“You have no intention of seeing that girl again,” she stated. Liam glanced up from his bacon cheeseburger.
“Excuse me?” he asked around a full mouth.
“That chick. You're working over time to make her fall in love with you,” she pointed out. “Yet you don't care about her. Less than that – saying you don't care about her would imply you possibly could at some point, which you couldn't. So why expend all this energy?”
Liam paused for a long time, chewing his food carefully before swallowing. Then he took a large sip of his drink and leaned back in his seat.
“Because it makes her feel good,” he finally said. Ayumi barked out a laugh.
“Sure, right, it's all about her,” she snorted. “Cut the shit, Edenhoff.”
There was another pause.
“It's very annoying when someone knows things about you that most people don't,” he finally said. She shrugged.
“I'm sure it is, but here we are. Shouldn't have invited me if you don't like the fact that I know what a douche you can be.”
He looked away from her, staring out over the ocean on the other side of the highway.
“It really is partly because I know it makes her feel good,” he insisted. “Some chicks, they like it. It ... I don't know, makes them feel like a woman. Makes them feel good about themselves. Can you imagine working in a place like this? I would fucking hate it. So if I can make her feel beautiful and special for an hour out of her awful day, why not?”
“You said 'partly',” Ayumi pointed out. “So what's the other part?”
“Do we have to get into this?”
“You were the one turning into Don Juan. Don't put on a show if you don't want questions.”
“It makes me feel good, okay? For a couple minutes, knowing someone wants me and only me, it makes me feel good. Great, even. Especially after a two hour long car ride with someone who can't stand me.”
Well. That was putting it bluntly. Normally, Ayumi liked it when people spoke plainly. Wulf always spoke his mind. However, hearing someone speaking so bluntly about her was a different story. She almost felt guilty.
“You shouldn't need other peoples opinions, even shallow ones, to validate yourself,” she finally said in response.
Why can't I just talk normal? Why can't I just tell him that I can stand him? That I even sometimes actually like him? That I wish I could be like him?
“Thank you, Obi Wan, I'd never considered that before! I'm so glad I have someone completely perfect in every way to give me such great life advice,” he chirped at her, a big fake smile plastered on his face.
“I deserved that,” she said. “I'm sorry. It's just ...”
“Just what?” he asked after she was silent for a moment.
Be brave. Be more like him.
“It's just that,” she took a deep breath. “Despite what you may think, I actually consider you to be ... to be ... a pretty good human being. That you think you need outside validation, when you're already great the way you are, frustrates me. You don't need me to like you, and you certainly don't need some random road side stranger to like you, to feel good about who you are. Who you are is pretty great.”
“Was that a compliment?” he gasped, pressing his hand to his chest. “An honest to god real life compliment from the ice queen!? I think I just died. You never responded to my marriage proposal, you know. I'm taking your silence as a yes.”
“You are so annoying,” she groaned, dropping her head into her hands.
“Actually, I'm great. Your words.”
“Shut up. You said the first stop was Santa Cruz, right?” she asked, sitting upright. “We're like ten minutes away, if that.”
“Because I wanted to mentally prepare you,” he replied, polishing off his burger.
“Oh jesus. For what?” she groaned.
“I planned my route before I knew you were coming,” he said. “And I can't change it now. I already told them I'd be staying for the next couple days.”
“Who?”
“My family.”
Ayumi stared at him for a long moment.
“You're taking me to meet your family,” she finally said.
“No, I was going to meet my family – you just wound up tagging along,” he clarified.
“I don't want to meet your family. Remember the no friends rule part of our deal? Family is an extension of that,” she pointed out.
“A – I canceled our deal the other day. B – you don't have a choice. We're staying at my mom's house for the next two nights,” he informed her.
“Does she even know I'm coming? What does she think I am, your girlfriend? You told her I was your girlfriend, didn't you,” Ayumi groaned.
