Chapter 12
Stressed?
No.
No, stressed wasn’t quite the correct word for the emotion she felt right now. A more fitting word would be tense beyond compare.
Well...that was a phrase but she was too hassled to put up an argument.
Point was the feeling of worry and anxiety greatly overpowered any sense of joy.
As she gazed at herself in the mirror, hair done into a French braid and make-up applied with a deep red lipstick, she felt like something was off. Sven had told her to look herself over, make sure she was “good”. But every glance she had at herself, her eyes immediately found the rare negatives and imperfections that glossed over her beauty.
Rocking back and forth, swapping on different legs, she let out a long breath and closed her eyes, hands clenching the bureau. Her nails dug into the hardwood, Elmira feeling like she would most definitely find splinters after she somehow managed to remove them.
She leaned over, black hair spilling from the sides. She looked up to meet her weary reflection in the mirror. To describe her appearance in one word?
Frazzled.
But that wasn’t really what was important.
To describe how she felt on the inside?
Scared.
This wasn’t some normal occasion she could brush off. Not some ridiculous day trip whose outcome would have no real affect.
Today she was cooking for her parents and Sven’s parents.
Today, she’d meet Sven’s parents for the first time. And he met hers.
Today, she’d be assessed based on – oh who knows – table-manners, speech, behavior, etc. So would he.
Things that may have seemed petty to Elmira on regular occasion.
No, they were not petty, frivolous, or trivial today.
Elmira straightened her back, removing her hands from their death grip on the furniture. She, once again, pushed her hair back into its proper position and tried to control her breathing. She patted her blue knit shirt, tightly pulling a thin white jacket close to her over it.
“You’re good, Olivette. You’re good.” She told herself, trying to smile.
But after staring at the façade for too long she knew it was merely an illusion and dropped the act, instead sporting a frown.
“Okay, we’re ready! Are you-” Sven walked through the door, eyes immediately finding the bureau and his partner’s reflection. Elmira didn’t have enough time to plaster on another fake smile and he saw her upside down smile. “Elmira?” he asked in worry.
Sven was wearing a black shirt with white capris. Elmira wasn’t sure about the white but she kept her mouth shut.
He approached her from behind, wrapping his arms around Elmira’s waist. He rested his head on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck and pecking the skin uncovered.
“Don’t think I didn’t see that frown of yours, Elmira Olivette.” Sven scolded gently, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Sorry.” Elmira answered back, sounding tired.
“What’s wrong?” Sven asked.
Elmira wasn’t sure if it was the look in Sven’s eyes or the sincerity behind her words but she ended up confessing her strife to her love.
“I just...I’ve never been this scared and worried before, Sven...I’ve never been so scared about the consequences. I’m... Sven? What if I fuck this up? What if we screw this up and our parents don’t get along and everyone hates everyone…god why did we think this was a good idea-,”
By the time she reached the end of the sentence she was hyperventilating.
“Shhh...shhh,” Sven comforted, kissing her cheek and rubbing her back. “No. . .No, Elmira. There’s nothing you could do to make my parents hate your guts.”
“But-”
“No, but nothing, Ms. Olivette.” Sven repeated. “If you somehow managed to make them ‘hate’ you, which I have no idea how you would be able to pull that off, their opinions aren’t going to matter. I love you and they can’t change that. I’m not some boy for them to control; I can make my own choices. Is that clear?”
Elmira nodded.
*****
Filip Marcel was a draper who immigrated from Norway as a young man. He’d worked hard at the American dream and one day he was crossing the street when a car had careened around the corner, fishtailed and was headed straight toward a woman pushing a stroller when Filip got between the car and the girl. He pushed her into the ditch, desperately hoping that he hadn’t inadvertently killed the baby in the stroller by doing so. Then he jumped in on top of her. The car screamed as the driver frantically tried to swerve away. He hit a tree, the back wheels of the car coming to land not two feet from the stroller.
Filip hit his head on the concrete sidewalk and blacked out for a bit. It was the baby’s crying that woke him. He felt a strange mix of relief and fear; relief because clearly the baby was alive, and fear because the baby could be crying because she was hurt. He struggled to his feet but he’d twisted his ankle and couldn’t put any weight on it. So he crawled to the stroller. The baby was still securely strapped into it. There was no sign of injury or blood much to Filip’s relief. He climbed out of the ditch, pulling the stroller with him. The child’s mother was still lying in the ditch, seemingly passed out.
The driver of the car opened the door and staggered out, clutching his bleeding head.
“Are you all alright?” he mumbled.
“Some help would be nice!” Filip called and the man stumbled forward, half blind from the blood in his eye to help pull the woman out of the ditch. People had started to gather, hearing the accident from their houses. Soon the ambulance was there and everyone was whisked off to the hospital.
