Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 38
The dinner table looked quite appealing on this particular evening. Tonight's fare included roast chicken, a sweet potato casserole, a garden salad, a small cheese plate and two happy teenagers.
"Welcome," beckoned Sabine, as her daughter sat down and Adrien gently pushed her chair in for her. "So what was that all about earlier today?" she asked. "I didn't want to pry earlier, but you both looked very happy when you took that bag of games upstairs... and then a little shaken up when you came back downstairs. I was wondering what else you found in there!"
"N-nothing bad!" Adrien stammered. "I was really happy with everything that my bodyguard snuck in there! I was not expecting that, and he has a much larger collection of that kind of thing than I'd ever dreamed before. That was so nice of him to do; those are his games, not mine."
"Which we will be happy to try out with you two after dinner, if you're up for it," added Marinette. "We're thinking Ticket to Ride first. But what threw us off was that while we were unpacking everything, Adrien's father called him to check up on him."
"Oh!" Sabine exclaimed. "That's..."
"...highly unusual for him," Adrien finished her sentence. "And, no, there was no bad news. Things around the house and the company are still in a holding pattern, he and Nathalie are still healthy, and they're getting retested soon. They sent more clothes for me to wear, and textbooks and sheet music so that I can keep up with my Chinese language and piano."
Tom stared back, his fork halted on the way to his mouth. "He... does know that we don't have a piano?" he inquired.
"And he... does know that I speak fluent Chinese, right?" added Sabine, looking just as befuddled.
"And knowing things has never stopped him before, from making sure that they're just as he insists," sighed Adrien. "I'll handle that part. If I decide to open the Chinese textbook, I might test out some pronunciation on you as long as you promise not to laugh. I'm just glad that he's not directing my fencing instructor and my Chinese tutor to show up here personally."
"If they want to buy some baked goods while they're here, they're welcome to stop by," suggested Tom with a grin.
"My substitute Chinese tutor... he'd probably take you up on that," said Adrien. "But he's... out of town. I'm not sure when I'll see him again."
Marinette noted Adrien's mood falling with his reply, and made a mental note to ask him about that, whether that tutor was someone Adrien had felt close to.
"So... what else did you two talk about?" wondered Sabine, sensing something still unsaid.
"The three of us, actually..." admitted Marinette.
"Oh?" Tom noted, raising an eyebrow. "What did he have to say to you, Marinette?"
"Actually," said Adrien, brightening up again, "he said some very nice things about your daughter! And of the two of you as well... 'refreshingly good people,' he put it. But about Marinette... he spoke highly of her creativity, her eye for quality, her potential..."
"He kind of freaked me out a little bit, is what he did," Marinette allowed.
Quickly, she gave her own perspective on her conversation with Gabriel and his comments on her. "He's basing most of that on what Adrien's told him about me, not what he's seen in person, because he hasn't met me in person. Much, anyway."
"Are you all right with what he said?" asked Adrien, looking a little concerned. "And about what I've said? We did talk a little bit about that, but..."
"I am. I promise I am, Adrien," she replied. "But it's, like... I'm fourteen years old and I'm on Gabriel Agreste's radar? He's talking about tests and rewards and potential and I'm... I need to step back and take a breath, that's all. And it wasn't all sunshine and roses when we talked."
Marinette described how Gabriel had made sure that Kagami remained part of the conversation - "which I've insisted on, too, as all three of you know... but this was him asking about it!" she declared - and how she felt like she was now part of the maintaining-Adrien's-public-image process whether she'd planned on that or not.
"I think we all know that feeling. Particularly your mother," frowned Tom, "after that earful that his assistant gave her."
"Which I cannot apologize for enough," interjected Adrien, "and which I have warned Marinette about since. I'm a package deal, and I come with my share of baggage."
"Baggage that I'll be happy to help carry," smiled Marinette.
"And there was the little thing in the park," Adrien continued, then stopped when he saw Marinette shake her head subtly at him.
"What little thing was that?" asked Sabine, zeroing in on that.
"Oh... um..." Marinette replied, giving Adrien a See? look before she continued.