“Calm down, Ice Queen. She knows you're coming, I texted her. She made up a guest room for you. And don't worry, I told them you were my accountant who just needed a ride. No one will think you're dating Mr. Loser McLoser Pants,” he chuckled, collecting all his dirty napkins and wrappers. He balled them up together and put them in the center of the table, then started sliding out of his booth.
“I just don't want people thinking we're something we're not,” she stressed. “I really am just an accountant taking a ride with you.”
“Got it. I will have all that put on a banner and we can carry it into the house together.”
Liam stopped at the counter for one last chance to flirt with the blonde server, getting a soda to-go from her and giving her one last wink. Then he held open Ayumi's door for her before hurrying around and getting behind the wheel.
“You said your mom's house,” Ayumi asked after they'd been driving for a minute. “She doesn't live with your dad?”
“Nah, they got divorced a long time ago. Still friends, though.”
“Well, I guess if it's just your mom, that's not so bad.”
“Uh ...”
“What does 'uh' mean?”
“It means she organized a huge family dinner tonight,” he said, wincing from behind his sunglasses. “All my aunts are coming, their kids, some uncles, my dad and his brother.”
“So I'm tagging along to a family reunion,” she sighed.
“Reunion? I'm Mexican, Ayumi – this is just a regular Tuesday for us,” he laughed. “Whenever I come down to visit they do this.”
“I didn't know you were Mexican,” Ayumi was shocked. Liam was actually pretty racially ambiguous – tall and lanky, with cinnamon skin, warm brown eyes, and thick brown hair. If she'd had to guess his ethnicity, she probably would've said German, but only because of his last name.
“Half Mexican,” he said. “Mom's side. You'll laugh when you see her, she's this tiny thing, but she can still totally kick my ass.”
“Half – what is your dad?” she asked.
“White?” he laughed. “I dunno, a whole mix of stuff. Irish, German, English, I'm sure. Want me to take a DNA test?”
“Sorry, I find that kind of stuff interesting,” she explained. “I found out I was adopted when I was five, so I grew up not knowing what the hell I was. A couple years ago I did get a DNA test done.”
“Oh wow, adopted. I had no idea.”
“Yeah. My dad is white, too, but my mom is Korean and Japanese. They were living on the U.S. military base in Japan when they found out she couldn't have children, so they decided to adopt over there. She wanted a full Japanese baby and thought I was one,” she told him.
“But you're not Japanese,” he deduced. She nodded.
“No. I mean, half, yeah. My birth mother was Japanese. I've seen pictures of her and her family, I don't really look a whole lot like them, but no one could tell me about my birth father. So I took the DNA test and hired a detective who specialized in adoptions.”
“Jesus, when you want to know something, you don't let it go,” Liam mumbled, driving through downtown Santa Cruz.
“Nope,” she agreed. “Turns out my birth father was from Kazakhstan. He died before we found him, I only ever got one picture. I look like him.”
“Then your dad is pretty gorgeous,” he teased. She rolled her eyes.
“Flirting by way of hitting on my dead birth father is not the way into my pants,” she informed him.
“Pffft, I already know the way into your pants – cheese dip and cheap liquor.”
“Shut up, Liam.”
“So why'd you go searching for your birth parents?” he asked. She frowned and turned to watch the houses go by.
“My mom ... it wasn't easy, growing up as an adopted kid. My mother is very strict and my dad was never really around. Like the day after I graduated high school, he left her, and basically left me, too. That's why my last name is my mother's maiden name - she changed it, acted like my dad never existed. She's a difficult person to love,” she tried to explain.
“So you thought maybe you could go find a mother who would really love you?” he suggested in a soft voice.
“I never thought of it that way, but I guess so,” she said in a soft voice.
“Did it work?”
Ayumi cleared her throat.
“No. My birth mother didn't want anything to do with me. What about your family? You all get along?” she tried to steer the conversation away from herself. Now it was Liam's turn to frown.
