A Family Dinner To Remember

BLAZE WILLIAMS

I spent my entire day ignoring my dad’s call. Now that I was only a few steps from our table, a certain lady joined them.

Sally.

In that moment, I regretted most of my life choices especially the ones from last night.

I stopped halfway. I thought of turning around and leaving. I was this close to doing it.

Sally, got a hug from my dad and I slipped behind a couple to hide myself from his sight.

“How is that possible? You should have options for vegetarians?” The man blocking my path was saying to the waitress.

She looked stressed but the man’s wife, a woman with light purple bangs looked even more stressed.

She was leaning on her husband and he rubbed the back of her hands each passing second.

He also found the time to pat her back occasionally.

She was quiet while her husband did all the talking for her.

“There are options for vegetarians and we’ve showed them to you—”

The waitress's voice was shaky. It was easy for the man to cut her short.

“Options that aren't inclusive enough. You need to…”

I forced myself to stop paying attention to their conversation.

Stepping to the side, I watched Sally whisper something to the other woman at the table.

Dad’s fiance.

I had to walk out of the restaurant for a minute.

What kind of mess have I gotten myself into this time?

First off, I was proud that I remembered her name from last night.

It was as good as impossible for me to recall a name from a one-night stand.

Secondly, just because I could remember the name didn't mean I wanted to see her again.

And at a family dinner!

I paced outside for a minute.

My mind was shifting between the scattered sea of bodies moving around the beach, and the predicament I had to face inside.

There was only one possibility. Sally knew either my dad or his finance.

Whatever one it was, I hoped she would not blurt what happened last night to any of them.

I paused as a new theory rose in my mind.

If I was right, then everything could spiral down in seconds.

It made me spin on my heels and march to that table.

The closer I got, the more worried I became.

My biggest fear being that Sally had gotten information about me.

She knew who I was, how wealthy my family was and now she was at my father’s table.

She was selling herself to him as my bride and knowing dad, he would eat that shit up.

I didn't expect Sally to be one of the crazy girls but for the right amount of money, everyone could be.

I mean look at Marcy.

“Hi, dad. Hi, guys.” I greeted everyone and focused on her. “Hi, Sally. What are you doing here?”

“Sally?” The lady at the table questioned, looking between me and Sally.

I guessed she was dad’s fiance. She looked like she was roughly in her forties, around the same age as my dad.

Sally on the other hand…

Dad sat up, pinning his questioning glare at me.

“Do you know eachother?” he asked.

Sally shook her head and that restructured my brain.

Here I was thinking she was introducing herself to my dad and his soon-to-be-wife.

“I think he has me mixed up with someone,” Sally said.

“Don’t make me look stupid, Sally,” I said.

I wanted to let things die a natural death but she was making me look foolish.

I was a lot of things but stupid was never making that list even in a million years to come.

The table was round shaped and they were seated in this order; dad, soon-to-be-wife and Sally.

“If you’ve met me before, you would know my name is Sabrina and not Sally.” She finished talking and looked away.

I wasn't backing down.

Sally, Sabrina.

They all sounded like the same damn thing.

What if I mixed it up? It didn't dispute the truth that she was here, with my dad, talking about only god knows what.

“So what are you doing here?”

My dad got up after that.

There was no time to process the hurt that had so quickly flashed through her eyes when she looked at me again.

“I called you countless times and you didn't pick. We were having a peaceful dinner without you but once you show up, everything crumbles. Is this how to introduce yourself to our guests?”

Guests?

“What do you...” An unsettling feeling carved its way into my insides.

I didn't see it before but the resemblance between Sabrina and the other lady was unmistakable.

They had the same shade of blonde, ones facial features younger and less wrinkled than the other.

They were sisters, just of different generations…

“I’m sorry, my love,” Dad said as he pushed some strands of hair from his fiance’s face so he could kiss her cheek.

“This is my son,” dad gestured to me, “Blaze Williams. He’s a pain in the ass but he’s never embarrassed me this bad before.”

He was smiling but when he turned back to me, his grim expression was back.

“Blaze this is Caroline Morales, my fiance and this is her daughter, Sabrina Morales.”

