𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 | Jim Lake

Mothers Business Lunch and How Many Jims?

"Smooth" Claire comments as I roll my eyes at her.

"Shut up. Cant you just skip your parents union thing! I need support here!" I exclaim as we run into the arena and grab out our staffs, practicing as we throw hits at each other.

"I wish...maybe I can sneak out or something, I guess we'll just have to see" Claire shrugs as I nod my head.

"I hope this doesn't go badly. My mum gets really serious about these lunch's! She's been planning this since the end of the last one!" I exclaim as Claire laughs and swipes my feet with her staff as I fall over with a huff.

"Relax! What could go wrong? It's going to be a nice lunch and you'll have fun" Claire reassures as I nod my head before a smirk appears on my face as I kick at Claire's knee as she falls over with a groan. "That was uncalled for!"

"It was bloody amusing though" I laugh.

————<•>————

My house was decorated with streamers everywhere. The backyard had wooden picnic tables in it with colourful balloons hanging everywhere. My mum was busy chatting with a bunch of colleagues as the chef we hired, Frank, was cooking the food.

Frank is the chef every year so I'd say he's the only one I usually talk to during this event. The person I avoid most is definitely either my mum or her boss. My mum, because she would tell any embarrassing story of me to get a laugh and her boss because she is the most judgemental person in the world.

She would always find something wrong with my clothes, or a hair that's sticking out in my hair and she would point it out and do a squeaky high pitched laugh.

"Mum says you have to grill the vegan burgers" I tell Frank as I walk over the grill.

"Well...tell M/n that I am a chef! And as I chef, I feel insulted to let this fake meat touch this beautiful barbecue!" Frank exclaims passionately as I roll my eyes at his dramatics.

"Lucky for Y/n, I heard the whole thing! Now Frank you better grill those vegan burgers because my boss is vegan and she will have a fit if she can't eat anything...alright?" My mum says harshly before smiling innocently.

"My talents wasted on this..." Frank mutters to himself as he grills the vegan burgers while glaring at them.

"So...where's Jim?" My mum asks with a smirk as I nervously laugh.

"Umm...he should be here soon. Please don't embarrass me!" I beg as my mum smiles at me.

"Awww look at you, caring about what a boy thinks of you" My mum says as she pinches at my cheeks.

"I don't care what he thinks of me! I just...don't want him to feel awkward" I stumble out as my mum just rolls her eyes.

"Yeah alright. Well...as long as he doesn't say anything to my boss that will potentially ruin my career then I think it'll be fine" My mum says as she pats my shoulder before turning to walk away. "Wait is that him? He certainly looks like he's winning over the guests I'll give you that"

I look over to see what she's looking at and my eyes practically bulge out of my head. I find him on one knee in-front of Cheryl (an old lady who's been working at my mums business for years) as he holds onto one her hands and seems to be reciting some weird poetry that has old lady Cheryl practically drooling, as well as all the other ladies around her.