“Kinda. I mean, yeah? I dunno. I never had it hard, I always felt loved and all that jazz, but ... Landon is the favorite. Like no question about it, everyone knows it. It's been that way since high school. That's why I don't go home very often,” he said. “I don't like feeling like I'm not good enough.”
“I know what you mean,” she whispered.
You were right, Mr. Edenhoff. We're more alike than I ever could have imagined.
They stayed silent after that, both lost in their own miserable thoughts. It was probably the first time she'd ever been around Liam when he wasn't laughing and joking. She got the feeling she was seeing a side of him not many people got to, and she was surprised that the knowledge made her feel glad. Glad he felt comfortable enough around her to let his guard down. To just be “off” for a minute or two.
When they turned to pull up in front of a large, three story home, though, the silence ended.
“Oh, jesus,” he muttered under his breath. “Brace yourself.”
“Why? What's going to ...” Ayumi's voice trailed off as she watched several women file out of the open front door and stand on the porch. It looked like a receiving line at a wedding. “Who are all of them?”
“My aunts.”
“All of those are aunts?”
“Yup.”
She went to ask him how many other relatives were waiting in the house, but then his hand came to rest against her lower back, surprising her. It was a somewhat intimate gesture and she wanted to nip that kind of behavior in the bud, but then they were in front of the crowd of women.
“Mijo!” the tiniest woman of the bunch exclaimed, hurrying down the steps and practically throwing herself at Liam. She had to be his mother, but they looked absolutely nothing alike. She was curvy and compact, with a round shaped face and black hair, and she was as small as her son was big.
“Hola, mom,” Liam sighed, lifting his mother off the ground in a big bear hug.
“I missed you so much!” she exclaimed when he finally sat her down, and Ayumi was surprised to see tears in the woman's eyes. Then his mom frowned and lightly slapped her son. “You didn't come home for Thanksgiving! How can you do that to your poor mother?” And then she was hugging him again.
Ayumi felt like she had emotional whiplash.
“All the worrying I cause you keeps you young,” he laughed, then he reached out for Ayumi again. “Mom, this is my accountant, the woman I told you about. Ayumi Nakada, meet mom.”
Mom whacked her son in the stomach, then she stepped forward and hugged Ayumi, kissing her on both cheeks.
“Or you can call me Flor. Hello, dear, so happy to meet you,” she sighed before pulling away.
“Thank you for having me, I'm sorry to impose at the last minute,” Ayumi apologized. Flor shook her head.
“No! No, is no trouble,” she insisted, then she turned back to her son and started speaking in Spanish. “Que guapa, mijo!”
“Stop it, Mom, it's too early in the day for this. Let's just do the lightning round of intros for now, okay?” he asked. His mother rolled her eyes, very much a Liam-gesture, but she stepped to the side and let her son move onto the porch.
“Ayumi, this es mi Tia Rosa, Tia Angelina, Tia Irene, and mi Tia Lupita,” he gestured to each woman as he said their name. Each one stepped forward to give Ayumi a hug and double kiss and to exclaim over how nice it was to meet her.
All the women swarmed around her, moving her away from Liam and into the house. They asked her about how the drive was and how San Francisco was and how Liam was and how long had she known Liam? Were they close? Was she hungry? Did she want something to drink? She needed to sit and have a drink, she looked tired. Very, very tired. She remembered Liam warning her to smile, so she pasted one on her face and everyone seemed to worry about her a little less.
She had hoped the aunts – the tias – would be it, but it turned out there were a lot more people to meet. Liam was nowhere around to introduce her, but it didn't seem to matter – his mother took Ayumi under her wing as if they'd been friends for years. She met primos and tios and even Liam's compadre. By the end, her head was spinning. She only ever saw her own mother maybe once or twice a year, and that was the only family she interacted with – she'd just met roughly thirty members of Liam's family, and that was only on his mother's side.
She was exhausted, but it was fun.