*****
Two weeks later the driver of the car came looking for Filip; to thank him for preventing tragedy. He not only saved the woman and her baby, but he saved the driver too…from becoming a murderer. He asked Filip what he could possibly do to repay him.
Filip and his wife Isobel offered him some coffee and they talked. He found out Filip was a draper; and he had a chain of hotels needing revamping. That was his breakthrough contract. He didn’t look back. He raised his son to do better than he did; and he was proud of the man Sven had made of himself. Not just as a financial success, but as a human being.
*****
The Marcels arrived first, Filip and Isobel. Filip was dressed in a black Armani suit with a blue shirt and gray tie. Isobel had on a blush pink Chanel suit with pearls draped around her neck and actual white gloves on her fingers. Elmira’s heart sank as she shook her hand.
The housekeeper was serving drinks when the Olivettes arrived. Elmira had given them directions to Sven’s place. Her mother was surprisingly reticent about getting every single detail on their would be host. Which meant she intended to do her interrogating in person. The evening had barely begun and Elmira already needed a stiff drink.
Her mother was dressed in purple and black, with her dad acting as a matching accessory.
“Sven? I’d like you to meet my mom and dad, Dr. and Mr. Olivette,” she said to him as he stood next to her at the front door. He extended his hand first to her dad then her mom to be shaken, murmuring his ‘pleased to meet yous’ as he did it.
“My parents are in the living room, come meet them.” He said turning to walk away. Elmira’s dad, Luke, followed right away but Mama Olivette just stood first, looking at Elmira.
“I was going to tell you but…” she said and then shrugged. “Come on. We’ll talk later.”
If her mother wanted to scold her, she could wait until after dinner.
*****
“Dad? Mom? I’d like to introduce Elmira’s parents, Luke and Adara Olivette.” Sven said gesturing behind him where Elmira was leading her parents in.
Filip’s eyes widened in shock, “Nooo!” he said and Elmira froze. She was expecting outright protest from her mother but even she wouldn’t be so overt in her disapproval. Hearing Sven’s father protest was a surprise.
“Dad? What’s the problem.”
Filip stepped forward and took Adara’s hand in his. He smiled looking into her eyes, and then he glanced at Elmira.
“You might not remember me…heaven knows you were unconscious for most of our first meeting. And Elmira you said? Surely this cannot be the little tyke in the stroller?”
“What are you talking about Dad,” Sven said looking worried as he moved closer. Elmira was still frozen to the spot, as it seemed, so was her mom.
“Adara is not a name one forgets.” Filip said extending his hand slowly to trace the scar above her right eye, “You got this when your head hit the concrete of the pavement when you leapt forward to use your body as a shield..” Filip turned slowly to point at Elmira, “…to keep your daughter safe.”
It was Adara’s turn to say, “Nooooo!”
Filip was nodding and smiling, “Yes.”
*****
Sven and Elmira stared at each other wondering if they’re parents had completely lost the plot. Isobel seemed to know what they were talking about though and Luke was vigorously shaking Filip’s hand.
“Mama what is happening?” Elmira almost screamed.
“Oh honey…” her mother strode toward her, arm around her shoulder as she led her to the bar. She poured her daughter a cream liqueur and then sat her down.
“This is the most mind boggling situation ever,” her mother said sitting next to her and pulling Sven down on her other side, “Let me tell you a story.”
“You see when you were about six months old, I was walking down the street with you, heading toward med school for my anatomy class. They had a day care center there, where I used to leave you. Your dad was working all the hours of the day and we weren’t sleeping because you were teething.” Adara caressed Elmira’s cheek and smiled.
“Anyway, I was really worn out, not really paying attention to a well traveled path when I hear this squealing of tires. I sort of freeze you know?” She turned to look Elmira in the eye, nodding her head to see if Elmira knew exactly what she was saying.
“I know mama,” Elmira said taking hold of her mother’s hand.
“I’m turning around right? Kind of like it’s in slow motion and I can see this behemoth of a car in my peripheral vision. And I know it’s coming right for me. And there is nothing I can do about it.” Adara stopped talking, just breathing and staring at Filip like she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Then this body plowed into me, sent me flying. Right into the ditch.” Adara laughed. “I was scared out of my mind. Scared for you, Elmira. I didn’t know if you were okay; your stroller went flying…” her eyes were far away, back on that fateful day more than twenty years ago.
“What…happened next?” Elmira asked.
Adara shrugged and said with a small laugh, “I don’t know. I blacked out. When I woke up, we were in the hospital. What I do know is this man saved our lives.” She said eyes on Filip.
Filip smiled, “You got me my first big contract so I think we were mutually beneficial to each other.”
“Why didn’t we stay in touch?” Adara asked smiling back at him.
Filip shrugged, “You were in medical school with a small baby. I was making drapes for a large hotel chain. Not really a lot of time to socialize is there?”
