AB 01

8 END

Lisa pulled her in for a kiss, then took her hand.

"Come on."

"Lis..."

"It's time for you to meet my parents."

Jennie felt her stomach drop. She was definitely not expecting this.

"How are you introducing me?"

"I'm going to introduce you as Jennie. And we'll go from there. Regardless of how I introduce you, I want you to meet them. And I want them to meet you."

Jennie was starting to panic and tugged on Lisa's wrist.

"Okay, stop. Stop."

Lisa stopped and brought a hand to Jennie's cheek. She could see she was nervous.

"Sorry, I just...I need a minute."

Lisa gave her a reassuring look. "We don't have to do this, Jennie. I was just feeling a bit brave at the moment. I wasn't even thinking about how you would feel about it. I'm sorry. We can go to your place and just hang out. You can meet them some other time."

Jennie took a deep breath.

"No. No, it's okay. I'm fine. Sorry, I just panicked a bit. I wasn't expecting this."

"I know. And you really don't have to do this."

"I want to. And you're right. They don't have to know I'm your girlfriend. I'll just be Jennie."

Lisa smiled and took her hand, leading her up to the door.

"Mom? Dad?" She closed the door behind them as they unclasped their hands.

"In the kitchen!"

Lisa led Jennie to the kitchen where her parents were sitting drinking tea, her father reading the Wall Street Journal and her mother reading a book. Jennie could see Lisa in both of them. She had her father's nose and eyes. And she had her mother's hair and jawline. Jennie concluded that this was certainly one damn good looking family.

Lisa placed her hand on Jennie's back and gently nudged her forward a bit.

"Mom, dad, this is Jennie."

Jennie stepped forward and stuck her hand out. She was met with a judgmental stare from Lisa's mom and a look of confusion from her dad.

"Lisa, what is this?"

Jennie decided to speak up.

"I go to college near Lisa in New York. I'm at NYU. And I also live next—"

"Lisa, may we talk to you in private?", her mother interrupted as she stood up.

Jennie could feel her heart rate increasing.

"What? What's wrong?" Lisa instinctively stepped in front of Jennie.

"Lisa, now."

"No. What's the problem? I was just introducing you to someone."

"Someone you brought home with you from college?" Her father finally decided to speak up and with that booming voice, Jennie kind of preferred it when he said nothing at all. "Did you think you could just bring this situation into this house without any repercussions?"

"What situation? I just wanted you to meet Jennie." Lisa's voice was starting to waver. Jennie wanted to reach out and hold her hand, but she didn't want to make matters worse.

"Lisa, you know how we feel about this. We don't want any part of it. And we raised you better than this. To have you bring this into our house and shove it in our face like that."