirt to the crotch of his pants where she could feel him twitch.
“Ha ha! Are you suggesting something?” Robert played dumb.
“No,” she replied as her fingers went to his waistband and seductively rubbed the skin right above his most sensitive area, “but we should have some fun tonight.” Robert cranned his head down so his lips could meet hers. The fire in their kiss was unbelievable, and it forced Allison to start working at unbuttoning his pants. His one hand stayed on her cheek while the other found her thy and crept up and up until he reached her panties.
“See,” Allison spoke between kisses, “I told you that you didn’t need to change your shirt.”