We just got back from Tokyo and didn't even have time to settle in and meet up with friends again. Evan never even left my apartment to drop his suitcase off to his, he stayed with me while we arranged a trip to my parents' house. I didn't want to pay them a visit that fast, but Evan assured me that it was time. I had been putting it off for too long, which was true. But things changed since the last time I spoke to them. Last time I assured my father Evan was just a friend and now he was coming along with me, as my boyfriend. I dreaded meeting them, but as I glanced aside at my calm looking boyfriend I could tell he didn't mind this trip at all. He looked excited about it. It hurt seeing him like that. He was going to get disappointed. Reaching for his hand I gently held it and leaned in, pressing a kiss to his jaw.
"Whatever happens, just know that I love you no matter what. I don't care about anyone's opinion about us."
Evan wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me to his side, never slowing down his pace. We were walking to our gate, needing to check in. He kissed my head and then pulled away, ready to check in. He helped me check in as well and then rushed with me onto the plane.
"I don't care about what people think of us being together either." He told me, "But we owe it to your parents to at least tell them in person and if they disagree, that's fine. At least we showed them the respect they deserve."
"How can you be so perfect but flawed at the same time?"
Evan raised a sharp dark eyebrow at me, "You think I'm flawed?" He asked amused.
We found our seats in first class which wasn't that hard since everyone seemed eager to help. Evan let me sit down first and then followed. I leaned back in the comfy chair and pulled my scarf away, using it as a blanket and I got as comfortable as possible. Maybe I could squeeze in a nap. I needed to be wide awake when we met up with my parents.
"You are." I told him without hesitation, "But so am I. We're humans, we're anything but perfect. I'm sure you can name tons of things about me which annoys you. My weaknesses and things I need to work on. And I can name one thing about you which absolutely annoys me, but I also understand why you're behaving like that."
He sighed, knowing exactly what I was talking about, "Priscilla."
"I'm just saying that I get why you're behaving the way you are, but I also don't get it. Just tell her you miss her and you want to see her more often. Why can't you even tell her? What are you afraid of?" I asked him, speaking quietly because I knew it was a sensitive subject, "I really want to know. But if it has a deeper meaning going way back into your childhood, I also know that you're not ready to talk." I leaned closer to him, leaning my elbow against the armrest and leaning my chin against my palm while looking into his eyes, "Would you be upset if I contacted her? Asking her to come over when she can so I can introduce myself to her, personally?"
"I told you she'll be coming over sooner or later for Emily and Nick-"
"I want her to come over for you." I told him firmly, "I love Emily and Nick, but you're more important."
He leaned his head back against his chair and closed his eyes, a very long, tired sigh leaving his lips, "Fine, you can contact her. Just don't tell her to do anything. Just let her know you want to meet with her, that's it. If she comes over, she comes over. If not then we'll wait for her."
That was at least something. I thought he'd get upset with me being so forward, I guess I was wrong. Evan understood why I wasn't letting go of the subject. He knew I only pressed him because I wanted what was best for him. The same he was doing to me right now. Pressing me to see my parents because he knew I needed to have some closure. We would help each other, we'd grow stronger together. Smiling I leaned in once more and pressed a kiss to his pulse, causing him to snap his eyes open and stare at me in shock.
His shock lasted only a second, fading into mischievousness, "You coming onto me, Zo?"
I smirked, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I just wanted to kiss my boyfriend"
"That's not an appropriate place to kiss while we're in public." He smirked.
I feigned shock, "Is it not? Why? Because it makes you squirm in your seat?"
His smirk widened, "You know it." He placed his hand on the back of my head and kept me in place as he leaned in, pressing his lips against my temple and then slowly trailing them down, whispering in my ear, "You want to play with me?"
Laughing I pushed against his shoulder, effectively making him let go of me, "Unfortunately for you I'm not that adventurous as your previous girls."
His eyes gleamed playfully, "Don't you want to try it?" He asked, running his fingers through my locks, "It's adventurous, true. Exciting, also very true." He leaned closer and brushed his lips against my ear, "But it should really help with the tension. I think we both need it."
So very true.
"I do want to take a nap."
It was Evan's turn to laugh, his body was shaking with laughter. He pulled away from me and grinned, "I'm flattered you'd use my body."
I mirrored his grin, "So no bathroom sex for us then?"
