Meeting the parents Pt. 1

Rachel woke up to a silent house. She walked downstairs to find it empty as well. She figured Isaac left early to go to the office that morning. Coincidentally, she also found a note on the kitchen from Isaac confirming her thought. The note also has the details for the dinner they were supposed to go to this evening.

The rest of the day went by fast. Rachel spent most of her time arranging the furniture and stuff in the house. As expected she wasn't able to finish, not even just her stuff. Her bedroom was done though, she started to put her things in her bedroom first before moving on to the kitchen. It wasn't an easy job considering there was also Isaac's stuff. She didn't try to touch his stuff since she thinks that he might not like it.

When evening came, Rachel was sitting in the kitchen browsing through some job openings in the internet. She heard the front door open and as expected, Isaac came walking through.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Isaac asked her when he noticed her in the kitchen.

"I know, I'm just finishing up some stuff here." Rachel replied typing away in her computer. After she finished, she closed her laptop and walked upstairs.

Rachel could feel that Isaac was still upset with her from last night. She didn't know if asking that question was crossing a line but she figured Isaac wouldn't necessarily react like that if it weren't. She wants to apologize but at the same time, she feels awkward to do so. Besides, there are some more important things they need to focus on tonight.

It was hard for Rachel to choose what to wear. Isaac didn't necessarily specify in the note what kind of dress code they have at his parents' house or if they even have a dress code. Formal probably? What do women wear when they are going to meet their husband's parents during a family dinner for the first time? Rachel doesn't know. She haven't had the experience yet. She did meet some boyfriend's parents before but they probably knew that their son was dating her beforehand. This was so much different. Imagine meeting your son's wife for the first time that you didn't even know he was dating. They're probably gonna freak out.

In the end, she wore a simple black dress that reached just above her knees. After fixing her hair and applying some make up, Rachel walked down the stairs to find Isaac waiting for her. They both walked to Isaac's car and drove off. The drive was silent, none of them dared to speak the entire way. Rachel feels like she should at least apologize for what happened the night before, but couldn't really find the right words to say to Isaac. It didn’t matter anyway because she became distracted when they reached the neighborhood full of big houses, or maybe mansions. It seems that almost everyone in this neighborhood is rich.

The house was bigger than Rachel even expected and fancier. When Isaac stopped the car, a man approached her side and opened the door for her. He offered his hand to assist her as she got out of the car. Rachel was shocked but accepted it nonetheless. Once she got out of the car Isaac walked to her side and offered his hand. Rachel looked at him, trying to analyze his thoughts, before accepting it. She got nothing. Isaac had this emotionless expression in his face and she didn’t know what it could mean. To be fair, she doesn’t really know him that well to know what he was thinking. Somehow being reminded of it made Rachel feel something in her stomach. She didn’t know what it was but she can feel it.

When she finally held on Isaac’s arm, they walked together into the house. Rachel was in awe of the house when she first saw it. The house was even more impressive on the inside as it turns out. Rachel’s eyes were looking around the house as Isaac let her inside. She wonders how much bigger the rest of it was, how many rooms, how many bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms it could contain. The interior design was also amazing. All of it was probably very expensive.

Isaac led her through the foyer, towards another room. Rachel figured it was a living room, from the looks of it. In the room was a young woman sitting in one of the sofas. Her back was to Isaac and Rachel as she swirls the drink in the wine glass she is holding. Once she noticed the couple's presence, she turns around. A smile appears in her face once she recognize one of the two. She stands up and walks toward the couple.

"Zac," she opens her arms as an invitation for a hug, "I've been wondering if you'd show up."

Isaac lets go of Rachel and accepts the hug from the young woman, "Didn't really have a choice."

The young woman laughs in response to Isaac. She lets go of the hug and turns her attention to Rachel, who is standing awkwardly beside them. "Who's this?"

"This is-" Isaac was about to introduce the two when one of the maids entered the room.

"Sir Isaac, your father wants to see you in his office."

Isaac immediately looks at Rachel, as if asking. Rachel gives him a simple nod, as if to say she'll be fine. Before leaving, Isaac also turns to the young woman with a warning look. The young woman gives him a playful smile and waves her hands, shooing him to the direction the maid left off.

Once Isaac left the room, the young woman turns to look at Rachel with a smile. Rachel tried to hide her nervousness. However, she still looked back at her with an anxious smile. Her thoughts start to fill with overwhelming thoughts of what she should and shouldn’t do. She obviously do not know this person and she finds it awkward to interact, specially since it seems like this is someone Isaac is very close with. She's afraid she might blow their cover.

"Hi I'm Leila, Zac's sister," the young woman offers her hand to Rachel.

Rachel accepts Leila's hand and shakes it, "I'm Rachel, your brother's-"

"Wife?" Leila finishes. Rachel just nods in response. “Sorry I couldn’t attend the wedding.”

"Oh, that's okay," Rachel replies with a bit of hesitance in her voice.

