After work the next day, Zac was sitting in traffic, waiting to get home. He'd been stuck in what looked like a parking lot for an hour now and he wasn't any closer to home than he had been the last time he looked at the clock. Sighing, he picked up the phone and called home. "Hello?" Gwen's voice said after a ring or two.
"Hey baby," Zac said.
"Where are you?"
"In traffic," Zac said. "I won't be home for a while. I didn't know traffic was going to be this bad."
"That's okay, sweetie," Gwen said. "I'll have dinner ready for you when you get here."
"You actually made dinner?" Zac asked, a smile on his face. Gwen was not the housewife type. When she tried to make dinner once before, when they were going out the first time, and she nearly burned the house down.
"Of course!" she said. "My culinary skills have gotten much better since the last time I tried to cook."
"Well at least I know the building will still be there by the time I get home." Gwen sneered at him and he could barely hear it through the phone, but he laughed anyway. "I'm sorry."
"Your mother called again," Gwen said. "I talked to her."
"Did you?"
"Yeah! She's a really nice woman; I don't know why you don't get along with her." Zac didn't say anything to that. "We didn't speak for long but I told her when you normally work so she wouldn't miss you every time she calls. She wants you to call her back."
"All right. I should probably do that now, considering I won't be going anywhere for a while."
"Okay, honey. I'll see you when you get home."
"I love you," Zac said.
"I love you too, dear." Zac hung up the phone and sighed, resting his head against the headrest. This traffic was crazy. It would probably be easier just to walk home. The apartment building wasn't that far away from the studio�a couple of miles�and, yeah, it would take a while to get there, but traffic was so bad the idea of walking was seeming more and more pleasant.
He picked up his phone again and called home. He'd avoided calling home for the simple reason that Taylor might pick up the phone. If he did, Zac was prepared to hang up and try again later, but he was lucky. His little sister Avery picked up the phone.
"Yes?" she asked, sounding annoyed. Zac stifled a groan; this was almost not worth it.
"Hey Ave." There was a long pause. "Ave?"
"I'll get Mom." Zac sighed. The whole family was mad at him for leaving, and it was even worse when he left and didn't say goodbye to anybody. His only regret was not getting to say goodbye to his little sisters and his little brother. They didn't do anything and they got the same treatment as everyone else, when they didn't deserve it.
"Hello?"
"Hi Mom."
"Oh, honey! How are you doing?"
"I'm just fine, Ma," Zac said. "I'm on my way home from work and it's like a parking lot out here. Gwen told me you called so I figured I should before it gets too late over there."
"Yes, I spoke to Gwen."
"I heard. So, do you hate her too?"
"Zac, I don't hate anybody," Diana said. "She seems like a really nice girl. She was very polite. How does your apartment look?"
"Fabulous," Zac said. "Gwen did an awesome job decorating."
"Oh, so it's all done?"
"Well, there's still some things here and there that we could use, but, yeah, it's done." Zac paused. "So how is everybody?"
"They're good�they're good. Everybody's doing really well. They all miss you, Zac."
"It doesn't sound like it."
"They're just a little let down. They're afraid they're not going to see you again."
"That's not true," Zac said. "You're going to bring them when you come out here for Thanksgiving, aren't you?"
"Oh, so I'm coming out there now, am I?"
"Well I kind of figured that's what you wanted to do, so you could see my new place and everything. There's no way I'm going to come out there with Taylor around�"
"So I can't bring Taylor?"
"Of course not!"
"Zac, this is getting really ridiculous. Taylor is your brother�"
"Who fucked my girlfriend," Zac muttered.
"Zachary!"
"It's true though, Mom. It's a big deal and I�I just can't stop thinking about it, all right? I can't look at him without thinking of that."
"Come on, Zac. He is still your brother, and you have to admit Ginger wasn't all you thought she would be."
"What? Don't even say that, mother!" Zac yelled. "I don't even want to talk about this. Are you coming for Thanksgiving?"
"Yes."
"All right. Get a flight, don't bring Taylor, and then call me back with details. Until then, everything's fine here. Don't make me regret this." Zac hung up the phone and threw it onto the passenger's seat next to him. Traffic inched on, and he was home in twenty minutes.