His eyes got serious again, "Oh baby, I'm up for it. I was just messing around, knowing you're not up for it."
Getting out of my seat I walked past Evan, "Come, find me." I told him quietly.
It was something I would have never done, but it sounded fun, exciting and a little bit dangerous. Entering the bathroom, I locked it and faced myself in the mirror. My eyes looked wide, my cheeks pink because of what I was about to do. Running my fingers through my hair I tried to fix it, it would probably get messed up again, but I wanted to look attractive enough for Evan. I held my breath when I heard a knock. Taking a deep breath I faced the door and opened it, meeting Evan's intense gaze. He stepped inside, closed and locked the door behind him and then wrapped me up in his arms, covering my mouth with his. This was the first time I did something as crazy as this and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting excited by it.
***
Fixing my hair as I sat beside Evan in the cab, I ignored his permanent smirk. Someone had a great time on the plane and not just because of our adventurous bathroom sex. He helped me take a nap on the plane and I was sure he had a nap too. We were fully rested and sated and meeting my parents now didn't feel as awful as a minute ago.
I reached for my makeup bag and tried to fix myself. I managed to look decent enough and spritzed on some perfume. Evan didn't need to do anything, he looked great. I was kind of jealous he looked that great without any effort. It was unfair, really.
"I think I shouldn't have pushed you for it," Evan muttered, the smirk fading from his face.
I frowned, "W-What?"
"We're meeting your parents right away." He muttered, "I shouldn't have touched you." He whispered the last part, trying to hide our conversation from the driver, "It's like shoving in their faces that we're together and apparently up to no good."
Placing my hand on his knee I glanced out the window, trying to hide my smile from him, "I get it. There is no going back now though. We've done it and I tried to fix it, if we just keep this conversation light we'll get away with it."
"We're not supposed to keep this conversation light, Zoey. We need to talk about our feelings, at least, you need to talk about your feelings. Letting them know it's your life and you value their opinion but in the end, it's still about what is making you happy and not them."
I turned my head, holding his gaze, "You mind if I use your words? I mean that's what I was trying to say to them for years, but I could never express myself with the right words. You just gave me a none bullshit summary of what we're here to do."
His smirk came back to his face, making his whole face light up, "Sure, Zo. That's why I'm here in the first place, right? Moral support?"
He placed his hand on top of mine and held it tightly. We could do this, we could face them without embarrassing ourselves or them.
***
Leaving our luggage in the hallway we followed the housekeeper to the living room where my parents were waiting. I held tightly onto Evan's hand as we entered the room, my parents were seated on the couch next to each other while we slowly approached them. I noticed instantly how my father looked at me then moved his eyes to our hands and then moved his eyes back to me, looking disappointed. Yeah, this was going to be a fun afternoon.
"Zoey, it's good to see you." My mother got to her feet and stepped to me, wrapping me up in her arms as she pulled me in for an awkward hug, "We didn't know you were taking your friend with you."
I released Evan's hand and pulled out of the awkward hug, narrowing my eyes on my mother, "I did tell you I was coming to see you together with my boyfriend." I turned to Evan and gestured to him, "My boyfriend Evan Black." I then gestured to my mother and father, "Emma and Bradley."
"Nice to meet you," Evan told them firmly.
"Nice to meet you." I noticed how the hostility left my mother as she gawked at Evan, that was what she was doing and there was no denying it, "I'm sorry, but we were expecting to have a private conversation with Zoey-"
"This is about us." I told them, "About my future which includes Evan so of course, he's here."
My mother nodded, "You're right." She agreed her eyes never leaving Evan, "Take a seat, please."
We took a seat across them, my father still hadn't said a word. But he was watching and forming his opinion about us. His look told us he wasn't happy at all.
"I thought you told me you weren't dating this boy." Her father said, refusing to call Evan by his name, "What else did you lie about, your new choice of career too?"
"When you called Evan and I wasn't dating yet." I told him, "But I don't appreciate the tone you use whenever you talk about my boyfriend. I'm serious about him and Evan is a good guy. Making his own living and kind to his friends and family. It's fine that you're upset with me, but he doesn't deserve your anger."
"How can I not be angry with him as well when he is part of the reason you're throwing your life away."
I sighed, "Dad, I'm not throwing my life away. I'm doing what I like and making a living out of it."
