Story Eight: Ivory's Nervousness
A Family Dinner
"I don't know about this," Ivory said as she held onto her fiancé's arm.
"Why are you so nervous Ivory? It's not like we haven't had a family get-together before," he said. They stood in the entrance of an elegant French restaurant. They had just got engaged a couple of months ago and had decided to hold an engagement dinner for their families. With the exception of her fiancé's brother, no one in his family really approved of her. The same was happening with her family and him...
Tonight Ivory wanted to change that. She's determined to get his family to like her. Or at least learn to deal with her presence in his life. She was there to stay and wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon. "None of them like me... except for your brother," she reminded him as they walked into the restaurant. They stood in front of the hostess podium. "Your parents can't stand the sight of me."
"Grandma Edna loves you," he said as he tightened his grip on her arm. "You have two people on your side... I have none. Both or your parents and your sister hate me." He looked around the restaurant to see if his family or hers were there. When he couldn't tell if they were, he asked the hostess if anyone had arrived yet.
Ivory flipped her hair and smiled. "You are right. I have Grandma Edna and your brother and you have... no one from my family."
He looked at her and chuckled. "See, you're feeling better already about this dinner thing." The hostess informed them that everyone was there and directed them to their table.
Ivory's family stood as well as her fiancé's, when they got closer to the table, to give their respective child a hug. As they all sat down at the table Ivory noticed one person, she never expected to see. "Dawn Marie? Nice to see you here... I guess."
Dawn Marie and Ivory would never call themselves friends, more of acquaintances really. "Nice to see you too Ivory. I'm here as—"
"My guest, my moral support when all hell breaks loose," her fiancé's brother said.
Ivory and her fiancé gave him an annoyed look, since he and Ivory's sister were there for their moral support. Because, her fiancé can from a huge family, one brother and eight sisters besides him, the only one that could make it was his brother. They all were hoping for a peaceful dinner...
"So, tell me Ivory," Martha, her fiancé's mother, said as she started to slurp some on her soup, "my son here tells me that you are going to quit wrestling when you two get married."
Marcus, his father, nodded his head in agreement. "Yes, we believe a man should be supporting his wife—and family— and the wife should not have to work. When Martha and I got married, she stopped working and we started to have a family right away."
"Is that right?" Ivory said as she took a sip of her water and ate a bit of her small dinner salad. They had already had appetizers and were on their pre-dinner salads and soups. "No wonder the family is so damn huge," she mumbled as she rolled her eyes. Then she shot her fiancé an evil glare at his parents' words.
He shrugged his shoulders and mouthed a sorry to her. He didn't mean to tell them that. "Actually, Mom and Dad, we haven't really decided yet."
"That's right," Audrey, Ivory's sister, said. "I'm sure if Ivory wants to, she can stop wrestling; but I doubt it. She loves the business."
Ivory's parents mumbled in agreement. "She has worked too hard to get where she is," her father, Michael, said.
"We are proud of her career in the WWE and if Ivory wants to quit its fine... but it should be her decision. Not you guys," Sherry, Ivory's mother, pointed to her fiancé's parents, "and not anyone else."
"Now, now," Martha said. She set the spoon she had in her hand down on her napkin. "I never said that Ivory should quit wrestling."
"That's right," Marcus agreed. "We were just saying what we think."
Michael sighed frustratingly. "Personally, I prefer not to have Ivory barefoot pregnant right after marriage. She deserves better than that."
Ivory and her fiancé looked at each other worriedly. "Now, Daddy calm down," Ivory and Audrey said.
"Wait a damn minute," Marcus said, "there's nothing wrong with that. Martha and agreed to start having children after we got married... Now if my boy and Ivory want to do that, which would be a good decision, then there's nothing wrong with that."
"A good decision?" Sherry exclaimed. "A good decision would be to wait. The last thing we want to happen is a divorce early within the marriage with a child stuck in the middle."
"A divorce!" Ivory and her fiancé both yelled.
Her fiancé's brother laughed. "They aren't even married yet," he told Dawn Marie.
Dawn Marie looked at the bickering parents. "Are both sets of parents always like this?"
He nodded sadly. "Yes, and this isn't even the worse..."
Ivory and her fiancé stood from the occupied and quarrelsome group. They found a small terrace that was located away from the table. As they stood outside on the terrace, Ivory set her head down on her fiancé's shoulder.
"It was a disaster, wasn't it?" he asked.
She nodded slowly. "I would have thought something was wrong, if an argument didn't happen."
He stroked her brown hair. "I'm sorry. I told my mother that last week to get her off my back. She was convinced that you didn't want to have kids... and using it as some kind of point in her reason for me not to get married to you."
"Of course I want kids, Christian," Ivory said. "Just not anytime soon... like in the next five to seven years."
Christian chuckled. "Yep, that's what I told her. You know I want to wait too, don't you? I want us to have time to ourselves; to experience each other before we decide to commit 18 plus years to someone else."
"I know. Christian, whatever happens in the next six months before wedding, know this: I love you," Ivory said as she gave Christian a small peck on his lips.
Christian gave her a quick kiss back. "I love you too."