That following Tuesday came faster than I had imagined it would. My trip home from Harper had been good, though it was weird returning to an empty house. My parents had left on Thursday night so they could get to Greece right away on Friday morning and not miss a second of sightseeing and being horribly obvious tourists. I really loved my parents, but I knew that they’d wind up being the gawking ones with their cameras permanently attached to their faces for their entire stay. I’d made the most of my time alone, eating frozen cookie dough from a tube, watching chick flicks until I inevitably passed out on the couch, and of course, spending ridiculous amounts of time on the phone with Zac. His suburb was about an hour from mine if the traffic was good, and since it was Thanksgiving, he’d allotted closer to two hours, meaning that I had to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at precisely nine in the morning. He told me that it would give us plenty of time to get to Isaac and Taylor’s condo, get those introductions out of the way and then give us time to just hang out for an hour or so before heading over to his parents’ house at three.
I waited rather impatiently for him, sitting in our front bay window, staring at the road in front of our house as if watching diligently would make him arrive faster. My overnight bag was all packed and sitting in front of me filled with more than twice as many outfits as I would need for the three days I was planning to stay. I couldn’t help it. I knew that if I didn’t have a plethora of options as to what I could wear to his parents’ house, I would have a minor panic attack, thinking everything I had packed was unsuitable. Instead, I chose the proactive route and packed all of my most sensible and yet trendy sweaters.
As the time began to near ten, I started to grow nervous, hoping that he hadn’t been in an accident or something. I knew better than to call and ask if he was lost because I’d tried multiple times to give him directions to my place, all attempts in vain as he claimed he knew exactly where the main street that ran parallel to my own was located. Rather than bruise the fragile male ego, I let him win that battle, assuming that I’d receive a call from him eventually admitting defeat. However, Zac stuck true to his word and found my place rather easily, or so he later claimed. When I saw his car approaching my house, I practically flew off of the window seat and ran outside, throwing myself at him the second he had stepped out.
“Geez… I guess you missed me,” he laughed, before accepting a hungry kiss from me, sending his back colliding with his driver’s door.
“You know you missed me, too, so just shut up,” I smiled up at him, “That was a damned long five days.”
“Sure was. Thank god Isaac and Taylor have a spare bedroom so I can show you just how much I missed you,” he murmured in my ear. I just moaned softly and lifted myself onto my tiptoes so I could kiss him again, careful to press the full length of my body against his while doing so.
“Well, we have to get there before you can do that,” I said, “So let’s go!”
“Can I use the bathroom first, please? That wound up being a three hour drive. Stupid holiday traffic…” he told me as I led him into the house, “Nice place.”
“Thanks. Bathroom’s right here.” He nodded and went inside before closing the door, leaving me in the hallway to put on my coat and gather my bag and purse. As I spotted a large black frame on the wall in the hallway, I smiled and waited next to it for Zac to emerge.
“Whatcha doin’?” he grinned, kissing me again. I pointed to the frame.
“See? Fat babies are cute, aren’t they?” I asked as we looked together at a collage of a variety of pictures from my first two years of life.
“Precious. This one is my favorite,” he said, suppressing laughter as his index finger motioned towards one of me clutching an empty beer bottle and smiling widely.
“Oh my god! My dad is so evil! He sneaks this picture back in every once and awhile until my mom takes it back out and the whole process starts again. They’re so ridiculous. I swear to god, they flirt like they’re in fifth grade or something.”
“So you were just a little lush from day one, huh?” he asked, taking my duffel bag from my hand and following me to the door. I scoffed and locked the door behind us.
“Not so much. My parents had been having a cookout that day and one of my dad’s stupid friends didn’t quite make the garbage with the bottle. Of course my dad thought it was hysterical that I latched onto it and wouldn’t let go so he took a picture of me before my mom threw a fit. Or at least that’s how they tell it,” I explained, “No, I actually didn’t drink at all until college. I was VP of the student government, senior class president, I played in the marching band, all that kind of thing.”
“Did you go to band camp?” he smirked as he made his way around the front of the car to his side.
“No, and I didn’t play the flute either, so knock it off. And I already know that you got a drinking ticket in high school, you rebel you.”
“Yeah, I hung out with the partying crowd some. Not much else to tell, though.”
“No nerdy extracurriculars?” I asked, leaning back into the seat and smiling at him while he buckled himself in.
“Absolutely not. You’re the nerd in this relationship, remember?” he teased.
