Chapter Eight
ADAM
I was forty years old and the last time I met any parents was twenty years ago when I met Marjorie’s. It took a hell of a lot to make me nervous, but this did it. I took forever getting dressed. I didn’t want to show up in a black suit and look like I was going to a funeral, but the lightest one I had was a dark blue. I had this thing about light suits making me look like a car salesman. I put on the dark blue one and changed my tie four times, finally settling on a light blue paisley.
I stopped at the florist and bought two bouquets of flowers, one for Alicia and the other for Lady Winston. Then I went by the smoke shop and picked up a cigar for Lord Winston. On top of meeting parents, these two had to be a Lord and a Lady. My stomach was having convulsions.
When I got to Alicia’s apartment building, Luis met me at the door. “Don’t you ever have a day off?” I asked him.
He smiled and said, “I work a lot of overtime. I have five kids to feed.”
I whistled. “Wow, five! That’s a lot of kids.”
“Tell me,” he said. “The wife is Catholic. Who knows, we might end up with ten.”
I laughed and clapped him on the back. “You’re a better man than me, Luis.”
He wished me a good evening before I nervously rode the elevator up to Alicia’s floor. I was hoping she’d at least answer the door. Just looking at her pretty face calms me. The Lord Winston pulled it open instead.
“Well, hello there,” he said in an accent much stronger than his daughter’s. “You must be Adam.”
“Yes, sir,” I tried juggling the flowers so I could shake his hand.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m John and it’s nice to meet you.” He smiled warmly.
“You, too, sir.”
“John.”
“John,” I said. I didn’t want to call him John. It felt wrong somehow, too casual. I stepped inside and saw Alicia in about twenty-five years come around the corner. Lady Winston was the spitting image of her daughter, only with darker hair and a few more lines around her eyes.
“Hello there,” she said.
I held out the flowers that were hers and she took them. I took the hand she offered and brought it to my lips. “Lady Winston, it is such a pleasure to finally meet you.” Alicia’s mother at least seemed pleased with my manners.
“The pleasure is mine, Adam. I’m so happy you could join us tonight. The flowers are lovely, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now that I have a free hand, sir, I have something for you, too.”
I pulled out the cigar and Alicia’s dad said, “John,” again before taking it. He brought it to his nose and slid it underneath and inhaled. “My favorite, how did you know?”
“I have to give Alicia credit. I texted her earlier and asked.”
“Well, thank you anyways, it was very thoughtful of you.” I looked up then and saw Alicia standing in the dining room door looking at me. She was wearing a green sweater dress that brought out the green in her hazel eyes and her hair was down around her shoulders. I wished we were alone suddenly.
“Hi, baby,” she said.
“Hi. You look beautiful.”
“So do you,” she told me. “Are the flowers for me?”
“Oh yeah.” I handed her the orchids.
“They’re beautiful, thank you. Dinner is ready.” She took her mother’s flowers and brought both bouquets back in a vase. We all took a seat at the table. I wasn’t sure I could eat. My stomach was doing cartwheels. Alicia’s father sat at the head of the table with Alicia to his right and Alicia’s mother to his left. That left me between Alicia and her mother.
I did my best to make conversation with her and after I asked her a few questions about her hometown in England and what charities she was involved in, she seemed to warm up to me. She asked me about myself and I told her I was born and raised in New York, that both my parents had passed away, and I didn’t have any siblings. I complimented her necklace and earrings and by the time we finished our main course, I think she was almost flirting with me.
The nerves were beginning to recede if for no other reason than Alicia’s calming presence. Her father didn’t talk much, but when he did it was with warmth or humor. I decided quickly that I really liked him. He seemed like the kind of man I could be good friends with someday.
After dinner, Alicia sent her parents out to the sitting room with a fresh carafe of coffee and I helped her cleaned up the kitchen. “That went okay…so far,” I said with a grin. “I think your mother actually likes me.”
“How could she not? You were so charming.” She smiled at me and continued, “And handsome.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I grabbed her and holding her tightly I kissed her on the lips,
“I’ve wanted to do that since I got here.”
“Me, too,” she said.
Once we finished in the kitchen, Alicia fixed a tray of dessert cups along with the frozen fruit and cream and brought it into the sitting room with us. I helped her father stoke the fire and when we were all seated comfortably, her mother finally said,
“So, Adam, Alicia tells us you’ve asked her to marry you?”
I looked at Alicia and then back at Lady Winston, “That’s true; it would make me the happiest man on earth.”
Alicia’s mother smiled. “Well, that is a good answer. I have to say, however, I hope you can see how we might be worried about your futures based on what has been going on lately in your lives?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I would absolutely be concerned if it were my own daughter. All I can tell you is the truth. I love your daughter more than I’ve ever loved anything or anyone. I promise you that I will always love her and take care of her needs. She and I are an awesome team and I believe that with Alicia by my side, I can rebuild my practice to be even more successful than it was before.”
Alicia’s father said, “I’m glad to hear all of that, son. A marriage is a partnership. For better or worse aren’t just words. What you’re going through now may just be scratching the surface of what is yet to come of the worse. The important thing is that you see you and Alicia as a team. As long as you keep seeing it that way, I believe you two will make it as well.”
Happily, for me at least, that was the last of the serious talk for the evening. We chatted and laughed and played a game of scrabble before I finally announced that I should be going if I were going to be able to get up for work the next day. Alicia walked me out.
“Thank you so much for coming. I think they really like you. I knew they would,” she told me.
“I’m glad. I like them, too. They did a great job with you. That was something they had going for them right from the start.”
She laughed and before she turned to go back inside she turned serious and said, “Don’t forget our meeting with David in the morning.” I hadn’t forgotten it. I was just trying not to dwell on it. It seemed the more I knew about the Brigham case, the less I wanted to.
“I won’t,” was all I said to her. I didn’t want to end the wonderful night on a depressing note. I put my arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. It was a long, languid one and we were both breathless when we pulled apart. “Damn, I wish you were coming home with me.”
“Me, too,” she said. “Goodnight, love.”
“Goodnight.”
I watched as Luis’s nighttime counterpart called the elevator down for her before I took my keys from the valet and headed home. I couldn’t wait until the day that her home was mine and vice versa. I would never want ten kids…or even five, but I have begun to like to think about having at least one or two with Alicia. We’d never talked about children so I’m not really sure how she feels about it, but if she’s open to it, so am I.