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“Rob, what if they don’t like me,” Denise fretted once again, pulling at her scarf absently. The two of them were in the car park of one of Lucy’s favourite parks, waiting for Alex, Gabi, and her to appear. It was a toss-up on if Ellie would make it, but Robert was hoping his sister would. After all, the whole reason for him and Denise being here was them.
“It’ll be fine, Denise,” Robert said, adjusting the heat in the car. “We’re meeting Alex and his wife Gabi, and maybe Ellie, first—
because
you’re so nervous about meeting my parents.”
“I know,” Denise almost whined, “but still. The three of you—to your own admittance!—used to call yourselves the Three Musketeers. That’s a lot, to me. I don’t want–”
A car pulled up next to them, and Robert looked over to see the face of his sister-in-law Gabi smiling back. Alex leans forward and gives them a wave. Robert smiles broadly, cutting the engine and Denise off. “Alright, are you ready?”
Denise looked vaguely ill, but gave him a weak smile. “Sure.”
“Oh, buck up, buttercup. You'll love Lucy.” He said comfortingly, but slightly distractedly.
Robert missed the frown on her face as he got out of the car. She followed him after a beat.
“Uncle Robert!” Lucy's voice screamed. That was all the warning he got before a bright blue-and-blonde streak crashed into his legs. One hand flew up to press against the car for balance, while the other came down to pat her head.
“Hello, Luce,” he said, and looked up at his brother laughing. “Alex, Gabi, how was the drive?”
“Ellie wasn't with us moaning about her stomach, so it was pretty good,” Alex said, referencing the way that their sister always got carsick on trips when they were younger. It was something she'd grown out of, but God forbid if Robert and Alex ever let her forget it.
“Haha,” Robert laughed, “Classic Ellie. Speaking of, did you hear on whether she'd make it?”
“She phoned right before we left,” Gabi said, fixing Lucy's bobble hat. They'd given up on trying to get her to let go of her Auntie Ellie and Uncle Robert before she wanted to, long ago. “She said she would be about twenty after us.”
“Just enough time for us to build a fort, eh, Luce?” Robert ruffled her hair, inasmuch as her bobble hat allowed.
She looked up at him with a wide smile, one of her teeth missing on the bottom. “Yes, oh my gosh!” She let go of him and took off in the direction of the largely empty park. They’d got there early so that they wouldn’t have to deal with other kids. As much as Robert loved his niece, he couldn’t stand children.
“This is Denise Amin,” Robert said, putting an arm around her. “My girlfriend.”
“Oh, it’s lovely to meet you!” Gabi said, holding out a gloved hand. “We’ve been so looking forward to meeting you.”
“Oh,” Denise said, thankful that her blush could be explained away by the winter air. “It’s lovely to meet you, too! Rob has told me so much about you two and Lucy.”
“Alex Grove,” he introduced himself, throwing an amused look at Robert. “This is my wife, Gabi. I apologise for
his
poor manners.” He holds out his own gloved hand, and Denise shakes it with a laugh, looking more relaxed than she had five minutes ago.
“You
have a working mouth,” Robert grumbled.
Alex glared at him. “And you and I were raised the same, so I don’t see why you’re being so–”
Gabi slipped her arm in with Denise’s and pulled her away from Robert and his brother. “We’re going to go catch up with the Snow Bug,” she told them, pointing with her free hand towards her daughter. The brothers nodded, pausing their argument briefly to look over at their partners, before Alex stole the knit hat off Robert’s head.
Once the women were out of ear-shot, Gabi smiled at Denise, understanding in her expression. “They can be a bit much sometimes, can’t they?”
Denise looked like she was about to argue, to say that she was alright, but deflated after a moment. Her breath puffed out in front of her, a white cloud that hung in the air a few moments before disappearing. “Rob’s an actor,” she said, stuffing her hands into her pockets. “If he ever
isn’t
a bit much, that’s when I start to worry.”
Gabi snorted, her eyes tracking her daughter, but still paying attention to the conversation. “Ellie’s been trying to break into the entertainment business for a bit, now.”
“Right! Isn’t she an, um,” Denise paused, trying to remember what Robert’s little sister did for a living. “She’s a scriptwriter?”