“No there is not,” Adara agreed.
“And yet here we are, decades later, invited by our children to meet each other.” Filip said with a laugh.
“Who’d a thunk it?” Luke said grinning at everyone.
“That’s an amazing story,” Sven said.
“So…do the two of you have something you need to tell us?” Adara asked, glaring first at Elmira then at Sven.
Elmira burst out laughing, “No mama. We are not pregnant,” she said.
“Oh…okay. So…dinner?” Adara asked.
“Dinner,” Sven agreed.
*****
For the record, Adara didn’t attack him with questions as soon as she took the open seat adjacent to his on the dinner table.
“How old are you?” she asked as the appetizers were served.
“Thirty two.” Sven said eyes bright with interest and a slight smile on his face. He was ready for whatever.
“How did you two meet?”
Sven glanced away from her at that, winking at Elmira. “Well you know that Elmira has this phenomenal blog right? We hired her to cover fashion week for us and one thing led to another.” He shuffled closer to Elmira, nuzzling her cheek lovingly. She moved her face away from him, eyes widening as she flicked her glance first to her parents then his and narrowed her eyes pointedly at him. It was a very explicit order for him to cease and desist with the public displays of affection.
“Elmira said you’re in business; you’re a fashion designer?”
“No. I am in publicity. New York Fashion Week is one of our clients and we recommended Elly’s blog and a few others as an excellent way to organically penetrate social media.” Elmira winced at the answer; there was something a little…inappropriate about all the penetrations being mentioned. She sought frantically in her mind for some change of subject. Something to do with the fact that their parents already knew each other. And how trippy was that?
“How long have you two been together?” the question this time came from Isobel.
Sven perked up at the question; going far enough to show Adara his wicked grin, the fact that he covered it with a glass couldn’t diminish the sheer power behind his grin.
“Two months? Or close to that—Elmira likes to correct me with the proper months and days.” He batted those long black eyelashes at her, fluttering obnoxiously effeminate. “Don’t you my beloved moonshine?”
Elmira groaned pushing the man’s face away from her own. “You’re embarrassing.” Her hand covered the grinning half of Sven’s face, as she glared half-heartedly at him. His gray eyes twinkled, gleaming and shimmering with mischief. Mouth parting under Elmira’s palm, lathering it with a heavy coating of saliva—wonderful Sven germs straight from the source. “You’re disgusting,” she peeled up in disgust, violated hand dropping to Sven’s shirt and wiping the spit off on the material.
Isobel clapped her hands together with affected sternness, “Children, don’t make me send you to bed without your dinners.”
With the ease of long habit, Sven was opening his mouth to complain when he realized his mother was teasing.
“Oh ha ha. Very funny mama. We aren’t kids anymore.”
“No doubt you aren’t. You are definitely a little overgrown to be fighting at the table. Especially since it’s a table you invited us to for some reason?”
“Well yes mother, I see you’re all on tenterhooks for some sort of announcement but no, there really isn’t one. Elmira and I really did just call you here to introduce you. Or rather, to introduce us to you and you to each other. We thought that in case there was going to be family drama, we’d get over with that as early as possible.”
“Is anybody home!” the loud yelling from the hall interrupted the conversation. Elmira stood up, recognizing that voice right away. She hurried out of the dining hall to find Sascha and Atalia standing in the hall holding hands.
There was a lot of screaming and yelling and talking over each other and more screaming as Sascha showed Elmira the ring. It took Atalia nudging Sascha and then pointing with her chin for them to stop and notice the small crowd that had gathered in the doorway of the dining room, watching them. Elmira turned back to them looking sheepish.
“I’m sorry for that breach in etiquette. Mom, you know Sascha right? Mr. and Mrs. Marcel, dad, this is Sascha my best friend. And this is Atalia, her fiancé.”
Adara’s face lit up and her hands flew to her cheek, “Whaat! Girl you got engaged?” she squealed holding her hands out to envelop Sascha. The latter didn’t hesitate, just moved into Adara’s arms like she was her own mother.
“Yes. I did it ma. And I did it before Elly,” she was laughing and crying and hugging Adara as Elmira slapped her butt from behind.
There was a general chorus of congratulations and someone produced a bottle of champagne and pretty soon it was a party.
*****
Two figures tangled up on each other while walking away from the movie theater, where they had attended an early screening of the newest James Bond film.
It was a celebration in lieu of a party now that she was through with grad school. They decided to take a stroll through Central Park before heading home to his house.
“No way would Tom Hiddleston make a better Bond than Idris Elba.” Elmira stated.
“You’re just saying that because you want in his pants; besides if you’re gonna make comments like that, you’re gotta sure as hell back them up, um?”
“Come on Sven, there is nothing to back up really, Idris is just that much hotter.” Elmira said with wide teasing smirk on her face.