Opening the door, Zac let out a deep breath. Gwen poked her head into the hallway. "Hey baby!" She walked down the hall and greeted him at the door. "How are you feeling?"
"Exhausted," he said. "Remind me to never drive in this city again!" She laughed.
"Okay, honey. Come on, I've got dinner done." She led him into the dining room and he paused at the doorway, looking over the food on the table. "What?"
"So I'm guessing you had more than just a little conversation with my mother." Gwen smiled.
"Yeah, I mentioned I had no idea what I wanted to do for dinner tonight and she suggested something," Gwen told him. "I just hope it turns out all right."
"We'll see," Zac said. He and Gwen sat down. It was obvious his mother had a hand in this dinner; Gwen had not only made a main course, but she also cooked vegetables, which she never would have thought of without a nagging mother in the way. "I really appreciate this, Gwen." She shrugged.
"What else am I going to do?" she asked. "I sit around here all day, I might as well have dinner ready when you get home."
"Congratulations, Gwen," Zac said. "You're a housewife."
"That's not funny!" He laughed. "I am so much more than a housewife. Just not right now, okay?"
"We need to find you some friends," Zac said. "Maybe we can have Linds come out here sometime and the two of you can go shopping."
"Shopping with Lindsay? I don't know if that's such a good idea. We can spent a paycheck in five minutes."
"There's a limit on the credit card for a reason, Gwen."
"True. So, did you talk to your mother?" Gwen asked. Zac nodded. "Is she coming out here for Thanksgiving?"
"Yeah."
"That's good. Do you know who's all coming?"
"No," Zac said. "I'm sure it's going to be my parents and the little kids, but that could always change. Taylor is not coming; that's a definite."
"All right," she said, her voice lowering as she poked the food on her plate with her fork.
"What, do you want him to come?"
"No!" she said immediately. Zac gave her a look. "Taylor's my friend too, you know."
"Taylor's not your friend and he never was."
"How do you know?" she asked. He looked at her pointedly. "Nevermind. I just think this thing between the two of you is getting a little old. It's been over a month since it happened and he apologized for it."
"Am I the only one who understands how serious this is?" Zac asked. "He slept with my girlfriend. Repeatedly. Brothers don't do that sort of thing."
"But he's still your brother. Nothing's going to change that. You can never speak to him again but that will never change the fact that he's still you."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Fine. We need china."
"What?" he asked, looking up.
"China. Dishes. We need china if your family's going to come over for the holidays. You need it anyway for special occasions and everything. I've picked up a few magazines with china patterns so you can look at them later."
"Why don't you pick it out?"
"Because this is a personalized thing. Everyone takes a long time deliberating over what china pattern they're going to get. If you don't like any of the ones in the magazines then we can come up with our own."
"Why don't you just pick it out, Gwen? I really don't care." She huffed.
"Fine. I was thinking pink and purple with unicorns."
"What?! No!"
"Well if you don't like it, you'll just have to pick one out yourself," she said. He sighed. "Oh, don't look so dejected. It's not going to kill you to pick out a fricken china pattern."
"No, it's not that."
"Then what? Is my food terrible?" He smiled.
"No, Gwen, it's awesome. You did a wonderful job cooking. It's just�all of this is kind of weird, don't you think? You and me living in here together, picking out china patterns and everything� It kind of seems like we're married." She sat back to think about it.
"Yeah, it does."
"Doesn't that scare you?"
"It's not like we are married, Zac," she said, smiling. "Yeah, it may seem like it but we're not. There aren't really any ties here, Zac."
"Yeah there is."
"What?"
"Think about it. If we broke up, what would happen? You've got your stuff all over the place. It'd kind of be like a divorce."
"Zac, it's all your stuff. It's your money. I just picked it out," she said. "Don't worry about it, okay? Nothing's going wrong, we're both comfortable here with each other�you have nothing to feel weird about."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Geez, baby, you really know how to ruin a mood," Gwen said.
"Do I?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
In a swift moment the food was on the floor and Zac had pulled Gwen onto the table.