Raylynn
What am I going to do, I don't want, no, I can't just cut Chris out of my life.
"I'm not going anywhere." Chris says. "I'm not letting them come between us."
Knock knock.
"Chris, Grandma says it's been thirty minutes and she wants Raylynn back right now!" Crispin yells through the door.
That makes laugh. I hop off Chris' lap and I look at my reflection in the window and see that my face doesn't look a mess. "Thank you, we'll talk about this more later and for the record, I'm not letting the come between us either." I lean down to kiss Chris' cheek but at the last minute, he turns his face and my lips touch his.
"Have a good day at work, Baby." He says.
I bite my bottom lip to control my smile. "You too."
I follow Crispin down a floor and to Grandma's office, as soon as we arrive, she's us both to work. "Raylynn, I want you to look over these documents and make sure everything is in place, no spelling or grammatical errors. When you finish, I want you to start making phone calls. The party will be January 2, 2015, I want you to get as much done as you can this week and next week so you can have the 12th off. Crispin, I want you to go to your dad's office and ask him for the approval sheet."
Crispin runs off to his dad's office. "Um, Grandma, why do I have the 12th off?" I ask.
"The 12th of this month is your birthday, isn't it?"
I nod.
"Then that's why, My dear. I don't want you to work on your birthday."
"I, uh, don't exactly have plans for that day so I would rather work." I explain. I haven't done anything for my birthday since Helen and her daughter's arrived. May doesn't know when my birthday is and my father doesn't say anything on the day either. For me, it's just another day.
Grandma puts the paper's she holding, down. "That was before you joined my family." Grandma winks. "Get to work and you'll see what I mean."
I work on everything Grandma gave me but by the end of the work day, I only have about half of it done. "Sorry, Grandma, I'll definitely finish it tomorrow." I say as we all, Grandma, Crispin, Chris and I, walk out of the building.
"Oh, My dear, I'm surprised you got as much done as you did, my last assistant wouldn't have gotten as far as you did today in a week." She waves it off.
"What's for dinner?" Crispin asks excitedly.
"I don't know, what do you want to eat?" Chris asks him, his fingers laced with mine as we head to the cars.
"Hmm, spaghetti!" Crispin shouts.
"You had spaghetti for lunch." I say.
"Chris' spaghetti is good, but Grandma's spaghetti is better. She puts chicken and sausage and mushrooms and big tomatoes in here spaghetti but don't worry, Raylynn, you can barely taste the mushrooms." Crispin informs me.
"So you all want to come home with me and then you expect me to feed you?" Grandma teased. "If I feed you, you'll never leave."
We got into the cars, My and Chris in Chris' car, Grandma and Crispin in Grandma's car.
"This isn't your house." I say as we pull it to a gorgeous cottage like house. It was smaller than Chris' house but by no means small. It had a more homey feeling than the other house.
"This is Grandma's house." Chris said as he got out. I waited for him to walk around and open my door, then he continued. "This is the house she and Grandpa shared. She has a room at our family home but she prefers to stay here."
Now knowing that his family owned Columbus Enterprises, I knew that Christian's grandfather, the previous owner, died in a horrible boating accident eight years ago. It was a big deal, you had to have not been born yet or had been living under a rock at the time to have not of heard about it.
"I like it, it has a comfortable feel to it." Chris kisses my temple and led us inside behind Crispin and Grandma.
"Can I help you in the kitchen, Grandma?" I ask as we all settle in.
"No thank you, My dear, let me do this alone, next Thursday when you come to dinner you can help me. On the menu that night will be Salmon and vegetable medley."
"Okay." I say and leave the kitchen.
In the living room, Chris and Crispin sat trying to decide on a movie to watch. Crispin wanted to watch Spider-Man 2, Chris wanted to watch X-Men: Days of Future Past. I broke up the squabbling and decided on a movie for them, the Avengers.
"Good choice, Baby." Chris said as he kissed my right cheek and then went to go fiddle with the tv.
Crispin came and sat on my left on the large couch. "Yeah, good choice, Baby." He said, trying to make his voice as deep as Chris' before kissing my left cheek.