“You…” I coughed and cleared my throat.

Shame was wrapping her hands around me. I had never wanted to disappear so bad.

“You didn't tell me about her daughter,” I said, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

“How would I tell you if you never answer your damn phone?” Dad scolded me.

He shook his head.

He had said I embarrassed him.

I agree. I have never wanted the ground to swallow me as I do now.

Sabrina got up. She avoided my eyes so much.

“I need to use the rest room. Mum. Jo.” She acknowledged everyone on the table and skipped me.

I couldn’t blame her if she hated me.

I would hate myself too if I wasn't Blaze Williams.

Sabrina walked away leaving me with my dad and my stepmother.

I never thought I would say that. Ever.

Though dad and mum divorced when I was still young, remarrying was never in his books.

I guess he couldn't find the time between all those custody battles for me.

“Blaze, are you going to take a seat?” Caroline asked.

She smiled warmly at me and her smile was so bright and wide the veins in her neck popped out a little.

She looked…nice, kind. She had a softness nestled in the brown orbs of her eyes.

Her blonde hair, delicate and almost wispy, fell to her shoulders and swayed softly in the salty air swirling through the park.

“Yes.” I dragged out a seat and took her invitation to sit.

I wanted to cross this room and check on Sabrina.

Somehow I knew she was crying her eyes out or giving herself a pep talk.

It was what girls did in their rest rooms.

And if she was doing either of them, then it would be all my fault.

“I’m sorry about my entrance.”

Caroline waved it away so easily. “It was nothing. Your dad says a lot about you, Blaze.”

“Really?” I leaned back so I could see my dad’s face.

He was silencing his phone and setting it aside on the table.

It made me wonder how many missed calls mum had given him.

Did she know about his plan to remarry? That would drive her nuts.

“Actually, no,” Caroline confessed before she placed her fingers over her mouth as the laughter spilled out.

Thinking about mum blowing dad’s line right now made me chuckle.

It looked like I was laughing with Caroline at what she had said. I went on with the act.

Caro seemed friendly. Whoever my dad wanted to marry was on him.

I was going to wish them both well. Hopefully, dad would be so busy planning his wedding he would forget about me for a moment.

And if they could have more children, that will be amazing.

But everything was funny because I knew mum and I knew dad.

Mum was a handful and Caroline didn't look like someone who could hand a handful.

She probably knew little to nothing about the crazy woman who is my mum and dad’s ex-wife.

Now that was funny.

“If we weren't related, this man would have given me up for adoption.”

Caroline gasped at my words as she steadied her fingers against her chest.

As though what I said hurt her, she massaged her heart.

“Oh, come on, don’t say that. Your dad would never give you away. Right, Jo?”

Dad in the middle of the conversation decided to play it safe and shrug.

“Baby!” Caro scolded.

She was adorable and she made dad adorable too.

Dad was laughing when he tried to reply her. “I mean, at least he knows his father.”

“Oh my god, guys!” Caroline covered her eyes as she shook her head. “I can't believe this. Do you know how close Sab and I are? And how close I was with the other Sabrina who was my mother?”

I glanced in the direction where Sabrina had disappeared.

She was still not on her way back to the table.

“You named your daughter after your mum?” I asked Caroline, keeping the conversation going.

Talking to Caroline was more fun than talking to my dad was.

I found myself sitting up and waiting for her answer.

“Late mum, and yeah.” She said it and smiled softly. “My mum and I were soul sisters and then she passed away rather early. When I had Sabrina, it felt like looking at my mum’s face again.”

Dad silently comforted her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

I felt the need to sympathize with her too.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

She blinked the grief away. “Thank you. I think we're going to have a good relationship, you and I,” Caroline said to me. “What do you think?” She asked me enthusiastically.

I sighed audibly. “Well it depends on what’s in it for me.”

“What pact should we make?”

“If I ever gossip about my dad or make snide comments of him to you, you can't tell him.”

Dad started laughing. It started as a slow rumble until he was coughing and Caro was patting his back.

She chuckled too with tears pooling in her eyes as she sealed the pact with me.

“Deal.”