Ch.12~~~ Define Bad
The week of the dinner party flew by, much to Aadriana's dismay. She had arranged to have her hair braided after work on Thursday and after the six hour ordeal was complete she was very pleased with the results. She hadn't said mentioned anything to Howie about the change in hair style and figuring either he liked it or he didn't.
While dressing Friday evening she had a very stern talk with her sometimes mutinous inner voice.
"Listen here you, this is going to be one of those times when you are rooting for me not doing your best to confuse the hell out of me got it?"
To which she received no reply; not that she was expecting one. She had some music turned up very loud in effort to calm herself. "This is not a big deal ... you're going to get through this like you do everything else ... you are not the same person you were two years ago ... this is not a big deal," she repeated staring at herself in the mirror.
Just when she had thought up a plausible excuse not to go she heard the door bell which of course sent her puppy yapping directly to it.
"Damn," she muttered, "Coming," she yelled, "I have no idea why in all hell I agreed to this it's completely insane and," she stopped mumbling when she opened the door.
"You sure do clean up nice," he said in lieu of a traditional greeting.
"Thank you. You're not looking too bad yourself. That color really works for you," she said in a very effeminate drag queenish voice.
"Good you still have your sense of humor ... you're gonna need it. Ready?"
"As I'll ever be," she replied with no enthusiasm.
"We don't have to go. I mean I'd never hear the end of it but ... what the hell did you do to your hair?"
"You don't like it?"
"I like it it's just I dunno different. This is why you wouldn't let me come over last night, isn't it?"
"Guilty," she smirked raising her right hand, " It's a very functional hairdo. I can just tie it in a knot and go if I want. I like it."
"I guess I'll just get used to it. I like it better than some of the shit they made me do to my hair anyway. Okay, enough chit chat. I'm expected to be fashionably late, if we leave now I can still pull that off without getting dirty looks from my mom," he said looking at his watch.
"So what you're telling me is we're already late, meaning we'll be the last ones there, meaning everyone's already arrived, meaning people will stare," she whined sounding very worried.
"No biggie. Let's just go before I get yelled at by my mommy, giving everyone a real reason to stare," he said offering her his hand. She took it and muttered under her breath all the way to the car. The ride to his parent's home was a silent one, with only the occasional grumble or mutter from her more to herself than to him.
As he parked the car he finally spoke, "Anee, you're not getting nervous or anything are you? Cause I am and I just wanted to warn you about what's gonna happen in there. See, my parents have been on me lately along with my sisters and brother. It's all about why I haven't settled in to a life of domestic bliss, if you get my meaning. If it starts to get too much for you, just do something to let me know and say you need to go outside or something. I'll try to get everyone back in line and then come get you. They're gonna be all over the new baby so that should take off some of the heat but it's gonna be pretty heavy regardless," he coached as they walked up to the door, "Ready?"
She hesitated and then asked, "Remind me why I'm doing this again?"
He hugged her and kissed her cheek reassuringly and said, "Cause you think I'm soooo wonderful and you needed and excuse to wear that 'bad ass suit'." When she grimaced instead of smiling like he intended, he tried a different approach, "Oh come on, the only one in there who's got balls as big as yours is AJ and you already met him. So he's no competition."
She burst into a fit of nervous giggles, "I do not have balls Howard, big or otherwise. Or at least I didn't the last time I checked ... did you notice any?"
"That's my girl. I'll have to examine that at some point later on in the evening. But, you're smiling now, so let's go ahead and get the boring part over with so we can go party okay?"
She nodded and he opened the door. When they walked in the noise was at a dull roar, everyone talking at once and cooing at the baby. Brian was the first to acknowledge their presence.
"Wouldja look at what the cat drug in," he teased, and immediately disengaged himself from the tangle of bodies he and Nick had constructed wrestling with all the children.
"Hey Bri, this is..." Howie began.
"Aadriana, I know Bone filled me in. Howya doin, I'm Brian."
She accepted his offered hand laughing, all the while thinking that it wasn't as bad as she expected. It was then that she heard a yell from what she suspected was the kitchen.
"Howard? Is that you hon?"
"Yeah, Mom it's me," came the yelled reply.
As soon as the words were out four women came into the room all talking at once.
"Okay," Aadriana thought, "if there was ever a time to be worried it would be now." She squeezed his hand unconsciously, and when he glanced at her if she hadn't looked so terrified he would have laughed. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and she didn't seem to be breathing at all. He whispered for her to breathe and squeezed her hand in turn.
"Is everybody here? Good," he said, " I would like to introduce you all to Aadriana. Anee, the little one is my mom; the skinny one's my sister, Polly; then there's Angie next to her. Over here we have Brian, who you already met; beside him is Leighanne; four of the crumbsnatchers on top of Nick belong to them. Nick is obviously the biggest crumsnatcher on the floor. Next to Leigh is Kristin, who is holding the newest edition to their family, Kristian; the big meany who is glaring at me is Kevin, they own the other two kids with Nicky. On the other chair we have Alex, beside him is his mommy... Hi Denise.
Over in the corner is John who's talking to my dad and that other guy is Tim, he belongs to my sister Angie. Did I miss anyone," he finished with a grin.
"Of course you did, Dumbass," Nick chimed in, "Cecelia was in the kitchen and she's hiding behind Polly"
When she heard her name Cecelia waved and walked over to sit behind Nick. Howie couln't repress a smile, it was the same woman from the restaurant.
"Blow up doll indeed," he said under his breath. He walked, Aadriana in tow, over to AJ and asked, "Bone, where's um... you know?"
"How the hell should I know? Polly where's Carla," he yelled.
"Last I heard she was still coming. What, you can't keep up with your own women now," she joked.