"I was supposed to be the witness but I got caught up with work. Isaac left a bit of a mess.” Leila continues. “You know for someone who insists on making everything around him organized, he just couldn’t apply it on the business apparently.”

"Yeah, I guess," Rachel looks away and laughs.

"Did you noticed the cleaning habit yet?" Leila exclaims.

"Yeah, he scolded me for my messy apartment before we moved in."

"I hate it when he does that."

"I know right? Like sometimes I want to be left alone with my mess, please."

"Yes! Exactly!" Leila excitedly agrees. The two women laugh with each other. As they do, Rachel’s nervous feeling slowly faded away. They continue to talk as Leila asked some questions about Rachel.

Meanwhile, as the two women talk with each other, Isaac entered his father’s office. His father was sitting in his chair and seems to be reading some reports on his desk. He scanned the room and noticed an unfamiliar cabinet. He pointed to it and asked, “That looks new, where did you get it?”

His father looked over the direction he pointed at and answered, “You like it? I got from an old friend’s antique shop.”

”Very nice,” Isaac nodded his head as he continue to investigate the furniture. “What century is it from?”

”What game are you playing here son?” His father asked, suddenly getting impatient with him.

Isaac shrugged his shoulders, “What do you mean?”

”You obviously already know about the arrangement with the Longbournes, otherwise why else would you bring a girl here.” His father closed the files he was reading before, to intently look at Isaac.

”How did you find out?” His father asked when Isaac did not respond from his previous statement.

”Doesn’t matter,” Isaac dismissed. “Did you really think I wasn’t gonna find out?”

His father took a deep breath before answering, “No, but I was hoping that I’d be the one to tell you.”

Isaac scoffed at his father’s words. He wanted to say something to him, but he didn’t know how. He figured that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since his father was not one to listen. In the end, Isaac gave up and decided to just leave.

”It’s for your own good son.”

These words made Isaac stop from opening the door. All his life, whenever his father made him do something, especially those didn’t really want to, he was always told these same exact words. He believed it of course, he was his father after all and besides, parents usually does know what is best for their children, right? But why does this time feel different? He knows it’s different.

He turned back at the man, “How? How is setting me up for an arranged marriage without my knowledge or consent, for my own good?”

“I-“ His father tried to answer but the door opened, revealing his mom. “Let’s go eat boys.” His mom invites them without sensing the tension that was building up between the two. His father follows her immediately, “Come on Isaac.” Isaac takes a moment to compose himself before following his parents into the dining room.

Leila and Rachel walked to the dining room when a maid called them. In there, Leila introduced Rachel to her and Isaac’s parents. “Mom, Dad, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is our mom, Clara, and our dad, Simon.”

”Hi, I’m Rachel, nice to meet you both.” Rachel offered her hand to shake. The woman took a a moment to look at her before taking her hand, as did the man. Rachel’s anxiety started kicking in again as soon Isaac’s parents looked intently at her. She felt like she was being judged. In a way, maybe she was, after all they are meeting their son’s wife for the first time.

After what felt like ages for Rachel, Isaac’s parents stopped looking at her and sat down at the table. She sat beside Leila right across an empty chair beside their mother, which she assumes was meant for Isaac. Speaking of, where is Isaac? Rachel looked around for him as subtle as she can. When she couldn’t find him, her heart started beating faster and her hands began to sweat. The noise around he start to fade out as she began spiraling in her head.

Fortunately, Isaac walked in from the direction his parents came from, seemingly upset. She remembered that look from last night. Her eyes followed him as he approached the seat in front of her with his head down. Rachel wanted to know what he was thinking. She wanted to read his thoughts like a book. She stared at him, hoping to catch a glimpse of his eyes that will hopefully tell her what he was thinking. Unfortunately she didn’t get to, as he continued to keep his head down and proceeded to eat the food in front of him. Rachel gave up and tried to focus on eating her food as well.

“So, Rachel how did you know Isaac?” Isaac’s mother asked, breaking the silence that surrounded the dinner table and focusing on the new addition to their supposedly private family dinner.

Rachel instinctively looked up at Isaac. Unfortunately he wasn’t looking back at her. He faced his mom as he answered for Rachel, “We went to college together.” She frowned at him for answering.

Isaac’s mother frowned at him as well, before switching back her attention to Rachel, “How long have you two been dating?”

”Clara, you don’t even know if they’re-“ Simon started but as cut off when Isaac answered.

”A year and a half,” Isaac was the one to answer again. She didn’t know why he was doing this but it was really annoying her. She could answer the question on her own after all. Maybe he was feeling nervous and worried but that doesn’t excuse his actions. To Rachel, it was like Isaac doesn’t trust her to give the right answer.

“So it’s serious then?” Clara asked as she cut the food from her plate.

Rachel wanted to answer but Isaac beat her to it, “Yeah it is.”

Simon scoffed at his son’s response, “You’ve dated this girl for more than a year and you’re only telling us tonight?”

Isaac did not reply, instead he just glared at his father.