I laughed, it was so cute. "You're both very welcome." I said, kissing Crispin's cheek and then Chris' after he started the movie.
"Hey, this is my girl, back off Crisp."
"You haven't asked her to be your girlfriend yet so she's fair game." Crispin replied.
"She's a little too old for you, don't you think, Crispin." Chris said in an annoyed tone.
"Are you calling Raylynn old, Chris?" Crispin asked.
While I laughed at this exchange, Grandma came in to check out the movie. "Enough, boy, Raylynn can choose who she likes, she's her own person and fighting over her won't help if she doesn't like either of you."
"Thank you, Grandma." I said with a giggle.
We had finished watching half of the movie when Grandma called us to come eat dinner.
"I'm stuffed." Crispin said as he finished all his dessert, blueberry pie.
"Me too, this was delicious, Grandma, thank you for having me over."
"You're welcome, Raylynn and you're welcome anytime."
Chris stood, "Raylynn and I will wash the dishes." He volunteered.
"Aren't you just the sweetest, volunteering your girlfriend for dish duty." Grandma cooed.
"She's not his girlfriend yet." Crispin muttered sleepily.
"Keep telling yourself that, kid." Grandma replied.
I went to the kitchen, Grandma went to her bedroom,and Chris carried Crispin to the couch. I'd already started the dishes by the time he returned. The silence between us as we washed wasn't uncomfortable but I had to break it. "This is very domestic."
Chris smiled. "Get used to it."
I laughed.
"I could get used to this, I want to get used to this." He said.
I looked at him and tilted my head to one side. "Why?"
Chris turned off the water. "Because I like this, us."
"I like it too." I said.
We finished the dishes in silence. We they were done, Chris carried a sleeping Crispin to his car and made the drive back to St. Victoria's so I could get my car. "Why don't you just let me pick you up and drop you off from home and work?" Chris asked.
I shrugged. "Why would you want to do that?"
"It's got to be easier than always bringing you back to your car at the end of the day and then driving yourself home when I could easily just take you home myself." He explained.
I nodded, he had a point. "Alright, we can give it a try."
"Thank you." He said as he pulled up into the St. Victoria's parking lot. "I'll follow you home so I know where to go tomorrow at 8:30am when I pick you up." He kissed my cheek and I got out of his car and into my own.
I drove to my house with Chris close behind. In less than 20 minutes, we arrived. I lived in a nice two story house. It had five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and of course, my bedroom, a basement.
I parked in front of the house, not wanting to tip Chris off as to how weird my step-mother was but also not wanting him to know how paranoid I was. I'll move it when he drives off. I thought. I waved to him when I reached the front the front door and he waved back but he never pulled off. I guess he's waiting for me to go inside. I opened the door then waved again. This time, he waved back and pulled off.
I was about to go back outside to move my car when the she-bitch from hell shouted my name. "Raylynn, get in this kitchen, right now!"
I closed the front door and went into the kitchen, already knowing what she was pissed about. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I found my father sitting with his newspaper and Helen standing, pacing with anger and her arms crossed. "How dare you!" She spat when she finally stopped pacing.
I wiped her spit off my cheek. "How dare I what?"
"You know what you did, Raylynn, don't try to be cute." My father said, placing his newspaper folded on the table.
In the corner of the kitchen, Meredith and Margret snicked.
"I won't know what I did unless you tell me." I countered.
"I told you last night money would be tight from now on but-"
Helen cut my father off. "But because of you, we had to spend money to eat out today for all three meals!"
I looked at Helen confused. "How is that my fault?"
*****
Author's Note:
To everyone reading this story: Thank you!
I love when you leave comments and I try to reply to them. They let me know people are reading and that they enjoy the story and want me to continue. I also enjoy the likes and the follows so thank you for that as well.
For those that haven't noticed, I update whenever I want. I'm about seven chapters ahead, so you've read chapter nine but I'm writing chapter 16. I do that so even when I don't actually write at least a week won't go by and I haven't posted anything.
So enjoy, keep following, liking, and commenting.
~Kendall