Page 67 of Havoc
The dinner the previous evening with his dad had gone well. To Lawrence’s surprise, he hadn’t made any of his usual comments, but he figured it was because the other man wanted to enjoy his birthday. He’d hoped it would continue at the family dinner. So far, he hadn’t had to deal with comments from his dad, but his aunt Claudia was a different story.
From the moment he’d introduced Remy, his aunt had made several slick comments about their relationship and quoted bible verses at every turn, even when it had nothing to do with the topic. Several times, he’d envisioned strangling her, and at one point, he hadn’t realized he’d raised his hand to do so until Remy took it and placed it in his lap.
His aunt Gloria, bless her no-cooking soul, always did everything she could to steer the conversation to something else.
“Remy,” she started, immediately after another comment from his aunt Claudia. “You said you worked at Cayman Industries. I read an article on them recently. What do you do for them?”
Lawrence hadn’t felt the need to tell everyone precisely what Remy did. Mainly because they wouldn’t see most of them again. He took his father in small doses, and he took most of his family members on that side in even smaller ones.
“I handle operations,” Remy responded.
“You have a business degree?” Claudia’s youngest, Marie, asked.
“And a law degree.”
“You’re a lawyer?” Claudia asked, almost surprised.
“In a sense.”
Lawrence knew Remy’s law degree focused on contract law. Neither of them felt the need to elaborate, though.
“Did you have a specific focus?” Marie asked. “I’m studying business administration, but I need a focus, and I’m having difficulty choosing between two.”
“Your focus is going to depend on what you want to be able to do with your degree when you graduate,” Remy stated. “Do you know what that is?”
“Marie wants to work in finance,” Claudia cut in.
The mentioned woman shook her head with an eye roll. “I want to work in advertising, but I don’t know if pursuing an advertising or marketing degree would be better.”
“Marketing will give you a deeper comprehension because they’ll focus on teaching you market research, consumer behavior, and brand communications, and you can use those things to advertise. That’s the one I suggest if you want to branch out and open your own company at some point because you need those fundamentals. If you don’t want to do that, then an advertising degree will work for what you want since you’ll get some marketing aspects.”
“I don’t know if I want to run my own business,” Marie stated thoughtfully.
“Changing your major now will have you in school longer. You’ll have to go for another four instead of two,” Claudia stated discouragingly, and Lawrence wasn't the only one who noticed.
“You can break into the advertising field with a two-year degree,” Remy stated passively before taking a drink from his glass.
“Really?” Marie asked. “I didn’t know that. I’ll have to look into it.”
It was clear that Claudia was not happy about that fact, but before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door. She got up to answer it, and Marie thanked Remy before entering the kitchen with her empty cup.
When Claudia returned, he almost groaned out loud at the two women who entered behind her. He recognized them as her most recent ex-husband's sisters, Anita and Sally. If bible thumping were an Olympic sport, those two would always take gold and silver. He’d only been around them a few times when Claudia had been married to their brother, but the encounters were always the same.
Lawrence slid his eyes to his dad, who was trying to avoid his stare. He refused to believe he didn’t know these two were coming. His irritation was palpable, and Remy rubbed circles on his wrist. The roaring of his blood pressure increasing was the only thing he could hear for a moment. So, he missed Claudia's introductionregarding Remy and whatever they said at first until Remy’s thumb stopped moving on his wrist.
“Repeat that,” Remy stated as Lawrence tuned back in.
“We can fix the two of you,” Anita stated. “Sally and I are ordained ministers.”
“We’re not broken, and you can get ordained online. Doesn’t make you special,” Remy responded.
“We can cure you of this affliction with prayer. All you have to do is believe you can be saved,” Sally stated.
Lawrence felt so stupid. He’d believed his father wanted to spend his birthday with him. However, this seemed to be the goal the whole time. Why else would those two have been invited and then say some shit like that unprovoked. He could feel Remy’s irritation. His boyfriend had been brushing off everything said that day, but speaking of them being broken seemed to be his limit. Lawrence had a thought.
“I’ll do it,” he stated.
“What?” Remy asked, his attention snapping to him.
