Suddenly, I remembered that I should be making the coffee! So I excused myself and did so. When we all finally got to drink it, Charlie made a face.
"It's a little strong" he remarked
" I like it strong, myself!" Antha commented and poured some sugar into her cup.
I tasted it myself, coughed, as did Dad. Thankfully, his delicious French toast more than made up for it.
"Where do you work?" Dad asked her.
"I'm a vet tech" she told him "Thanks for the breakfast. It's delicious." Antha happily took another bite.
"You're welcome." he said, still in host mode. Only he could make an art out of being a host.
She then turned to me. "Where should we go to get Brian's present?"
I could see Dad give me a look, but then he nodded; it seemed like he realized why I volunteered to go.
"What does Brian like?" I asked.
"All kinds of stuff.." she replied vaguely.
"Could you narrow it down a bit?" I requested.
"Let's get in my car!" she ordered suddenly
"But you don't seem to have any idea of where to go" I pointed out.
"But I do!" she insisted. "let's go!" That was quick. She is unpredictable. We finished our breakfasts and left. Her car was a small Japanese one that was at least a decade old.
"What are you getting him?" I asked.
"You'll see." she said mysteriously, while putting on a CD with tormenting music. "I wanna see your reaction, and get your opinion."
"uh... okay.." I agreed.
Soon, we arrived at an adult toy store, and went inside.
"I figured we could get him a gift certificate from here" she said.
"Is he seeing anyone?" Was this pervert taking advantage of poor Elizabeth? If he was, I was sure as hell gonna do something about it!
"Not that I know of" she said, but shrugged. "But he might meet someone."
I looked around. There were dildos of all shapes and sizes, flavored creams, erotic games, naughty signs, etc.
Soon, she bought the gift certificate
"Anything catch your fancy?" she smiled/
"Well. I uh...was just waiting for you" Some conversations just needed to be avoided. Just then, my cousin Hope came in. Oh God! how awkward! The idea of my cousin buying stuff here, made me cringe.
"Hey Don!" she said neutrally, but with surprise in her eyes, and added. "How's it going, Antha?"
"Great! We're were getting Brian a gift certificate" Antha explained.
"Actually, I was gonna have lunch with him pretty soon!" my cousin told us.
"Why don't we join you guys?" I offered, and joked. "I did help buy him a present, kinda..."
"Yeah...let's!" Antha seemed conflicted. I could see it in her eyes. Maybe she wanted to have lunch with me alone?
"you can follow me in your car." Hope said with a smile
"Aren't you gonna buy something here?" Antha asked. I personally didn't wanna know.
"Just uh...something quick." She picked out some toy, paid for it, and we were on our way to our cars.
"I'm going to stop at my house first, if you guys don't mind." she told us before getting into hers.
"Sure..." I nodded with a smile that hid my annoyance. Hope always had to make a delay. Once, I had to take her to her school prom during my freshman year, and we had to make two stops before getting to the thing. My uncle, of course indulged her.
Once we arrived at her place, she invited us inside the apartment, which was a little bigger than the one I had before my injury. There, I saw group pictures of Brian, and some even had Elizabeth!
"Who are they?" I showed one to Hope. "I don't remember seeing some of them last night."
"Well...that's Hannah" she began, pointing to Elizabeth, then went on to talk about the others.
"Are any of them joining us for lunch, by any chance?" I asked casually.
"Hannah might." Hope said.
"Oh..." This was getting better and better! However, I worried about my cousin letting something slip and felt concern about the kind of shape Elizabeth was in. While she seemed physically fine, her mental state could be about issue altogether. Sadly, I had seen all too often, the effects of exploitation and cult membership, in the former line ofwork.
"She and Brian went to San Diego together, on a trip." Antha added.
"oh...for pleasure?"
"They didn't say " Hope explained.
After some more chit chat, we all went to join Elizabeth and Brian for lunch.
TBC