2 - No Sympathy From The Family Circus
As Raymond entered through the backdoor of his parents home - right across the street from his own - he found them all gathered at the dinner table. His brother Robert had also joined them.
Ray began sheepishly, "Hey everyone. Umm... looks like I'll have to be staying here for awhile, so could I have my old room back?"
Raymond's mother, Marie walked over and hugged him warmly. "Well of course you can, dear. Did something happen with Debra?"
Frank Barone looked up from his dinner. "Who cares? You have your own house, Nancy. Stop whining over here and take back your castle!" he commented obnoxiously with a mouthful of food.
Ray rolled his eyes. "Okay dad." He turned back to his mother and explained, "Eh, Debra's jealous over my new assistant. Long story."
Robert squinted curiously. "So Debra is now interested in women?"
"No you idiot, she's jealous because she thinks I'm interested in Jodi."
"Ohh, okay. Just didn't seem likely that she would ever be jealous over anything regarding you," Robert said coldly.
"Ha... ha, very funny Robert," Ray mocked. He took a seat on the kitchen table and began helping himself to some food.
"Poor Debra," said Marie sadly. She held the thought for about a quarter of a second. "So tell me, what do you think of Jodi? Do you really like her?" inquired Marie in her usual nosy manner.
"Ma!"
She shrugged innocently. "Can't I be interested in my son's love life?"
"Jeez ma, you make it sound like I've dumped Debra for my assistant," Ray commented disgustedly.
Marie smiled sweetly. "I'm just trying to support your decision."
"Well its not! So just stop it right there. Debra's mad cause that's what she thinks too, but its not what happened."
Frank put down his sandwich and stared blankly at his son. "Get to the damn point, what the hell happened then?"
Ray took a deep breath and looked around the room. "Well... I was in my office and Jodi came in. We began to talk, and she started to get all-- I dunno, saucy on me, and then she tried to get up close to me, but I put my hands up you know, to tell her to stop, and then Debra walks in and I guess she thought I was um, rubbing her... you know."
His brother nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, I see Raymond. Debra mistook your giving Jodi a frontal massage as a sexual gesture..."
"Robert. Shutup," muttered Ray.
Robert put on a face of mock understanding. "Its okay Ray, these things happen." He paused for a moment as he pretended to search his memory. "You know, one time I was wrestling with a female friend of mine and I accidently ripped all her clothes off by mistake, we were grabbing everything, everywhere, and she looked at me and said 'Robert, are you trying to have sex with me?' I stopped and told her 'no, no of course not! This is just a big misunderstanding.'" As he finished his joke, his face turned into a twisted grin.
Marie wagged a finger at her son. "I don't like that, Robert!"
Frank began to cackle with laughter. "Come on Ray, what do you think this is, TV? You expect Debra to believe that your assistant was trying to seduce you?"
"She was!!" protested Ray as he banged the table.
Marie only shook her head as Robert joined in on the laughter. Ray knew all too well that this was going to be a very, very long week.