“That’s it, I’m out of here!” I exclaimed, reaching for the door handle only to see the lock snap down as I did.
“That might have been more convincing if you’d taken off your seatbelt first,” he said, reaching over and taking my hand his once we were out of the driveway and onto the road.
“You caught me. If I leave, I’ll have a turkey-less belly tonight, and I’m not a fan of that option. I’ll just have to put up with your verbal abuse,” I sighed dramatically, trying to hide the smile that was threatening to spread.
“Damn straight,” he stated, giving my hand a squeeze before we merged onto the interstate and started our trip.
In true suburban holiday fashion, the traffic was horrendous and it took us almost as long to get to Isaac and Taylor’s condo as it had taken Zac to come pick me up.
“Here we are!” he announced, getting out of the car and letting me out before grabbing my bag out of the backseat, “And Esme. Did you pack your entire closet in here? This bag is ridiculous!”
“You want me to look good for your family, don’t you?”
“You always look good,” he smiled, kissing me quickly before leading me towards the front door. He pushed the doorbell incessantly until someone opened the door.
“What the fuck?!” someone yelled from within before the door jerked open revealing a tall, thin guy with light brown hair who looked to be several years older than Zac, “You have a key, you know!” Zac closed his eyes in obvious annoyance and jerked a thumb in my direction.
“What a lovely first impression you just gave of yourself to Esme, Ike. Jesus…” he muttered, motioning for Isaac to move so I could enter.
“Sorry. You just know how much that drives me insane.”
“Which is exactly why I do it, big brother! Now, Esme, this is my oldest brother, Isaac. Isaac, this is, Esme.”
“Hi, Esme. It’s great to meet you. I’m sorry your first impression of me was me screaming at Zac, but he just has that effect on people.”
“Tell me about it. I should know, I’m the one dating him,” I smiled, obviously meeting Isaac’s approval as he returned my smile before shooting one at Zac.
“I actually like this one, Zac. Seems like she can keep you in your place,” he joked.
“Oh, she knows how to do that all right,” Zac said, “Now can we get off the landing and go upstairs now please?” Isaac nodded and moved aside once again so Zac and I could make our way up the split level into what I found to be the living room. It was modestly decorated with black leather furniture creating a stark contrast with the white walls and red accents. The kitchen was adjoined through a large archway and four doors lined the far wall.
“That’s Isaac’s room, the bathroom, the spare room, and Taylor’s room,” Zac explained before entering the second door from the right.
“Taylor’s getting ready,” Isaac told us. Zac just smiled at him.
“Yeah, great Ike. See you later,” he said before shutting the door.
“I don’t want to know…” I could hear Isaac say to himself before walking away.
“Well that was very rude,” I stated as strongly as I could while Zac began an assault on my neck.
“He’ll get over it.” He took a five second break to turn on the radio and chuck his jacket onto the nearby dresser before pushing mine from my shoulders and sending it in the same direction.
“I have to meet your parents in a few hours! How can I do that smelling like sex?” I asked, gasping as he roughly unbuttoned my jeans and pushed the down to the floor.
“You can always take a shower if you want to,” he said, “Now will you be quiet, you’re distracting me!” I just smiled back at him and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him down on top of me and pretending like his two brothers, one of whom I hadn’t even met yet, weren’t within hearing distance of our soon-to-be escapades.
Thankfully, I hadn’t gotten too worse for the wear and determined that I would be okay to go to dinner without showering and therefore completely starting over, so I consented to taking my sweet time re-straightening my hair and fixing my makeup while Zac picked out what I would wear.
“You should wear this,” he said, handing me the pink sweater I’d packed.
“Why this one?” I asked as I put my makeup back in its case.
“Because it’s the one you wore on our first date and that obviously went well, so if you wear it tonight, then it just has to go well, too.” I took the sweater from him and slipped it on.
“You’re too cute, did you know that?” I inquired as my hands slid around his waist and pulled him to me.
“Of course I know that! What do you take me for?” he teased, not allowing me to pull away as I attempted to do so in mock disgust, “Now, are you ready to go meet Taylor?” I nodded and followed him back out into the living room where Taylor and Isaac were watching TV.
“Taylor, this is Esme,” Zac said with a smile. Taylor rose and headed towards me, sticking his hand out and grinning.
“It’s great to finally meet you!” he said. I couldn’t do anything but shake his hand for a few moments. There was one little thing that Zac had failed to mention. Taylor was gorgeous. Damn it.