French Twist

by Glynis Astie

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Sydney Bennett! Did you suddenly grow a backbone?”

  I walked over and glared down at her with utter annoyance. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

  “Calm yourself, woman. I’ll tell you.” She took a deep breath. “His name is Devon and he works at my company.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “You mean, it isn’t Jean?”

  She scoffed. “Get real, Syd. He’s not my type.”

  “Then why is it you were all over him behind a gigantic plant?” I was going to get an explanation for that night one way or the other.

  She studied the ground. “I may have...had a little too much to drink.”

  I smirked. “Maya! Are you embarrassed?”

  She shook her head. “Of course not; I’m never embarrassed. After…Jean, I decided it was time to get serious about my future. So, the next day, I asked Devon out.”

  I was shocked. “Maya! That was weeks and weeks ago. What would possess you to keep this a secret for so long?”

  She met my eyes and smiled ruefully. “I just...I didn’t want to jinx it. I really like this guy.”

  Seeing Maya in such a vulnerable position was totally bizarre - but in a good way. I was happy to know she actually wanted someone special into her life.

  I hugged her close and sighed. “I’m ecstatic to hear you’ve found someone you care about.”

  Even though I had my eyes closed, and we weren’t facing each other, I knew she was rolling her eyes at me. “Jesus, Syd, stop getting all mushy on me. Eww. You know it’s not my thing.” I did note; however that she made no attempt to pull out of the hug. She was quite puzzling...

  I suddenly remembered leaving Kate alone for at least ten minutes with a full bowl of candy. Crap! I was going to be in even more trouble with Nick. I quickly wrenched myself away from Maya and grabbed her hand.

  She seemed annoyed. “Syd! Where are we going in such a hurry?”

  “We have an urgent matter to attend to. Kate has had unrestricted access to a candy bowl for far too long. I’m already on Nick’s shit list; we have to act quickly!” I raced back to the main salon. Well, I went as fast as I could in a huge, poofy wedding gown while dragging a whiny Maya behind me. This was decidedly not a garment made to be worn for a quick getaway.

  I stopped dead in my tracks when I reached the entrance to the salon. There on the floor of the sacred ground where brides discover their cherished wedding gowns, was my lovely sister, Kate, stuffing her face full of Kit Kats. As I marveled at the sight of my perfect sister in this less than perfect situation, I felt fear in the pit of my stomach. There was no telling what Nick was going to do to me this time. I shouldn’t bother purchasing this gown and having it altered, because I wasn’t going to make it to my wedding day. I was as good as dead.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Thankfully, I was able to return Kate to Nick in a happy state, which ensured I would actually get to fly home for Thanksgiving in order to introduce Louis to the rest of my family. Things were touch and go for a while, since during her candy binge, Kate had somehow managed to produce a list of no less than seventy-five items which HAD to get done before the baby was born. Apparently, she had found a stash of pink tissue paper in the bridal salon and wrote down every thought in her head. Luckily, she crashed by the time she got home and Nick was able to dispose of the list before she remembered she had written it. I’m not sure why she thought it was necessary to buy a cow, but Nick didn’t find this amusing in the least.

  With the crisis behind me, I was able to concentrate on preparing for our trip to New York. We had elected to fly in on Tuesday night so I would be able to spend all day Wednesday helping my mother prepare the Thanksgiving meal. Once again, she had invited too many guests and we would need extra time to prepare since Kate wouldn’t be there to help. Nick had insisted they stay in California so Kate could have a restful Thanksgiving this year. She was still feeling tired and nauseated and he had no intention of exacerbating these feelings with a six hour flight and two airports full of nasty germs.

  On Monday evening, I decided I had to do something to prepare Louis for meeting my family. He kept insisting he could handle anything, but he had no idea what he was in for. I was well aware he had met a wide variety of people in his lifetime and I will admit that he does very well with people when he turns on his charm, but I knew he had never met anyone like my father.

  “Seriously, Syd, will you relax?” Louis was trying hard not to laugh.

  “I love you, Bluey, but you have to stop telling me to relax. You aren’t taking this seriously. My father will come at you when you least expect it! You have to be prepared.”

  He put the last of his clothes in his suitcase and zipped it. “Mon coeur, it will all be fine. Trust me, they will ask me whatever questions they want to, I will answer them gladly and we will all have a good time.”

  I regarded him with pity. “Just remember, Nick won’t be there to help you. And Charlie doesn’t know you well enough to protect you. You’ll be on your own, my friend.”

  Louis threw his head back and laughed. “You are too much, Sydney Bennett.” He walked over to me and held my face in his hands. “Please stop worrying. I am very much looking forward to meeting your family.”

  I met his eyes and sighed. “I’ll try to stop worrying. I haven’t had much success with that, oh, EVER, but I’ll try.”

  He ran his hands down my back and kissed me slowly. “Now that we have finished packing, we can focus our attention to more pressing matters.”

  I laughed. “You have a one-track mind, Bluey.” But he had a point...

  By the next morning, my nerves had multiplied. I wasn’t able to deal with the idea of eating anything, so I had far too many cups of tea. No doubt Louis was thrilled to have the winning combination of Hyper, yet Worried Sydney. Her thoughts were completely muddled, she spouted complete nonsense and she had to pee constantly. What a great choice for an air travel companion!