“Oh no you didn’t.”
Sven tackled Elmira down to the nearest snow pile on the grass in the park. It was middle of January in New York, so the air was nippy and the snow was crunchy. Making it perfect for a little “snow wash”.
Elmira chuckled child-like when she and Sven wrestled playfully in the snow, not giving a hoot about the other people in the park either looking at them like they were bat shit crazy or ignoring them like good New Yorkers do. Sven continued trying to shove some snow down Elmira’s neck, laughing like a loon.
“Still think he’s hotter than Idris?” Sven said hand far on Elmira’s back, making her wiggle when the cold snow hit her skin.
“I do.” Elmira smirked. “Still not as hot as you though.” Her eyes fixed on her lovers gray ones.
That made Sven remember just why he was so in love with Elmira. The way she smiled, the way she made Sven laugh, the way she made him forget everything- and everyone.
Sven crawled away from Elmira, offering his hand to help her up.
“Come on honey bunny, let’s get home and see just how hot I really am.” He said teasingly.
Elmira took Sven’s hand and pulled herself up. Swiping off the snow from her coat.
“Not as hot I am though.”
“Aye, pumpkin, don’t even start, don’t wanna start a fight now do ya?” He said, and pulled Elmira for a loving kiss, wrapping his hands around her and held her as close he could.
After a while, Elmira pulled away.
“You love it when I tease you, just admit it.” Elmira said, taking Sven by her shoulder as they started walking along the street.
“You know I love every inch and everything about you.”
Elmira just smiled shyly, burying her head in her scarf.
They walked past a jewelry store, and then it occurred to Sven, why not? He stopped to look if the store was still open, and it was.
“Hold up lover, we’re going in.” He said and pulled Elmira by her scarf and ushered her into the store.
“Sven? What are we doing here?”
“You’ll see. Just hold on a minute.”
Sven walked the counter and began to study the display. A young female cashier approached Sven, and he politely smiled at her.
“Can I help you with something?” She asked.
“Yeah, I’m looking for some rings.”
That broke the stream of Elmira’s thoughts.
A ring?
What would Sven need a ring for? Christmas was over and Isobel’s birthday wasn’t for months.
The cashier automatically started taking out female rings, with fancy stones in them.
“Looking for an engagement ring?”
“Yes.” Sven said bluntly seeing the cashier go for rings with stones.
Elmira’s eyes widened, and her body froze, what was Sven getting at? Sven grabbed his baffled girlfriend’s hand and pulled her next to himself.
“Yeah, for her.” He said as he squeezed Elmira’s hand, turning to face her. “If you’ll have me.”
The cashier was confused.
The words hit Elmira like a train. Looking like a lost puppy, she met her lover’s eyes, tears forming in hers. Discombobulated as hell, she nodded, practically jumping into Sven’s arms. Kissing him with all she had.
“Yes.” She whispered in Sven’s ears, tears rolling down her cheeks.
A dry cough interrupted their moment.
“So, you’re marrying her?” She bluntly said and pointed at Elmira.
Sven cheerful attitude immediately dropped as he faced the cashier.
“You have a problem with that?” Arms at his side.
“N-no. I just thought…”
Elmira quickly took Sven into her arms, reassuring him that everything was fine.
“Well don’t think, and gimme some rings.”
They settled with matching white gold rings with golden edges.
“Maybe we should get home and celebrate a little, hmmm?” Sven whispered to Elmira, while nipping her ear.
“Don’t need ask me twice.” Elmira said voice husky and happy.
They left the store, Sven flipping the cashier off, much to Elmira’s surprise. He was usually so proper.
*****
“Hey so you think the mothers will be able to agree on arranging this wedding without killing each other?” Elmira asked later that night.
“Hell no. We’re eloping.” Sven said casually, chest still gleaming with all the exertion.
“Uh huh. So you’re not satisfied with them killing each other, you want them to kill us too?”
“Mmm. You have a point.” Sven said still sounding nothing but self satisfied. Maybe he’d be able to care about these things tomorrow.
“Hey maybe we can talk to our dads and have them be the ones to negotiate with them.”
“I can hear my dad’s laughter at that suggestion already.”
“Yeah,” Elmira said flopping back on the bed, “I can just hear the ‘hell naw’ my dad would give me if I asked, accompanied by a smirk and consoling pat on the shoulder. Whose bright idea was it to make marriage a big deal? Someone should go back in time and kill them.”
“I suggest we tell them and then just move out of the way. We give them a date for the wedding, tell them we’re picking our own clothes and inviting our own guests, and then just let them figure out the rest.”
“Hmm. That’s actually a very good idea Sven. I congratulate you on showing your usefulness to this marriage. Meanwhile you promised me a trip to Malaysia when I finished my Masters. Let’s take it immediately after we tell them.”
“Oh yes. Lets.”
The End.
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