chapter61 Family friend

she moved back to her apartment for two reasons.

1- for thing to go back normal. after saying her old home for three days, she missed waking up in her boring, plain house.

2- ever since 'the Jasmine incident', Mrs stepmother has been trying to convince Anna and her dad to talk to her about enrolling for counselling sessions. something about 'near rape experiences can lead to trauma'. she isn't that weak besides, just because she hugged Ivory once (in a drugged state) doesn't mean that the woman can suddenly make decisions concerning her life.

*knock knock -the knock on the door pulled her out of her own head.

"excuse me Miss Grace?"

"Luna? what can I do for you?" believe it or not, Luna has been working under Grace for almost eight months already and is doing a good job. the young lady has familiarize herself with the work place environment and has made friends with her fellow employees and although they're not close on a personal level, they have a good if not strong mentor and prodigy relationship.

"today is my birthday" obviously, the pointy birthday hat and the stash that say "happy my birthday" gave her away. not to mention the slice of chocolate cake she is holding. "and I came to give you a slice of cake"

the young lady smiled, not the professional smile Grace had taught her or the nervous one she used around her ironlady boss, a genuine smile. she kept the cake on the table and turned to leave.

"wait one minute" Lucas had told her about Luna's birthday and Anna and Maya insisted that she give his boyfriend's sister a gift. according to Anna, 'being a family friend is just as important as being a girlfriend'. finding a suitable gift for Luna was easy. from her social media posts, anyone could tell that the girl loves shiny expensive things. "I got you a birthday gift".

the gift wasn't wrapped so the birthday girl could clearly see what it is.

"oh my God! this is the latest edition of Quip fashion house bag collection. it won't be out till next month! how did get it?"

"I have my ways" Grace replied coolly.

"thank you. thank you. thank you!" the lady rushed over to her and hugged her. squeezing the internal organs out of her body.

"too much touching, too much touching" Grace hissed

"sorry. sorry and thank you" the birthday girl practically skipped her way out of the office.

Grace sighed heartily as her boyfriend's sister left the office smiling, she should probably do more nice things for others... or not. whatever.

"family friend" she muttered.

Lucas invited her to his family house to formally introduce her to his family as his girlfriend and she is freaking out. all thanks to her so called friends.

her plan was to go to Lin mansion Friday night, be herself and she how things goes.

but Anna and Maya just had to ruin things. they said "meeting the family, signifies that the relationship is serious and actually has a future."

"Lucas is a family man" they said. "if the family doesn't approve, everything will fall apart"

"smile as much as you can" Anna said

"be as nice and polite as possible especially to the mother"

"be a gentle lady, dazzle them with your lady charms" only the one above knows what Maya means by that.

"wear mild colors"

it gets really weird from here

"eat as little as possible" noted.

"don't eat any spinach. it's a curse" -what?

"but if the spinach is served on your plate, eat it. that means it's a blessing"

"are you guys just making this up to scare me? I hate spinach"

"don't look Lucas's mother in the eye. she'll think you're challenging her and that won't end well" -seriously?

"don't be too chummy either she'll take it as sign of weakness and try to push you over" -true.

"last and definitely not least, during this kind of dinners that is always a weird relative or family friend that would join either by invitation or by 'coincidence' either way, this relative always has high standards and will be there to annoy the crap out of you but if you persevere in politely answering or ignoring that person, then bingo bongo, his family adores you"

she didn't know what to believe. gentle lady? mild colors? spinach? challenges? they could just be messing with her but some of it made sense. or not?

she remembered when Anna brought Ethan home, Ivory's weird friend from her former neighborhood showed up.

FLASHBACK...

it was two years ago..

Anna was dressed in a white flowery dress trying to look all pretty but she wasn't fooling anyone the girl had the habit of dressing in color rioting clothes and walking around the house with messy uncombed hair. it was actually quite funny seeing Anna dressed up in the house and excited over a boy. it made Grace roll her eyes all the way to back of her head.

another funny fact is that her dad hated Ethan's guts. he hates all of his daughters' boyfriends but Ethan and Anna's relationship was obviously a serious one and so was his hate.

when Ethan arrived, he looked like one of those boring gentlemen from the 80s. a smile on his face and a bouquet of flower in his hand, Ethan was determine to please.

the dinner was going pretty well. ivory did most of the talking while her husband grunted inaudible curses at the universe and.. Ethan. even Mark participated by asking weird questions like, why is Ethan's car black and not green or yellow. Grace ate silently, only looking up occasionally to give Ethan the stink eye. it was going well in every sense of the word until..

"Anna! you have grown so big. you live in a big house now and that's why you forgot about poor Aunt Penny"

Aunt Penny was a loud mouth but she made the boring dinner.. interesting at least for Grace.

Aunt Penny wanted the best for Anna and that's why she was advising Anna to marry a doctor instead because businessmen are the scums of the earth. according to her, businessmen lie, cheat and are cunning bastards, how else do they get people 'to give them money?'

it was funny when she was at the sidelines watching as Ethan and even her dad frowned when well wishing Aunt Penny insulted their noble profession.

but now it's her turn and it made her nervous. who knows what is being said about business -women.