  After we passed through airport security and arrived at the gate, I ran to the bathroom for what seemed like the millionth time. As I stood in line, I tried to pinpoint what I was actually nervous about. On a very minor scale, I was nervous about flying. I had employed my usual method of distraction and had bought the latest issues of People and US Weekly, which would get me through the first couple hours of the flight. As a result of his time in the French military, Louis could (and did) sleep anywhere, so I would be left with four remaining hours to deal with by myself. Four very dangerous hours in which I would be able to torture myself with all the possible disasters which could befall Louis’ first visit with my family.

  I knew in all likelihood, my family would love him. Charlie would bond with him over their shared love of fixing cars, my mom would be entranced by his stories of growing up in France and Zoe would enjoy discussing the nuances of French cuisine. (Did I fail to mention that Zoe’s favorite hobby is cooking? Dinner at their house was always delicious.) Everyone would have a wonderful time getting to know each other. If I were being truly honest with myself, the root of my worry was my father.

  My father’s main concern was that his children were happy. He had spent a great deal of time, energy and love ensuring this took place. And you had to hand it to him; he had raised six children, so he had put forth a lot of effort. Clearly, everything had happened very quickly for Louis and me and my father just wanted to ensure I was making the right decision in marrying him. He had seen me get hurt far too many times for his taste and would do anything in his power to ensure this didn’t happen again. What really worried me was exactly what he might do or say if he believed Louis did not genuinely care for me.

  I was well aware that Crazy Sydney had now taken over the party, but she was rather hard to get rid of. As I made my way back to the gate, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. Louis was the first man I had ever truly loved. I knew with absolute certainty I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. What was I going to
do if my family didn’t feel the same way?

  I heard Louis call my name. I had gotten so lost in my thoughts, I had passed our gate. I walked back to the gate and put my arms around his neck. Nuzzling into him always made me feel better.

  He lifted my chin with his finger. “What is bothering you, mon coeur? You look....sad.” He furrowed his brow.

  I sighed. “I’m fine. I was wondering what you’ll think of my family.”

  He winked at me. “I thought you were concerned about what they will think of me.”

  I winked at him. “I’m wondering about both of those things.”

  He kissed me tenderly on the tips. “It is going to be fine. Stop worrying about your father. He is not going to scare me off.”

  I shook my head in amazement. “You really know me, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do. And I still love you.” He chuckled.

  I swatted him on the behind. “Way to ruin the moment, Bluey.”

  Just then we heard the announcement for the boarding of our flight to New York. Louis looked over at me and took my hand.

  “Are you ready, mon coeur?”

  I glanced back at him and took a deep breath. “Doubtful, but we don’t have a choice. Let’s do this.”

  Boarding the plane was a painfully slow process, which did nothing to calm my nerves. There were many screaming, overtired children accompanied by their harried parents who were allowed early passage to the plane to allow extra time for them to settle. When we finally got to our seats, I wondered if I would feel better if I screamed along with them. Granted, no one would allow me the courtesy of looking the other way and trying to ignore my tantrum. You lose that right when you turn five or six.

  After an hour of trying to keep myself calm with magazines, I decided to order a glass of wine. Louis had fallen asleep promptly following takeoff (He forced himself to stay awake until then so he could hold my hand.) and was quietly snoring against the window. I was glad at least one of us was getting some rest. I hadn’t slept much last night and was hoping the wine might ease me into a much-needed nap.

  The wine was pretty gross, but since it provided me with a degree of calm I so desperately craved, I ordered another glass. As I sipped the wine, I idly flipped through the channels on the in-flight entertainment system, searching for something to take my mind off the worry. Unfortunately for me, Crazy Sydney was still in residence. The wine had gotten her to quiet down a little bit, but not enough to allow me a modicum of relaxation. I decided a little more wine might help...

  “Syd? Sydney, can you hear me?” Why was Louis shaking me? And more importantly, why did my head feel so heavy?

  I opened my eyes to find an unnecessarily bright light flooding the room. I immediately winced and closed my eyes.

  “What’s going on, Louis?” The sound of my voice seemed much too loud. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

  Louis spoke very slowly and carefully. “I woke up right before the plane landed. You were passed out next to me.”

  Upon hearing this, I sat bolt upright, which was a HUGE mistake. The amount of pain which surged through my body and ended up in my head was indescribable. For a moment, I thought I was going to hurl, but thankfully I was spared that humiliation. I wasn’t sure I would continue to be this lucky, so my goal immediately became changing locations.

  I slowly opened my eyes and scanned the room. It appeared to be some kind of exam room. How had we gotten off the plane? Oh my God. I had a really bad feeling about this. Slowly, some rather unsavory memories permeated my mind. No. That couldn’t have happened. I couldn’t have been that stupid. Sydney! What have you done?

  My eyes frantically searched for Louis and found him sitting in a chair next to me. “Um...Louis, how did we get here?”

  He bit his lip. This was a bad sign. He only did that when he had something extremely unpleasant to tell me.

