Reaching Forward

12

He started to walk toward the lobby doors once again with Meredith on his left and his mother on his right. Opening the door yet again, Mrs. Shepherd wasted no time in going first through the door. Sighing, Meredith just looked at Derek and followed.

As the trio approached Derek's sedan, Mrs. Shepherd instantly questioned, "Is this your car?"

Groaning almost inaudibly, he replied, "Yes, Mom. It is."

Composing herself as Derek opened the backseat door for her, she commented again, "Well, it's quite...different from your car when you lived in New York. What was that again? A Mercedes was it?"

Going over to open the door for Meredith, he ignored his mother's question. He really hoped she didn't act like this for the entire duration of her stay or else he was going to lose it.

As he started up the car, his mother said, "I asked you a question, Derek." For the nth time tonight and probably not the last, Derek sighed, "Yes, it was a Mercedes."

Needless to say, it was going to be a long night.

When they arrived at the restaurant, they were immediately seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant. Looking to the hostess that lead them to the table, Mrs. Shepherd provided yet another criticism, "Well, I'm glad we're at a table where everyone and everything will be passing by us and interrupting our dinner every second."

The hostess just mumbled something inaudible and quickly walked away. Derek knew his mother was a bit pretentious but this was extreme.

As they waited for the waiter to arrive, Mrs. Shepherd began the interrogation, "So, Meredith, Derek didn't tell me how far a long you were."

Taking a sip of complimentary water, Meredith took in a deep breath, "I'm about eleven weeks along."

"And how old are you?"

Her heart rate began to increase at this point, "Um, twenty seven."

"And it never bothered you that Derek is more than ten years older than you?"

His mother was walking into dangerous territory so he interjected before Meredith had the chance to answer, "Don't answer that. Mom, you're being inappropriate."

Responding in an almost pompous tone of voice, she looked at her son, "I'm just trying to get an assessment of your relationship."

Luckily, for everyone, no one had the chance for a rebuttal when the waiter arrived to take their drink order.

The waiter spoke the rehearsed lines he had said over and over since his duration at the restaurant, "Can I interest anyone in our finest wine?"

Derek and Meredith politely declined because of obvious reasons for Meredith and Derek didn't want to taunt Meredith by drinking in front of her. Of course, the elder woman accepted by saying, "That would be lovely."

Once the waiter left, she started with the questions once again and at least trying to make them less inappropriate, "So, where did you go to college?"

"I went to Dartmouth." She replied.

"Oh, that's far from Seattle." Mrs. Shepherd commented.

She picked at her nails underneath the table, "Well, I used to live in Boston and before that, until I was about five, I lived here in Seattle and my Mom already had a house here that I could use."

"You mean she just gave you the house?" Derek's mother asked incredulously.

Shaking her head, Meredith responded, "No, my mother has Alzheimer's and I was going to sell it but I decided getting roommates would be easier."