Tom and Sabine did their best to hide their great amusement as Marinette described their near-ticket experience.
"We were not making out in the park. It was one kiss!" insisted Marinette. "And our masks were still on-"
"Wait a moment. The two of you are kissing now?" rumbled Tom, rather loudly.
Marinette and Adrien each froze in their respective chairs.
"...Yes?" ventured Marinette, very carefully. Adrien looked as if he'd just swallowed a wasp.
"Ah! Good," smiled Tom, returning to his normal tone just as quickly. "Please, continue."
"Tom," Sabine scolded him, saying much with a single word.
"Anyway..." said Marinette, glaring at her father, "it wasn't so much the kiss that bothered Mr. Agreste; it was that the incident made the newspaper. Not with my name or Adrien's spelled out... but enough that someone called Mr. Agreste looking for comment."
"Oh, really!" marveled Tom. "Did we get the Times today, dear? I've always wanted to see my daughter's picture in the paper. The Gossip section, you say?"
"TOM," repeated Sabine, with a trace of a smile.
"There were no pictures!" emphasized Marinette. "I give up."
"I am just giving the two of you a hard time," apologized Tom. "It's what a father of a teenage girl does. There's a whole chapter on that in the manual."
"Be that as it may..." ventured Adrien, "it does concern me that my father and Nathalie have managed to confront your family three times now; Nathalie on the phone, both of them out front the next morning, and now this. I would like to say that this is unusual for them... but that would be a lie."
"Have the two of you talked about this?" asked Sabine, looking at both Adrien and Marinette.
"A couple of times," Marinette replied. "And I reassured him that I am okay with how we're handling this..."
"...but are the two of you?" asked Adrien. "That matters to me."
"Adrien... obviously, I do not know your father well. But when I have been in contact with him, in our first phone call offering to let you stay here, and then out front... he has seemed to me to be a reasonable person," said Tom. "Someone not accustomed to having to listen to others' opinions, granted... but he is far from the first of that ilk I've ever dealt with. I am a businessman in my own right, after all. I could tell you horror stories about customers and suppliers alike. Your father may be prone to leaping to conclusions, but when he felt that he was wrong, he apologized."
"I can assure you," stammered Adrien, "that the apology was the most unusual thing he's done all month."
"Regardless... I sense that he is as new to this concept, of his son dating someone, as I am to my daughter's?" asked Tom, to which Adrien nodded. "Then I will cut him some slack, because we are both learning this the hard way. One baby step at a time."
"If relations with your father and his secretary become a problem... that is between us and them," agreed Sabine. "Not between us and you... and not an obstacle between you and Marinette. Trust us on that point, Adrien."
"You are a fine young man; that is obvious. It's not our place to choose whom Marinette is fond of... but it is a relief to see what a good choice she's made," Tom added. "Though there is one test of character that you still need to pass."
"Oh?" wondered Adrien, still looking nervous. "And what is that?"
"To play one of those board games with us," smiled Tom, "so that we can see if you try to cheat or not. How about you go fetch tonight's challenge, while Sabine and I clear the table?"
The first game of Ticket to Ride was fairly straightforward, as it was mostly Adrien teaching the three Dupain-Chengs the rules and basic strategies. Adrien won with relative ease, but in a manner that kept everyone else within striking distance, letting them get a handle on what worked and what didn't within the rules.
"Very interesting," mused Tom once the final scores had been tallied up. "I like this game. Care for another round, everyone?"
"I am," smiled Sabine. "I felt like I was getting the hang of it by the end, there. If I could've coordinated strategy with my husband or with Marinette, I feel like I might've been able to stop you from finishing one of your routes."
"In that case, you should've," replied Adrien. "There can only be one winner in each game, but there's nothing in the rules against forming alliances... however temporary they may be... or turning on them later, if it suits your purposes."
"Oh, really?" Tom grinned. "So this is a game for the devious as well as the sincere, hmmm?"
"Aren't they all?" Adrien grinned back, with a twinkle in his eye. "And now we really start to play."