Sebastian
I went to pick off my father from the airport. I haven't seen him in a year. He looked a little older than last year. His hair was whiter, and his back was a little hunched. But his appearance was impeccable, as always, he was perfectly shaved and his expensive hand made suit made him look like a powerful man, not that he wasn't.
I took his luggage and threw it in the trunk of my black hummer.
"Hello son" he said as he got in the car and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"Hello father" I said.
"Are you ready for tonight?" I asked
"I'm never ready for that party son" he said with a smile.
I laughed
"neither am I " I said.
Aunt Rose's parties always ended bad. If it wasn't someone fighting, or someone offended by all the hard jokes my cousins made, was someone fighting, or some big scandal coming out, once someone really drunk puke all over the diner table.
It wasn't me but It was hilarious.
Aunt Rose's parties where intense.
I took my father home so he could say hi to Sylvie, he and Sylvie cared a lot for each other.
And then we head to the party.
Everyone was so nicely dressed, with tuxes and long shiny dresses. But me? Not at all I was always a ripped jeans, T-shirt and a hoodie kind a guy. I wasn't putting on a tux that's for sure, not even if I was going to the queen's royal palace. I didn't even shave my beard.
The line of cars was so long. I was getting a little anxious, and I got a little nervous about if Valerie was showing up or not. Actually I was feeling excited to see her, excited to see how was she going to react when she saw me. I imagined the whole thing in my mind, she was going to drop dead.
When we entered the house there was a waiter offering cocktails and taking our coats.
As every year, the house was nicely decorated, with Christmas ornaments all over the place. A huge Christmas tree surrounded with gifts and a diner table long enough to sit an entire country.
I spotted my cousins at the back. They were all laughing like crazy. I smiled, I was so happy to see them. And yeah, they were weird, but they were certainly fun.
"Hello Bass" Rachel hugged me, she was carrying her baby on one hand.
"Well, hello there" I said with a baby voice to her baby.
"Looking good rach" I said to her.
"Thanks, you couldn't put on a tie? What's that you're wearing?" she said pointing to my grey hoodie.
"It's Gucci" I said in a sarcastic way, I never dressed up with labels. Rachel and I laughed.
I kept walking to where my cousins were.
Everyone hugged me and then they slapped my head. It was something we did every time we saw each other.
We were all crazy, more when we were together. It wasn't easy being a part of us, we always make fun of everyone around us, telling hard jokes and slapping each other.
All my cousins were very rich and successful. Most of them went to work for our fathers, who they own together an investment firm all over the country. The had offices in New York, Houston, Washington and California. Each brother was in charge of an office.
It was just me who rebelled myself and put on a business of my own. I didn't want to spend my life behind a desk, much less making numbers. I was awful at math. My dad didn't like it at first, but I didn't care, and he had to accept my life as it was. As I wanted to live it, as hard as it was for him.
I was a disappointment for him. His only son, not working for him. What a tragedy.
Some of my cousins were already married and some were living the sweet life, like me. Yeah, my life was sweet.
But something that we had straight in our family was, that the Carter men could never disrespect a woman, could never cheat, and could never be with each other's girlfriends or wives. Because we were gentlemen. And we were always taught that.
As my cousins were laughing and making fun of who knows what I kept looking at the front door to see if Jim and Valerie were coming, but there was no sign of them.
Maybe they weren't coming
Then I heard my crazy aunt Rose screaming
"Diner is served!!!!"
She was wearing a big, very big, red dress with sequels pine trees and little santas embroidery, it was a disaster.
So everyone went to the big table, where delicious food was served. There were like 5 enormous turkeys, potatoes, carrots, wine, a big feast. Everything smelled so great.
I sat next to my cousin Harry and in front of my aunt Rose, who needed two chairs to sit with that big dress.
We were starting to dine when I dared to ask.
"Aunt Rose, where is Jim? Isn't he coming?" I said trying to hide my obvious interest.
"Yes of course he's coming, he must be late, and he's bringing a girl" she said with a gossipy face and I felt a knot in my throat
"speaking of...." she said looking at the entrance where Jim and Valerie were getting off their coats.
My hands started sweating.
It was her
What the fuck was wrong with me, why was I so nervous
I felt out of breath.
As they were approaching, my aunt Rose stood up to greet them.
"Hello my baby" she said hugging Jim and kissing him non stop on the cheek.