"She's your friend, smartass. Your midget brother's arrival means that we've gone past fashionably into just plain late. She ain't here? Oh well, her loss," he said shrugging off his frustration.
The rest of the dinner was relatively painless. Aadriana answered questions about work and how she was enjoying the city. The only sour point came while she was holding the baby. Howie's father asked if she'd thought about having kids of her own. She blanched, but mangaed to keep her composure long enough to excuse herself outside, pleading a need for nicotine. AJ came out as soon as she'd lit up.
As he reached her he put a hand on her shoulder, "Those Doroughs really know how to cut the shit and get straight to the point don't they? I mean geez subtle much?"
She turned to him laughing, " They weren't that bad."
"Not that bad? Oh give me a frickin break, so you didn't notice how Paula kept gushing all over that baby? 'Oh, I just can't tell you how good it feels to have an infant in the house again. Aadriana do you like babies?' Hello? You work in a frickin hospital and your damned job is to help deliver them."
"It wasn't really that bad," she said laughing at how he managed to sound so much like her as he pranced around.
"Oh my goodness this child is just gorgeous. Would you like to hold him Howie," AJ continued to mock.
"Now that was hilarious.I though he was gonna throw up. Did you see the way he turned green when she put Kristian in his arms," she had to laugh at the memory.
"Yeah, he passed him off like a hot potato. I don't think Leigh even had any warning; he pratically threw the baby at her," AJ said, bursting into another round of belly laughs. They were both laughing so hard they didn't notice Howie standing there watching.
"Funny hunh bone? We'll just see how funny it is in a few days. As we speak your mother and mine are devising a master plan to get us both over the threshold and into the delivery room post haste. I'm starting to worry that my parents might get it in their heads to make me an instructional video," he said disgusted.
"Ewwww! Shut up, D! That is not a picture I want in my head. Ewwww! Yplck!" AJ spat, like he had a nasty taste in his mouth.
Shaking his head Howie turned his attention to Aadriana, "You okay sweetie?"
"Yeah. I just needed to smoke, you know, no big thing," came the tense reply.
"Did I mention how great you look tonight," he asked pulling her into his arms for a hug.
"If you did, it wouldn't hurt to tell me again," she replied mischeviously.
"Maybe I should just show you, words are so overrated sometimes," he said pulling her bottom lip into his mouth.
AJ watched the scene in silence until he realized that the had forgotten he was there. He cleared his throat loudly and cursed even louder when Howie gave him the finger.
"Fine. But when Mama D comes out here and sees y'all, it's gonna be something you'll never live down. Maybe I should go see what she's doing and ask her where you are. She'll get the shock of her life her sweet baby out here playing tonsil tennis... the shame," he threatened before walking back into the house whistling.
They were oblivious to anything but each other until it registered what had been said and where they were.
"Damn, we'd better get back inside," he said between kisses.
"To be continued," she asked breathlessly.
"No doubt about that. I still have to make sure you don't have any balls hiding down there."
"One more? You know for courage or whatever?"
"Can't hurt"
They kissed again and returned to the mob scene in the living room. Blessedly, it was nowhere near what it had been. The newest Backstreet Baby was sleeping soundly in his father's arms and the rest were yawning and sitting quietly on the floor.
"So you guys wanna get goin, now that the progidal one has returned," Brian asked with smirk.
"I gather that arrangements have been made for the rugrats," Howie said dryly.
"Yes, Angie and your mother have decided to split them," Kristin replied, while prying the sleeping baby away from Kevin.
"So who all's driving," Nick asked dreading the answer.
"Oh, come now, you already know the answer to that one. I'm the designated driver hands down," AJ said pretending to sound hurt, "Anyone object to riding with me?"
A chorus of "I do's" filled the room.
"Screw you guys then. D, yall can ride with me and Kev can take the other load. Polly, what do you mean you don't wanna come with me? Bet I could make it worth your while," he leered.
"That's my sister you perv and don't you forget it. Polly, you and John really should ride with us though cause Kev's gonna have a full car," Howie agreed grudgingly.
"Yeah babe, you wouldn't want me all alone in the front seat now wouldja?" She rolled her eyes and agreed.
Once they were loaded into AJ's Explorer, the real inquisition began. After 10 mintues of answering rapid fire question from AJ, Polly, and John, Aadriana got irritated.
"Why do I feel like I should be sitting at a table with a bare light bulb dangling over my head?"
"Hunh?" and "What?" were the confused responses from the persons the comment was directed towards.
"You guys are laying it on pretty thick. Save some for the others. Alex, you know your attention span, you're not gonna be able to sit through it again," Howie said only half joking.
"Is that your way of telling me I should've been recording that so I could just I could just do a playback later," Aadriana asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.
Howie took the hint, realizing she was losing her patience; he chose his next words very carefully, "Look at it this way, you'll finally get to find out how we've felt over the past decade; answering the same stupid as shit questions over and over."
"You could've warned me and I would have made up a press release or something. If you don't me to blow my top before the night is over, you might want to help me out by limiting the questions to 5 per person," she said sounding very serious. Seconds later she ruined it by asking, "So guys, the real question here is ... boxers or briefs?"
When they reached the club Aadriana abandoned the joking demeanor she had adopted on the ride over. Nothing was wrong, but if the questions on the ride over had been any indication of what was to come, she decided to conserve what little humor she had left.
As they all walked in together Howie stopped, "Anee, I noticed you didn't seem all that uncomfortable with the guys. So what was all that nervousness about earlier?"
"Nervousness? Um is that even a word," she asked.
"I think so, if not it is now and don't avoid the question."
"Okay it was the meeting the family thing. I'm wasn't sure how I felt about it," she confessed.
"And now," he prodded.
"Um.. well I..."
She was saved from having to reply when Nicky came back to take get them.
TBC