"We had a plan, Zoey, you were going to graduate and take the job at Mr. Powers office. Marry-"
"Excuse me?" Zoey interrupted him, not liking where the conversation was headed, "I graduated and took a job which had my interest. I moved to New York and started living my life. If I get married it's to a guy of my choice." I flickered my eyes to Evan who didn't look too happy to be here right now either, "You have no say in that matter whatsoever."
"Zoey, we're only looking out for you." Her mother told her, trying to calm everyone down.
"You're not looking out for me." I was getting pissed and it could be heard since my voice was getting higher and higher, "You want me to follow a plan you made up, but that's not going to happen. I follow my own plan and live my own life. What you're not getting is that I pay my own rent and bills. You can give me advice but in the end, I make my own decisions."
"Mr. Powers son is-"
I titled my head to the side, "Yeah, that's not going to happen, dad." I told him firmly. I reached for Evan's hand again and firmly held it in mine, "If I'm marrying anyone anytime soon it would be Evan. You either accept that or hold your tongue, because it doesn't matter what you think about it." I got up and tried to pull Evan up as well, "And by the way, if this is about money and being well taken care of, you can rest assured, Evan's a billionaire." I told them, "He just doesn't flaunt it around. Needing to show his money off to feel good about himself."
Evan got up on his own and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, trying to calm me down, "I didn't come along to witness this conversation going south. But I hope you can understand why Zoey is this upset right now. She is doing great, has a lot of friends who'd do anything for her to make her happy. I'd do anything to make her happy. You not seeing this is upsetting to her. We'll be staying for two more days if you want to meet up again and talk things over. We've time. I don't want to come between family, but backing off isn't an option to me either. I won't give her up."
I noticed the shocked looks on their faces and knew it was low of me, but I was just so pissed I wanted them to be upset too.
"That's right, I'm not dating just a pretty face here. Evan actually has layers." I turned to Evan, "Can we go now. I need some fresh air, maybe we can head into town for dinner."
Evan met my gaze, "So we're still in town for two days, you can contact Zoey anytime."
With that we left the house, taking our luggage with us. We didn't have a car waiting but I didn't care. I rather wait outside for a car than spending another minute with them. Hand in hand we walked away from the porch and waited at the gate. Evan called a cab, his eyes never leaving mine. Once he hung up he pocketed his phone and reached for me, running his knuckles lightly over my cheek.
"You okay?"
"Hm."
"Still upset?" He sounded amused.
"Really upset."
"That might not have been the right time to talk about my pretty face and my billions."
I glared at my boyfriend who wasn't completely taking my side here, "It was the best time considering he mentioned something about marriage. Like hell, I'm marrying some dude he thinks is right for me because he has a job which he sees as appropriate. Now he knows he made fun of a guy who is actually better than Mr. Powers' son."
"I'm a great guy." Evan nodded, still sounded amused.
He wanted to lighten the mood and it worked. I laughed and gave him a playful shove.
"Your arrogance knows no boundaries."
"You did praise me quite a lot in front of your parents, I think I'm allowed to be a little arrogant right now."
Smiling I leaned in and wrapped my arms around his waist, resting my head against his chest. It didn't go well, but I knew from the beginning things wouldn't go well. They needed to accept that I wasn't going to follow whatever plan they had for me. I was going to live my life the way I wanted. Once they accepted that we could move forward.
"You feeling a little better?" Evan asked, wrapping his arms around me as well and kissing my head.
"Hm, better already." I told him quietly, "I'm glad you're here. You handled that better."
"You got emotional, that's okay."
"I just want to get away from here." I murmured.
"I'm sure things will work out, Zo. Everyone just needs to calm down and let things sink in. We're here another two days. I'm sure either your mom or dad will contact you."
I sighed, "It doesn't matter either way. I said what I wanted to get off my chest." Pulling away from Evan I smiled at him, "After this, we deal with Priscilla."
He rolled his eyes at me, "I knew you were going there." He then looked at me again and smiled, "That was the deal, so yeah, we'll deal with Priscilla after this trip."
We took a cab to the hotel to drop our luggage and then headed into town together. It was a nice change, helping me get my mind off things. Evan made sure to entertain me, trying to make me laugh. He didn't need to put much effort into it though. Everyone liked hanging out with Evan since he was easy to get along with. He never left my side and made sure I could lean on him when I felt down. I was definitely going to marry this guy.