I Hope This Is Legal

Meeting Josie

"Do I really have to come with Mom?" I ask her irritably, "Come on Casey, I really want you to meet Josie..." She says to me as we walk out our front door, towards the car outside. "Meeting Ian is bad enough," I mumbled under my breath as we reach the car and she walks over to the door of the drivers seat. "Casey, can you please just try and accept the fact that Ian and I are getting married, and you're going to have to live with him and his daughter weather you like it or not," she snaps at me. I let out a long sigh and we both climb into the car.

"Please be nice..." she says quietly as she puts the key into the ignition and starts the car, "I'll try..." I say to her as we drive out of our driveway. "How old is Josie anyways?" I ask her curiously. "She's sixteen, a year younger than you..." Mom tells me as she focuses on the road ahead. Great...a little sister.

It takes us about fifteen minutes until we arrive at the biggest house I have ever seen in my life. The building is painted in a range of grays and whites and from what I can see it has a total of three stories. The front door, which seems to be made of some kind of dark wood, is about double my height, maybe even triple.

"So Ian really lives here?" I ask Mom curiously as she parks the car in the driveway. Our trinkety old Mazda looks ten times worse than it already did when it was parked outside our own house, let alone next to the matte black Volkswagen parked outside Ian's. "Yes honey," she says and she lets out a short chuckle.

We both get out of the car and close our doors behind us. "Try and be polite, please," Mom says to me as we walk in the direction of the front door. I nod my head and let out a soft groan under my breath.

We arrive at the door and I watch Mom as she presses the overly fancy looking door bell. We wait for about half a minute before the door is pulled slowly open. A man wearing a freshly ironed black suit is standing in the now open doorway. "Hello Miss Black, it's lovely to see you again," the man says as he sees us standing there. "Nice to see you again too, Sam," Mom replies with a polite smile on her face. "And who might this be?" He asks her and he looks straight in my direction. "This is my daughter, Casey," Mom tells the man, who I assume is Sam. He smiles politely as me and gestures for us to come in using one of his hands.

The interior of the house beats the exterior by far. It's more beautiful than any house or hotel or building that I've ever set foot in. There's marble and oak and chandeliers in every direction. I am starting to see why Mom chose Ian to be her new husband. I've always thought fancy things were nice, but I never in a million years expected for me to be fancy. I've always just been a middle class girl, but I guess that's changing sooner than I think.

Sam closes the doors behind us and I follow Mom as she leads the way through the entrance to what looks like a huge dining room. "Amy!" I hear a croaky, deep voice say from behind us. Mom and I both turn to see a tall man with short, black hair that has a few gray streaks here and there standing there. Ian. He has a big smile on his wrinkled face. "I'm so glad you could make it!" He says enthusiastically as he walks towards us. "We're so glad to be here, babe," Mom says.

As Ian reaches us he wraps his long arms around Mom and one of his hands squeezes her ass. I want to grimace and gag but I hold it in, for Mom's sake. He leans down and places a wet kiss on her lips. She seems to be happy, though, so I don't say anything. Ian let's Mom go and turns to look at me.

"It's nice to see you again, Casey," he says and this time he uses fake enthusiasm. I can just tell. "Right back at you, Ian," I say, using the exact same fake enthusiasm as he did. Both of us know it's a mutual despise, but both of us choose not to act on it for Mom's sake.

For a moment none of us say anything, Ian just turns his gaze from me to Mom. I take a deep breath, maybe this night won't be so bad...

"Hey, where's the bathroom?" I ask Ian. He turns to look at me again, "up to the second floor, third door on the left," he tells me. "Thanks," I say, throwing the least sarcastic smile I can make right now in his direction, which is still slightly sarcastic. I turn to leave the room.