They turned off the main road into a development of houses. Jeff looked out of the passenger side window, observing each house they passed by. It was the typical suburban setting. Rows of house all modeled in the same way, with their family SUV's parked in the driveways, and perfectly manicured lawns gleaming in the moonlight. Jeff could just visualize Emilie growing up around here. Running around the street with her sister and the other neighborhood children; playing basketball, chasing after the ice cream man, sunbathing in the front yard. The perfect white bread American community. He looked over at his beloved beauty sitting next to him. She had been strangely quiet through out the majority of the car ride except for the brief refresher course on the who's who of her family and the occasional soft sing-along with the Nirvana CD's she brought along. He wasn't too sure if it was because she was nervous or if was just trying to focus on not crashing the Jeep Wrangler her friend had lent her for the day. Either way Jeff didn't mind. Just being this close to her was enough to make him happy. They pulled into the driveway of one of the spilt level colonial houses.

"7:20, well better late then never." Emilie said before turning off the engine. She checked her hair and makeup in the rearview mirror one last time and got out of the car. Jeff slammed the door behind him and waited for Emilie to come around to his side. His heart melted when he noticed her hands were shaking. She really was nervous, it was rather adorable.

"How do I look?" she asked. Jeff looked her up and down. She wasn't dressed in her normal funky fashion. She wore a fitted long-sleeved black shirt and a pair of jeans. The top part of her long blonde hair was pulled back with a small black clip while the rest of it fell down her back. She adjusted her shirt, making extra sure none of her tattoos were showing since her mother disapproved of them.

"You look great. You ready?"

"Not really."

"Come on Em this is gonna be a blast. We'll go inside, we'll have fun, and you'll spend the rest of the night wondering what you were so worried about."

"I hope so."

"Well I guess now the best time to show you. I did a little something for you. Just to make things a little less stressful."

Jeff removed the baseball cap from off his head to reveal that his bright neon hair had been dyed back to its original blonde color. Emilie clasped her hand over her mouth to cover the shocked gasp.

"You did that for me?" she asked as a small tear feel down her cheek.

"Don't sound so surprised. I'd do anything for you."

She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him as tight as she could.

"What did I do to deserve you Jeff?"

She released her grip on him and quickly checked her makeup once more to make sure her tears didn't smug it all up. She took Jeff by the hand and walked up the stone walkway. As they neared the door a man in his early thirties walked out. He was about average height and built with dark black hair and a matching goatee. He took a cigarette out of his back pocket and placed it between his lips. As he let out the first puff he looked up to notice the couple walking closer to him.

"Em? Is that you?"

"Hey Mike."

He ran over to them and wrapped his arms around Emilie, picking her off the ground and swinging her around.

"Hey kiddo haven't seen you in a while." He placed her back down and looked over at Jeff. "And who is this?"

"Oh Mike this is my boyfriend Jeff. Jeff this is my cousin Michael."

"Nice to meet you." Jeff said reaching out his hand to shake Michael's.

"Boyfriend huh? Has the family met him yet?"

"No not yet."

"Ha, and I wasn't gonna come tonight." He laughed "Well good luck man."

Emilie rolled her eyes at the older man as he walked away. They walked up to the door and rang the bell. A few seconds later the door opened to reveal an older woman in her early sixties. Her hair was a deep red, almost brown, and teased up to add another inch or two to her short stature. Her softly lined face light up with happiness at the sight of the young blonde woman that stood before her.

"My Emmie! My Emmie's here!" she said with her thick Long Island accent.

"Hi Ma."

The two embraced as the older woman place numerous amounts of rouge colored kisses around her daughters face. Noticing Jeff she pulled away from Emilie. She looked at him through her thick wide framed glasses and grinned.

"And this must be the goyim."

"His name is Jeff Ma. Jeff this is my mother."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Weissman."

"Please call me Janis. Oh he's handsome Emmie. What a face, not bad for a goyim. What are ya? Irish? Come on in I'll fix you a bowl of Scotch."

"Ma!"

"Oh he knows I'm kidding. Come inside you're letting all the cool air out."

They followed her inside to greet the rest of the family. Jeff was amazed to see how many people where crammed into the house. His family was small, just his dad and brother and a few cousins they rarely saw. But Emilie's family was much bigger. There must have been at least twenty people there not counting the small children. Jeff made the rounds of introductions with Emilie, each time being referred to as the goyim.

"Hey Emilie, why does everyone keep calling me a goyim? Is that something good?"

"Well" she laughed nervously "it's not bad."

"What does it mean?"

"It just mean you're a non-Jew."

"Great, I'm Jeff the non-Jewish boyfriend."

"It's just till they get to know you. They do it to everyone."

"Well I guess it's better then what your cousin Heather called me. What was it again? Oh yeah a dominating misogynist male pig."

"She still a little bitter from her divorce."

"Yeah I picked up on that."

"Well there's a familiar face." Said a voice from behind them. Emilie turned to see a attractive woman with curly blonde hair standing there. Her narrow face was lightly decorated with small freckles and her eyes were the same ocean blue as Emilie's, in fact she looked an awful lot like Emilie.

"About as familiar as that shirt you're wearing. I wonder where I've seen it before"

"Hey it looks better on me anyway."

"Jeff this is my, always borrowing thing without asking, yet still lovable sister Effie."

"Nice to meet you."

"Same here. You must be quite a guy to put up with my little sister."

"It's a hard job but someone's gotta go it."

"Hey! I'm standing right here." Emilie pouted pretending to be hurt. "Speaking of handfuls. Where's my little monster of a niece?"

"She's with Brian around here somewhere. And thank god, its daddies turn to run around like an idiot now. And I thought you were a rambunctious kid."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was an angel."

"Yeah about as angelic as Wendy O'Williams." Effie laughed "Anyway I better go find my daughter before Brian files for divorce. It was nice meeting you Jeff."

"Nice meeting you Effie."

The night went on pretty smoothly. Emilie was relived to see how well her family reacted to Jeff. They all seemed to be on their best behavior in an attempt to not completely embarrass her, with the exception of Heather's out burst and Uncle Eddie disturbing description of the enormous boil on his ass. But Jeff just laughed them off and continued the conversation. If it was possible for her to love him anymore this would send her over the edge. He was the most incredible man on earth and her family loved him. What else could she ask for? What had she been waiting for all this time?