AN - Mini bonus update because I'm loved all the reviews.
Tell me, my dear," Mrs. Torres said as she patted the seat next to where she was sitting signaling for Arizona to sit beside her. "Who are your people?"
Arizona blinked as she sat. "Well, I'm an American, if that's what you mean."
She heard Callie stifle a laugh and knew she had made a faux pas. But Mrs. Torres went on calmly. "No, dear. I'm asking about your family. Your parents. Your grandparents."
"She grew up in a little sod house on the prairie," Callie began in a tremulous voice. "Her father toiled in the fields while her mother…"
"My daughter is quite the comedian," the older woman said tartly. "But I'm sure she will remember her manners soon and let you speak for yourself."
"My father was in the marines," Arizona said quickly, giving Callie a look. "And my mother was a housewife. They were killed in a bombing when my father was stationed at Baghdad, when I was 13. My sister, Teddy, dropped out of school and got a job so that we could stay together. She put me through college." She glanced at Callie again, wondering if she knew that about Teddy. It was the background behind why she felt such a debt to her sister.
"I see," Mrs. Torres was saying, looking slightly stunned. "And where did you attend college?"
"Oh, State, of course. I got a degree in design there."
"State," she echoed faintly, making it sound like something she had found wrapped in greasy newspapers.
"Mother prefers the Ivy Leagues," Callie said, her mouth thin with barely suppressed annoyance. "Or something small and northeastern in the liberal arts." "Calliope!" her mother said warningly.
"In fact, I believe your maid's daughter is going to State, isn't she?" Callie asked. "I hope she turns out as well as Arizona has."
Looking from one to another of these two, Arizona had a sudden flash of insight. Obviously, Callie had spent a lifetime warding off her mother's clumsy attempts to take charge of her life. And after the way Mrs. Torres had treated her, ordinarily Arizona might have felt resentment and gone completely to Callie's side. But looking at the woman who had brought her here, she saw frustration and annoyance, and an underlying sense of guilt that complicated matters.
And looking at her mother, she saw the bitterness, but she also noted the sad bewilderment of a mother who saw the ones she loved best slipping from her in some deep, emotional way. Callie's mother would be the inevitable loser in this fight. For some inexplicable reason, Arizona's heart went out to the woman.
Acting on impulse, she took her hand.
"Mrs. Torres, please don't be upset about this," she told her earnestly. "Our engagement is very new and we are going to need some time to decide if it will stick. Please don't consider this an inexorable march toward the altar at this time. Anything could happen."
Oh, dear. Now she'd done it. She looked at Callie, then her mother, expecting them both to be angry. But Callie was looking baffled and her mother was staring at Arizona as though she weren't quite sure if she were sane or not. Had she blown the whole charade?
AN - What's gonna happen next? Will this little slip leave Callie angry with Arizona? Was Arizona right on her part? Let me know how you guys want to see the night end...