”I’m not buying it Isaac. You find out about the deal with the Longbournes and all of a sudden you bring this random girl home? You really think I’m stupid enough to believe this story of yours?”

“I don’t really care if you believe it or not. And you know what? We’re not just dating, we’re actually married.”

Clara gasped at her son in shock. Simon mockingly laughs at his son’s sudden revelation, “This is ridiculous.”

“Isaac why would you-“ Clara was about to say to Isaac but stopped mid sentence when her husband raised his hand at her, signaling her to stop talking.

Simon then became serious and turned to Rachel, “How much did he offer you? I’ll double it if you drop this act of yours.”

”I wasn’t-“ Rachel started but stopped in shock when Isaac stood from his chair and slammed his hands on the table, “Are you kidding me?!”

“Isaac!” Simon warned.

Even with his father's stern voice, Isaac did not back down. He stood his ground, glaring at his father. Simon stood up as well in an attempt to intimidate his son. When he did, Rachel noticed a small moment where Isaac’s eyes reflected regret. He blinked it away as soon as he realized the thought came to his mind. The two had, what seemed like, a staring contest of power. Rachel kept her focus on Isaac. She noticed him clenching his fists as he continue to try and stare down his father.

Simon took a deep breath and turned to Rachel once he realized Isaac was not planning to back down. “How much do you want? Give me a price and I will give it to you.”

Rachel turned to him and frowned. “I’m not, I don’t want anything-“

He didn’t even wait for Rachel to finish. He once again turned back to his son and said, “Do you know how embarassing this would be once the Longbournes find out? They are expecting you to marry their daughter in six months.”

Isaac shook his head and laughed bitterly, “Is that all you care about? You care more about what they will think than what I want?”

”Don’t make this all about you. The company needs this deal!”

“I don’t care! I’m not gonna go through with it.” With that Isaac storms out of the room.

Rachel, not really knowing what to do, kept her head down. Should she go after him or not? She doesn’t even know where he went. She could feel some eyes on her, probably from the rest of Isaac’s family. “I’m sorry, I…” In the end, she stood up and silently walked towards the direction Isaac went. ”Excuse me.”

She tried to run after Isaac, but he was nowhere to be found. Rachel found herself in an unfamiliar room, not really knowing where to go. As she continue to look around the room she was in, she couldn’t find any sign of Isaac. As a result, her head started to spin, her breath became shallow and her palms were sweating.

All of a sudden, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Rachel spun around to face the person who the hand belonged to. She was expecting Isaac but it was actually his sister.

”Hey,” Leila tried to calm her down as Rachel’s anxiety was becoming obvious. “You’re not gonna find him here. It’s probably best to give him some space first. You know, to cool his head.”

Rachel just nodded in response. As much as she would like to find Isaac, Leila was right. He needs his space for now, to compose himself. Unfortunately, now that Isaac was nowhere to be found, Rachel does not know where to go or what to do. She doesn’t know this place and she feels out of place.

By now, regret is starting to creep into Rachel’s mind. She’s starting to think that maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to her and Isaac’s deal after all. It just seems too much now. She doesn’t know Isaac that long but seeing his reaction earlier put her in a state of shock. For the few days that they’ve been together and from what she knew during their college days, Isaac did not seem like the person to suddenly blow up. He was always seemed silent and composed. She thought that it would’ve taken a lot for him to have that reaction and maybe it was.

Now that she thought of it, she probably would've reacted the same way he did, well minus the screaming at his parents and walking away. If she did that to her parents, they probably would've thrown her out and disowned her. But if they set her up with someone she doesn’t even know she definitely wouldn’t want to go through with it. Being married off to someone she doesn't know is not part of her goals in life.

Rachel did not even realize that Leila was already gone. She was now alone in the room. She looked around again and in the next room she found a door leading outside. She walked outside and was met with a cold breeze. The moon was bright, lighting her surroundings. Apparently she was at the backyard of the house. It was an open spaced yard with some grass. Not far from her, she could see a well lit pool.

Looking around, Isaac was still nowhere in her sight. Maybe he was still inside? In a different room probably? The house was really big after all, he could just be in one of the rooms inside. Or worse, he already left. If he already left then that means Rachel is now all alone and have no way of getting home since they drove in the same car. Before her thoughts could spiral more, Rachel closed her eyes and took deep breaths to calm herself.

As her mind began to calm down, she felt a hand hold her shoulder. She opened her eyes and it was Isaac. She took a breath of relief. She kept her eyes focused on Isaac, who seemed to look at the direction she came from. She wanted to read his thoughts, but just like before she couldn’t. It was like a constant reminder that she still doesn’t really know him.

“Did you left anything there?” Isaac asked.

”No.”

”Alright, come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Rachel followed Isaac as he made his way out of the yard. He led them to the garage where his car was. One of the house help saw them and greeted both of them. Isaac approached him and took the keys to the car.

“Where are we going?” Rachel asked as she got inside the car.

”Anywhere but here,” Isaac answered as he drove the car.