  He exhaled slowly. “You were put on a stretcher. The EMT’s couldn’t wake you, so you had to be taken off the plane as quickly as possible.”

  I wrung my hands anxiously. I have done some pretty embarrassing things in my time, but this incident was now number one on my list. God help me when Maya finds out. She’ll hold this over me for the rest of my life.

  Louis cleared his throat. “Syd, you have been cleared to go home. We should go down to the baggage compartment now. They are holding our luggage.”

  I stared up at Louis in horror. “How long have we been here?”

  He dropped his gaze to the floor. “About two hours.”

  Oh shit! My parents were picking us up from the airport. They must be freaking out right now. I started looking for my purse so I could call them quickly and tell them not to worry. I’m such a freak! I can’t believe I did this.

  Louis took my hand. “Calm down, Syd. I have already called your parents to let them know we are fine.”

  I buried my face in my hands. “What did you tell them?”

  “What could I tell them? I told them the truth.” A small chuckle escaped him.

  I slowly removed my hands from my eyes to find Louis desperately trying not to laugh. The amount of anger I felt towards him at that moment was astronomical. I gradually stood up, felt completely nauseated and promptly sat back down. With no other viable options, I settled for fixing my deadliest glare on him. I was prepared to tear him a new one, when the floodgates opened and he dissolved into hysterical laughter. I was so shocked, I didn’t know how to react. I just sat there, watching him completely lose his composure and wondered what I was supposed to be feeling.

  For the moment, my anger won out. “Louis! How could you tell them what really happened? You’re supposed to protect me! Even when I do stupid things; especially when I do stupid things! You were supposed to cover for me. My parents must be so worried!”

  Louis pulled himself together long enough to tell me not to worry. What a shocking response for him!

  “Syd, your parents are not worried. Your mother wants to take you home so you can rest. And your father....your father....” He was starting to dissolve into laughter again. “He....what is it you always say? He laughed his ass off.”

  And that was it. Louis laughed so hard, he fell onto the floor. That was my fiancé; the man laughing on the floor of the airport infirmary because his lovely bride-to-be couldn’t hold her liquor. In all the scenarios I had imagined with regards to Louis meeting my family, this had never crossed my mind. It just goes to show you, no matter how old you get, you can still shock the hell out of yourself.

  “OK, Louis, I think it’s time to get you out of here.” I rose cautiously from the cot. The room swayed a little bit and I sank back down involuntarily.

  “Don’t worry, Syd. I got you a wheelchair.” He gestured to the huge brown contraption in the corner of the room. It even had a long pole with a bright red flag shooting out of the top of one of the handles.

  I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. “Great.”

  Louis helped me into the wheelchair and handed me my purse. “Are you ready, mon coeur?”

  I peeked up at him. “To face the endless humiliation my father will heap on me for this? Not really, but at least it will distract him from grilling you for a little while.”

  It was then I realized some good would actually come from this situation. I may have felt like complete shit and I may have embarrassed myself within an inch of my life, but if it meant that Louis’ first time meeting my parents would be easier for him, then it was worth it. I had essentially sacrificed my dignity for him. Though it probably would have meant more to Louis if I had done it on purpose...

  My parents were waiting in the car outside the baggage claim exit. I would later find out the airport police gave them a break (Since they had been waiting for nearly three hours due to my, um, medical issue.) When they saw us, they both got out of the car quickly. The difference in their facial expressions was almost comical. My mother looked extremely worried and my father had an enormous grin on his face. Something about this j
uxtapositioning struck me as horribly funny and I dissolved into fits of giggles. As soon as I started, my father and Louis joined in. My poor mother didn’t know what to do; I’m sure she thought that we had all lost our minds.

  I slowly got up from the wheelchair once we reached the car. My mom came over and hugged me gingerly.

  “Are you alright, honey?” The concern in her eyes made me instantly regret my burst of laughter.

  I smiled at her. “I’m fine, Mom. I’m so sorry for worrying you.”

  “Duck! You always know how to make an entrance.” I turned to find my dad reaching out to hug me. I threw myself into his arms. I truly missed him; even if he was about to make my life hell.

  “Thanks, Dad. You always know just what to say.” I pulled back to face him and grinned. “Now come and meet Louis.”

  I introduced my parents to Louis and everyone was silent for a moment. Then my dad turned to Louis and slapped him on the back.

  “Well, now that you’re engaged to our daughter, it’s clear you have your hands full, isn’t it, Louis? Why don’t we get you something to eat so you can keep your strength up?”

  My mom smacked my dad on the back and did her best not to smile. “Ted, that was truly appalling!”

  Louis grinned at them both. “It is a task I am happy to take on. She makes it more than worth it to me.”

  My mom linked her arm through Louis’. “I think I’m going to love you, Louis.”

  After he got my mom settled in the car, Louis helped my dad with the luggage. They were already smiling and chatting like they were old friends. As we drove away from the airport, I thought about how different this initial meeting was than I had imagined. Oddly enough, it actually turned out to be pretty positive, despite my mortifying display of drunkenness on the airplane. It reminded me very much of my relationship with Louis - completely unexpected, but perfect in its own way.