“Yes,” Gabi assured her, patting her on the arm. “Al’s the only one of them who didn’t take to the arts when he grew up.”
“He’s a science teacher, right? For Secondary?”
“He’s already thinking about this batch’s GCSEs,” Gabi confided, sounding fond. “I can’t imagine how he’s going to be once Luce is in Secondary.”
Denise remembered how she had a friend in Secondary whose Mum was a chem teacher. “Sorrows, prayers,” she joked.
She and Gabi looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. They leaned into each other, and Denise could feel another string of tension in her unravel.
“Alright, Snow Bug! Time to build a fort!”
“Well, looks like I arrived just in time,” a feminine voice called from a couple of meters away. The Groves and Denise looked up from the fort they’d been filling with snowballs, and towards the voice. Behind them stood a woman in a deep green, knee-length winter coat. She had on white accessories, but the red sunglasses she wore popped out on her outfit.
“AUNTIE ELLIE!” Lucy shrieked, clambering over the edge of the fort—and accidentally kicking her Dad high in the leg—to run to her aunt.
“NIECE-IE LUCY!” Ellie called back, squatting down a little and opening her arms, ready to receive the full-force hug that was coming her way.
She picked Lucy up and spun her around before setting her down again. Lucy latched on to her Aunt’s hand, bright blue mitten-gloves contrasting against the white ones Ellie had on, and the two of them made their way to the other adults.
“Hello, El,” Alex let out a pained wheeze of a greeting. “Glad you got here alright.”
“Allie, Robbie,” Ellie greeted her older brothers with a smirk.
“Eleanor,” Robert replied, tone frosty. The two younger Grove siblings held cold stares for a few seconds until Robert broke into a laugh. “How was the drive?”
“It was fair,” Ellie said, swinging her and Lucy’s hands back and forth. “Not too icy, thank f–” She glanced at the little blonde girl and quickly changed course, “F–ather Christmas.”
“Nice
save,” Robert said, giving her an exaggerated thumb’s up and wink.
Beside him, he heard Denise stand and brush snow off her coat and knees. He followed her example, putting his arm around her waist and drawing her to him, well, as much as their winter coats would let them. Ellie came to a stop outside the low fort walls, helping Lucy back over into Alex’s arms before directing her attention to Robert.
“This is Denise Amin,” Robert introduced, his blue eyes warm as he looked at his girlfriend. “The head journalist from the
Cornley Seeker’s
local politics, erm, area.”
Ellie pulled her sunglasses off, letting Denise see her full face, and stuck out her free hand. “Eleanor Grove, but everyone calls me Ellie. Robbie’s told me an awful lot about you.” She didn’t look much like either of her brothers at first glance, but there was something in the curve of her smile, the blue of her eyes, where one could clearly see the similarities.
Denise laughed nervously, shaking Ellie’s hand. “Good things, I hope?” This had always been her least favourite part of meeting any of her past boyfriends’ families. The awkward small talk phase, all polite smiles while she knew they were evaluating her internally.
“The only bad thing I’ve heard is that he didn’t meet you sooner,” Ellie confirmed, her playful smile turning just that more sincere. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Denise.”
Denise leaned against Robert more firmly, doing her best to let him know how flattered she was by his sister’s words. “Thank you,” she said, not quite sure which Grove sibling she was directing that towards.
Lucy interrupted them, pushing her way in front of Robert to ask, “Now that Auntie Ellie is here, can we
please
go sledding now?” She tugged on the end of his sleeve incessantly whilst awaiting his answer.
He looked at his siblings before he said, “Yes, fine, if we must.” Though his words sounded harsh, his tone was full of affection.
The group dutifully turned to follow Lucy, who was running awkwardly through the snow, towards one of several sledding hills. Seemingly out of thin air, Alex suddenly had a medium blue-coloured plastic sled under his arm. At his other side was Gabi, the two of them in easy conversation. Denise was next to Gabi, and on her other side was Robert—in deep discussion about some sort of theatre thing—leaving her the odd man, er,
woman,
out. She pushed her hands into her pockets, and continued through the snow like everyone else. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t let herself—essentially—be put off to the side. A journo couldn’t do that while at work, and when one works in politics—even if it’s just covering the local muni council meetings—one is always at work.
