“I’m attracted to women,” I clarify for her. “But glad to know if things weren’t that way that I’d have your blessing.” I chuckle. “And it isn’t like I’m avoiding settling down, I just need to meet someone first, I’m not willing to just settle with anyone.”
“If you’d just let me set you up with someone—” she starts to say, and I interrupt her.
“Not this again. I don’t need you meddling in my love life, Grandmother. I’m a big boy, I can find my own dates, but thanks for the offer.”
“I don’t know why you keep declining my offers. I have some good friends with granddaughters that would be very suitable for you, Andrew.”
“I’m not interested for a few reasons. One, I’m not into being with someone for the status that it can bring them, and let’s face it, Grandmother, if they’re the granddaughter of one of your friends, they’re used to Daddy’s money and not having to work for anything. They see our last name and the dollar signs that come with it. Two, I definitely don’t want a loveless marriage. People divorce enough as it is, I don’t want to set myself up for failure before I even start. I’m not saying that every marriage or relationship that starts with a blind date or being set up by someone ends that way, I just want to meet someone on my own terms. I’ve dated girls from the social elite circle already in my life, and they just aren’t for me. That’s nothing against you or them, but it’s not the life I’m looking to live. I want more out of life than what event we’re attending next or what designer’s name is across the label of the clothes on my back.”
I have no desire to marry someone whose goal in life is to be a trophy wife. I’ve seen too many friends fall into that trap and they’re miserable. You should enjoy life and the people that you surround yourself with, not dread going home because the person you share your life with makes you hate it. I’ve also seen how bad divorces can rip families apart when they go badly. I’ve purposely kept myself far from that possibility. It doesn’t help that the one girl I thought that I’d settle down with thought that I’d be okay with her sleeping her way through the country club while I was busy with med school. Didn’t think that I’d find out that she wasn’t faithful to what we had, and that was my wake-up call. I broke things off and haven’t looked back.
“Those are all good points, and I’m sorry if I keep pestering you. I just want to see you happy, and it’d be nice to have a great-grandchild before I die,” she tells me, pouring the guilt on.
“I’ll see what I can do about that. Do you give Lucy this much crap about getting married and having kids?” I ask, wondering if I’m the only one that had to deal with it. I know I’m the oldest grandchild and all, but damn, can’t a guy catch a break once in a while?
“Well, now that she’s got that boyfriend, I can only hope that wedding bells are in her future,” she tells me, a huge grin pulling at the corners of her lips.
“You’re incorrigible,” I tell her, reaching for a glass from the cabinet. I fill it first with ice from the fridge door and then reach inside and grab the always present container of lemonade and fill my glass. I hold up the pitcher, offering to top off her glass, which she accepts.
“Come, let’s sit on the porch while we wait for everyone else to arrive.” I fall into step behind my grandmother as we take our glasses of lemonade out onto the screened in porch.
“Hello!” Lucy calls out as she joins us on the porch an hour or so later.
“Glad you could finally join us,” I tease her as she leans down to hug our grandmother. Her boyfriend, Adam, follows closely behind her. I stand, offering my hand, and he does the same to me as we silently greet one another. They’ve been dating for almost a year now, and he’s been coming around to family dinners for the last couple of months. I’m sure a proposal isn’t far off if things continue to progress the way it has for the two of them, and I can say honestly that I like him. He’s got a good job working as an engineer, so he isn’t after Lucy for her family connections, from what I’ve observed, which I’ve always worried for her just as much as I worry about the issue for myself.
“How’s work?” Grandmother asks Lucy once we’re all seated around the outdoor table, a large lunch spread set out before us.
“It’s going great! We hired a new CLS. She started this past week and is really good with the patients.”
“That’s great!” Grandmother replies.
“Yep, and this one made an ass of himself when he met her,” Lucy says, pointing at me.
“Language,” Grandmother gripes.
“Sorry,” Lucy says, shrugging her shoulders as she reaches for her glass.
“And what did you do to embarrass yourself?” Grandmother asks, turning to me.
“I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and ran into her, tripping myself right into her lap,” I tell her.
“Andrew Michael Montgomery,” she says, her tone serious, right along with the use of my full name.
“I apologized, and didn’t hurt her, I promise. Only thing hurt that day was my ego,” I tell her as I glare at Lucy. She just gives me a shit-eating grin in return. I wink at her, letting her know that it’s on. I’ll find something to throw her under the bus with, and that perfect thing pops into my head just then.
“So, how’s the apartment hunting going for the two of you?” I ask, knowing damn well that she didn’t have any intention of announcing that was taking place just yet.
If looks could kill, I’d be dead. “It’s going okay,” she says, her eyes bouncing between me and our grandmother.
“You’re moving?” Grandmother pipes up.
“Thinking about it. Adam and I have been talking about moving in together. No sense in us both paying rent on apartments when we’re together most of the time as it is, but with us both having roommates, neither one of us can just move into the other’s place. We each have a couple more months left on our current leases, so we’ve been talking about it and looking at what’s available.”
“Good for you, not that I like the idea of living together before marriage, but you kids do what you want these days.”
“Grandmother, it is the twenty-first century. It’s not practical to wait until we’re married to live together. How are we supposed to know if we’re compatible living together if we don’t do it?” Lucy asks.
“Semantics,” Grandmother replies. “I might not like the idea, but I understand what you’re saying. Learning to live with your grandfather—God rest his soul—was no easy feat. He liked and expected things just so and it was completely different from the way I’d grown up, so it took us a little while to adjust and come to an agreement on how things were going to be.”
“See, we’re getting that out of the way early,” Lucy tells her, then turns to me and sticks her tongue out. We might be full-grown adults, but we can easily act like little kids when the mood strikes, or it gets us out of the spotlight of Grandmother’s questioning.
6
MEGAN