Valerie was standing next to him, looking blushed and nervous. I remembered that blushed face and my heart warmed a little. I took a quick glance to her, she was wearing a tight shiny short golden dress, she grew up so nice, her boobs were bigger and her body was so hot, her hair was still blonde, and her face was still the same as 15, her angelical face that looked like she still was fifteen years old.
"Oh my god, you must be Valerie, welcome" my aunt hugged her and then said "please come sit, I saved you a seat next to me".
Fuck
That meant that they were seating right in front of me.
"Thank you, sorry that we are late, we got stuck on traffic" Valerie said with her sweet voice. Anyone could fall in love with this girl just with the sound of her voice.
Oh god, I couldn't breathe.
This was going to be awful.
Jim pulled the chair for her and she took a seat. Then Jim sat next to her and said
"Hello everyone! This is Valerie, Valerie this is everyone" he said, everyone turned to them, said hi and went back to their conversations. As if no one cared. It was so loud in the room.
I really hoped that Jim gave Valerie a heads up on our crazy loud family. But most of all, on his crazy mother.
Jim was the only one of my cousins who was different, he had dark hair and brown eyes, he was still good looking, but different. We always made fun of him for being the different one, we told him that he was adopted, that he was the ugly one. He was the black sheep, he wasn't as muscular as the rest of us, but he was certainly the smartest.
I tried to be focused on my food and not look up. I didn't wanted her to see me.
Just eat and then fake some
Illness and leave early, that was the plan.
I tried to ignore her and tried to chat with Harry. Avoiding eye contact.
Until Jim called me.
"Sebastian how is work?" He said politely, he was always so serious. I looked up and tried to keep my gaze to Jim.
Don't look at her
Don't look at her
"It's great actually, how about you?" I said keeping eye contact with him.
"Great, I am working here at the firm, but I just got promoted, I'm going to be the CEO at the new firm at Chicago, I'm moving there next month" he said
"Hey that's awesome man, congrats" I said trying to sound cool
And I did the inevitable, I looked at her, she was smiling at me, listening attentively to our conversation.
"This is Sebastian, one of my cousins" Jim said to Valerie while he took a big bite of turkey.
She looked at me and said with a smile
"It's nice to meet you"
"Me too" I said with a weird smile.
Didn't She recognized me??
She didn't, I thought, if she had, she could have a reaction or something.
So I relaxed a bit. She might not remember me. I felt a little betrayed that she didn't remember me, but hey it was a relief.
So I decided to make a little small talk with her
"So, Valerie, what do you do?" I asked with a smile hoping that she doesn't recognize me.
"I am a journalist, I write for a newspaper"
"That's boring" I said behind a cough, I couldn't help it, I still hated her for what she did to me, for leaving me like that, for nicknaming me Bass Breath. So I was going to play a little with her. Her eyes grew wide and then she said with a defensive tone
"Why do you think it's boring?"
"I don't know, I think newspapers are boring"
"So you just don't care what happens around you?" She ask defensive
"No actually I don't" I said
"I actually write for the sports section" she said.
"Well that's a little less boring" I said trying to sound like I didn't give a crap.
she blushed, she wasn't liking me and she obviously didn't have a clue of who I was .
"So, how did you guys meet?" I asked trying to make small talk, she looked like she was going to respond, when Jim interrupted
"We met a baseball game, and I fell for her the minute I saw her" Jim said looking at her with loving eyes.
I coughed-laughed a little choking with the water I was sipping.
"Oh my god, that's cheesy, I didn't know you were such a romantic Jim" I said laughing and Harry laughed as well. That wasn't weird between us, me and my cousins, we always gave each other hell about almost everything.
Valerie's face blushed. But she looked angry at me, like she really couldn't stand me.
Jim was so deep into her. I've been there too pal, But not anymore.
Jim sensed a little tension in our conversation and then he interrupted
"Sebastian here owns a skate park" he said to her, and with that Valerie started choking with the piece of food she was swallowing.
Why did you have to say that, Jim
"You know, Valerie has told me that she used to skate, you should invite her to your park sometime" Jim continued. Valerie kept coughing and her face was turning purple.
Then she looked at me again. With her big eyes. Trying to figure me out.
"Excuse me, what was your name again?" She looked at me with wide eyes and I said with a huuuugeee smile
"I'm Sebastian, but everyone calls me Bass" and I smirked.
She went pale, it looked like she had seen a ghost, and that ghost was me. She was paralyzed.
Jim noticed and said "are you alright sweetie?"
After a few seconds of and intense gaze between the two of us, Valerie cleared her throat and then said looking at Jim.
"Yes, sorry excuse me I need to use the ladies room"
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A/N
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