But this wasn’t a normal circumstance. She wanted to make a good impression on Robert’s family because she thinks that there is potential for a long-term relationship between herself and Robert. And so she stayed quiet.
“Who do you want to go down the hill with, Snow Bug?” Gabi asked, fixing Lucy’s hat once more, the bobble hat askew from the clumsy running.
Lucy turned to face them, brushing her Mum’s hands aside. The young girl’s blue eyes, looking more grey than blue in the harsh snow-reflected light, scrutinised the gathered adults for several moments. “You,” she said, blunt in the way that only kids are allowed to be. She pointed at Denise, who was obviously surprised.
“Me?” She couldn’t help but double-check with the girl.
At Lucy’s nod, the rest of the Groves began to encourage Denise.
“Alright, alright,” she said, giving in after pretending to put up a slight hesitance.
She stepped up to Lucy and fixed her own scarf, tucking it into her coat. Lucy copied Denise, hands fumbling slightly as she zipped her coat back up.
“I’m going to warn you,” Denise said, helping the girl into the sled first. She looked back at Robert and Alex, the brothers holding the sled steady for her to get in next. “I haven’t done this in quite some TIME!” Her last word came out as a yell as the plastic started to move smoothly against the unmarred snow down the hill. The cold wind sliced at her face, causing her eyes to water. Lucy was having the time of her life, though, screaming with glee as she gripped tightly to the brim at the front. Denise took a split second to decide, sending a quick prayer to
Lord Vishnu
for protection, and rose one hand into the air, letting Lucy’s childish joy infect her, too.
“Shite, I am so sorry,” Gabi apologised for the third time in as many minutes, hovering by Denise’s side, watching Alex look at her arm. Denise’s coat was half off, so Alex could check it out proper, and the scarf she wore was spread as wide as it could go over her jumper, trying its best to retain the heat there.
“It’s fine, Gabi,” Denise brushed off the woman’s apology with a slightly wan smile. “It was me own fault, and only I was hurt. And it’s not a serious injury, either.” She rotated her arm to the left and to the right, proving her statement.
“She’s just gone and wrenched it a little,” Alex backed her up, reassuring his wife. Focusing back on his patient, he said, “Try not to do anything strenuous for a few days, and try to keep this arm as immobile as you can. I’m not an actual doctor—just an older brother of two very clumsy siblings and the father of a Primary schooler—so’s if your arm is still hurting, go an’ see your GP.”
Denise nodded along, smiling gratefully at Gabi as she helped her get her kit back into place. Once she was all bundled up again, a reticent Lucy approached, her little hands curled into nervous fists at her sternum. Denise gave her an encouraging smile, trying to ignore the lingering pain that occurred from putting her things back in order.
“Hi, Denise,” she said quietly, blue eyes darting away from her face and looking at the snow covered winter boots instead.
“Hello, Lucy,” Denise replied, her voice soft and warm.
When Lucy didn’t continue, Robert prompted her, “Lucy, you were going to apologise.”
Lucy took a deep breath and looked back up at Denise, blue and brown meeting. “I’m sorry, Denise. I didn’t mean to get you injured.”
“It’s alright, Lucy,” Denise reassured her. She held out her injured arm and twisted it back and forth a couple of times before setting it back down. “See? Right as rain, I am.”
“But it looked like it
really
hurt!” Lucy protested, frowning in confusion.
Denise pretended to think about Lucy’s argument. “Well, once I get back to my flat, I was going to perform a
Puja.”
At the girl’s confused look, she explained, “I am going to ask the Hindu gods of healing for help and protection. Just like how if you got hurt, you would go to your Mum or Dad and ask for help.” That wasn’t exactly the
whole
truth of the prayers and what they entail, but Denise thought she did a good job of simplifying it for Lucy.
“Oh,” Lucy said, understanding flooding her face. “Good. Mum and Dad are really good at helping me when I get hurt.” Her blue eyes were wide and serious.
“That’s great, Lucy,” Denise said, unable to keep the wave of fondness for the girl from sweeping over her. “Now,” she looked around the group, “who wants to get some hot cocoa?”