Page 94 of The Moon Also Rises
“Oh, you want to go for a country walk? Play Scrabble? Go rock-climbing?” I offer, the sarcasm thick and heavy in my voice. It has a depressingly familiar bitter taste too.
“No, I mean, let’s put ourselves in a situation where we physically can’t… succumb to temptation.”
“Isn’t that exactly what work is? And that tension is what we’re trying to nuke.”
“The tension at work is different. We’re forced to spend time together there, but what if we just hung out for a while? Maybe we’d find a better way to communicate and just be in each other’s company without it being weird.”
“Or without it involving nudity,” I add.
“Well, what I have in mind definitely would be better if we avoided nudity,” Rami says with a wary smile.
“What do you have in mind, Mr Events?”
“Come with me to visit my mom and sisters today,” he says it so casually it’s like he’s asking me to put the kettle on but my reaction is anything but calm.
“What?! Your family?”
“Yes, why not?”
“I don’t know them, and they don’t know me.”
“That’s kind of the whole point of you coming to meet them,” he says as he slowly pushes down the percolator.
“I don’t know, Rami, it’s a bit—”
“Look, you’d be doing me a favour. It’s a long story, but my mom worries about me living here in London and not really knowing anyone yet. If I brought a pal over, it would put her mind at rest.”
“But we’re not teenagers, Rami. Isn’t it a bit odd that you feel the need to bring a friend home?”
“I know it sounds strange, but it’s true. If you don’t want to, I understand.”
“No, it’s not that I don’t want to. I just don’t want to impose. It’s your family day.”
And nobody has ever asked me to meet their family. Nobody. Not one man in my life has ever invited me into their life in that way.
“Jake, you’d be the star of the show. And you’ll love my sisters. They rip into me way harder than you ever could. You’ll pick up some tips.”
“That does sound tempting,” I admit. But I don’t think that’s the main reason I want to say yes. I am also intrigued at the idea of meeting his family, at the prospect of finding out more about this man who continues to surprise, and frankly, impress me.
“Then you’ll come?” he asks and I see the lift in his body at the possibility. Before I have time to confirm or deny, he’s moving to grab his phone.
“I’ll just go call Mama to tell her to cook enough food for you,” he says halfway out of the door.
“She doesn’t need to—” I call after him, but he’s gone. Uncertain why he had to leave the room to call his mother, it does nothing to calm the new nerves I have that now mix with the agitation I was already feeling at realising how much I like Rami. But I can’t deny how both things are also making me smile.
Chapter Thirty
Rami
“Just put them in a cupboard somewhere. I don’t care where, just get them out of sight.”
“Rami, it’s like you think I don’t have better things to do,” Roxie grumbles.
“Well, do you?”
“I’m on my twenty-fifth row of a candy floss baby blanket even though I know nobody about to have a baby.”
“Then why are you making a baby blanket?”