As the day wore on, she found herself sticking around the kitchen. She tried to help clean and prep food, but was mostly chased away by the army of tias. So she sat at the kitchen island and drank wine with his mother, laughing at stories about Liam and his brother and cousins. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she heard a door bell ring. Flor jumped out of her seat.
“Oh, you have to come, that will be Liam's father,” she said, patting Ayumi on the arm and then gently pulling her out of her seat.
They got to the door just in time to see Liam open it. A tall man who almost could've passed as his son's brother stepped into the house. He was already laughing loudly, hugging Liam and clapping him on the back.
“Good lord, it smells good in here, Flor,” Mr. Edenhoff groaned before leaning down and kissing his ex-wife on the cheek.
“Rosa made her tamales just for you,” she assured him, hugging him quickly.
“Dad,” Liam suddenly popped up between everyone. “This is Ayumi Nakada – she's been doing the accounting at the club and she caught a ride down here with me.”
“No,” Flor argued. “This is Ayumi – my future daughter-in-law, I have decided.”
Ayumi could feel herself turning bright red, but Liam just burst out laughing. Mr. Edenhoff shook Ayumi's hand, then leaned down close to her.
“I know exactly how you're feeling,” he said in a stage-whisper. “The code word is 'orange peel' – yell that out, and we'll help you escape.”
This time, even Ayumi laughed with everyone.
I like his family.
Two folding banquet tables had been set up end to end along with a large dining room table, and eventually everyone sat down to eat. Ayumi wound up across the table and two seats down from Liam, squeezed between his father and Tia Lupita.
“Why is Landon not here?” Lupita asked. “He never has time for us anymore.”
“That boy,” Flor sighed. “Too busy to call his poor, ailing mother.”
“Mom, you're never been sick a day in your life,” Liam pointed out.
“Well, if I do get sick, it will be from worrying over the two of you, dios mio,” she swore, fanning herself with a napkin.
“Don't fall for it,” Mr. Edenhoff – or Frank, as he'd asked Ayumi to call him – said. “Flor lives to worry about her sons.”
“You hush,” Flor laughed, throwing
the napkin across the table.
Surprisingly, that was the only time in the evening Landon was brought up. Ayumi had gotten the impression from Liam that his brother would be talked about often – he was the doctor, the golden child, “everyone loved him”, according to Liam.
Also, Ayumi knew she was an outsider. She hadn't known this family long and it was only one evening, one dinner, so her impressions could be off, but she really didn't understand where Liam's issues came from – his family very clearly adored him. His mother fawned and fussed over him, his aunts made sure his plate was always full, his father laughed with him. He was treated like royalty. She didn't see anyone acting like he was second best. Everyone loved him.
Some more than others.
A cousin had brought a friend, some twenty-one year old in a tight top and tighter pants. She had wound up next to Liam and was laying the flirting on thick. Ayumi could hear her murmuring things in Spanish, and she didn't need a translator to understand what was going on. Liam's flirty little smirk and the twinkle in his eyes painted a pretty clear picture.
When he caught her staring at them, he winked. Annoying man.
“I swear, that boy just asks for trouble,” Frank sighed.
“Excuse me?” Ayumi asked, turning to face him.
“My son is quite the ladies man, you may or may not know,” Frank continued. She laughed and nodded.
“Yes, I do know – I'm friends with some of his former 'ladies',” she said.
“Well, if you want my opinion, he's an idiot. If I had a beautiful, smart girl like you around me all the time, I'd snap you up in a second,” he told her and she laughed harder.
“I am single, Frank,” she told him.
“Hot damn! Let's blow this popsicle stand,” he said, scooting his chair back and making like he was going to stand.
“What's going on?” Liam's voice came in above the general fray.
“Your dad and I are now dating, I think,” Ayumi wiped at the tears in her eyes.
“Oh god. That's gonna make for an awkward fucking Christmas,” Liam groaned. At the dropping of the F bomb, the army of tias shouted at him and everyone started laughing all over again.
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