"So what do your parents do for a living?" David asked as he sat next to Maddy in the airport terminal.
Maddy took a sip of the corona in front of her.
"My dad manages a hedge fund and my mom is an architect" Maddy replied.
"Tell me more about them, I know almost nothing"
Maddy smiled. She and David had talked about their childhoods, family traditions, and other memories, but had only spoken about their family members to each other in passing. Sometimes it's easy to forget that your friends don't know your family like your childhood friends do.
"So my parents met at Yale. They both came from France so they like bonded over that or whatever"
"Your parents are French?"
"Yeah, you didn't know that?"
"I did not"
"Madeleine Laurent didn't give it away?"
"Oh you know I don't know languages like that. What's your middle name? I can't believe I don't know that."
"I don't have one"
"You don't have a middle name?"
"No, nobody in my family does. It's not really a thing in France"
"Do you know my middle name?"
"Julian"
"Damn it"
Maddy laughed.
"I don't know why you hate your middle name so much, it's a really cool name"
David dismissed the comment and continued asking Maddy about her family.
"Do your parents speak French?"
"David, they're from France"
"Ok, fine, dumb question. Do you know French?"
"If I want to anyone in my family besides my parents I have to know French"
"That's pretty cool"
"I guess" Maddy shrugged. "You'll love them though, they're cool"
"So you actually live in New York?"
"Yes"
"Like, Manhattan?"
"Yeah, Upper East Side"
"In an apartment?"
"No, a house"
"They have houses in New York?"
Maddy laughed.
"It's a brownstone, like the ones connected to other ones"
David realized for the first time that Maddy Laurent might be rich. He wondered what else he didn't know about her, and began to worry that her parents were refined French socialites who would hate him. He just smiled as Maddy started talking about something else, trying not to freak himself out too much.
Maddy and David slept through their red eye flight and landed at JFK at 9am. They grabbed their bags from baggage claim and walked towards the pick up area. A man wearing a polo and khaki shorts was standing holding a sign that read 'Miss Madeleine Laurent".
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me" Maddy laughed, hugging the man. "Dad, this is David"
"It is great to meet you!" Maddy's dad said with his French accent, giving David a hug. "I'm Nick"
"Nice to meet you!" David said.
Maddy's dad talked to David the whole way to the car.
"No way! You have a model X too?" David asked as Nick opened the back of his Tesla to load the bags in.
