Chapter 41: Happy Thanksgiving Part 2
It was six fifty and Rae was in her room putting some final touches on her look. Her mother had been right, she loved the dress. She couldn't wait for Olivia to see her in it. She wasn't looking forward to entertaining Charles' clients but she knew her mother would be too busy to do it. She heard the door bell ring and took a deep breath. "Well, here we go" she said a loud to herself. She went over to the bathroom and yelled through the door, "Hurry up, Jimmy." She heard him mumble something and took that to mean he'd be right out. Rae walked out of her room and stood on the balcony looking down at who'd arrived. Everyone had shown up on time and were standing in the entry way of the house. Jimmy came out of his bed room and Rae was happy with how he looked. He had on a dark blue shirt and slacks with a light blue tie. Rae wore an orange spaghetti strap dress that fit snug to her curves and stopped just above her knees with black stiletto heels. Her curls framed her face perfectly, cascading over her shoulders and down her back. She wore black eyeliner and mascara and clear gloss on her lips with black pearls around her neck and black stud earrings. She walked over to Jimmy and took his arm. All eyes were on them as they descended the stairs and walked over to greet their guests. Rae saw Olivia and smiled at the expression on her face. Everyone was captivated by how beautiful she looked but she only had eyes for Liv. She broke eye contact with her girlfriend when her mother came over to stand next to her and started speaking.
"Asr behkeir. Khosh amadid. Bia too, inja khaneh shomast" Soraya said enthusiastically. Jimmy chuckled at the confused expressions on everyone's faces. Rae elbowed him in the side and he tried his best to hold it in.
"Good evening. Welcome. Come in and make yourselves at home" Rae said translating for her mother. She never understood why her mother felt the need to speak to people in Farsi when she knew they didn't speak the language. She just learned to go with it and translate where needed. She turned to her mother and gave her a smile, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek, "Thank you for the dress. You were right. I love it" she whispered in her ear. She kissed her other cheek and let her get back to the kitchen. Charles came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. Araeyah was a pro at hiding her discomfort in front of company. "You look perfect" he whispered in her ear. She took a deep breath and held her smile. He let go of her and stepped forward to everyone standing in the entryway.
"Thank you everyone for coming. You all look great. I hope you all brought your appetites because my wife, with the help of our wonderful daughter, has made quite the feast for tonight" Rae strained not to roll her eyes at Charles' fake show. "Most of you already know each other so let me introduce our guests that you don't know" he walked over and stood next to his potential clients. "This is Sam and Jenna Valdez and Robert and Chrissa Winter" he said pointing to each person. Everyone said their hellos and Charles left them to go to the kitchen with Soraya.
"Ok, well I guess a small tour is in order" Rae said speaking again. She stood off to the side so everyone could see past her. "That over there is the kitchen" Maureen laughed remembering that this was the same tour Rae gave her when she came over for the first time. She laughed lightly before continuing, "This is the living room, or as my mother calls it the "gathering" room" she said. She started walking and waved for everyone to follow her, "This is the dining room, where we'll be having dinner. My mother went to the trouble of assigning seats so please sit by your name when the time comes." She turned and pointed the second door in the row of doors, "That's the bathroom there, this is the music room and this is the library. So if you're musically inclined or you like to read, you're more than welcome to hang out in either room. If not then dinner won't be ready for another..." Rae looked over to the kitchen, "probably twenty minutes so we're going to go up to the game room to wait. Jimmy will show you up" she said nodding to her brother. While everyone else followed Jimmy upstairs, Olivia hung back. "Hi" Rae said with a big smile.
"Hi. Shoma ziba hastid" she said. Rae looked surprised at her and she blushed. "Did I say that right? I was trying to tell you that you look beautiful." Rae smiled and nodded, "Yes, that was very good. Mersi. How did you know how to say that?" she asked. "Google" Rae laughed and gave an impressed nod. "And you just knew that I would look beautiful tonight?" Olivia tilted her head, "You always look beautiful." Olivia wanted to kiss her but she wasn't sure if she should in front of her mother. "Come on, let's see how good you are under pressure" she said taking Olivia's hand and leading her to the kitchen. "Maaman, you remember Olivia" she said when her mother looked up. "I do" Soraya said with a smile.
"Mrs. Caston. Hale shoma chetor ast?" she asked politely. Rae smiled at the surprised look on her mother's face. "Mam khoobam, mersi. Farsi e shoma khoob ast" she said back. She seemed very pleased with Olivia's effort. Olivia got nervous when she didn't understand everything Soraya said. Rae leaned over, "She says your Farsi is good." Olivia nodded in understanding. "Mersi. I'm just starting to learn" she said looking over at Rae. Soraya smiled seeing the way the two of them looked at each other. She used to look at Araeyah's father that way. Rae turned back to her mother, "Where's Charles?" she asked. "Oh, he went to the store to get something for me. He'll be back shortly" she explained. Rae nodded, "Ok. Well, if you don't need me for anything we're gonna go upstairs with everyone." Soraya assured her daughter that she didn't need anything and that they should go mingle with everyone else. Rae left her mother to finish up dinner and went up stairs with Olivia. They walked into the game room to see a game of pool going and the tv turned to the football game. Ashley, Scott and Maureen were at the pinball machine and Kathleen, Elizabeth, Jimmy and Dickey were playing air hockey. Charles' clients along with Capt Cragen were sitting down watching the game while Elliot, Kathy, Fin and Munch played pool.
Olivia and Rae walked over to the open couch and sat down next to each other. Maureen saw them whispering and laughing with each other. She nudged Ashley and nodded in their direction. She looked over and saw what Maureen was pointing out and shrugged her shoulders. Last time they both checked, Rae and Olivia didn't want anyone to know about them. They sure weren't acting like that now. Maureen decided to go over and see what was going on.
"Rae, can I talk to you?" she said leaning down to her friend. Rae nodded before turning back to Olivia, "I'll be right back" she said. She got up from the couch and walked over to the pinball machine where Ashley was waiting. "What's up?" she asked casually. "Ummm you tell us" Ashley said."You two are looking pretty cozy over there" she said looking at Olivia on the couch. "Yeah" Maureen said chiming in, "I thought you didn't want anyone to know, especially my dad. It took us less than a minute to notice. It won't take him too much longer if you two keep this up" she said warning her friend. "Guys, it's fine. You can relax. Liv and I have decided that we don't care if people know about us anymore. We're done hiding." Ashley and Maureen looked at Rae then at each other and back to Rae again. "Well, it's about time" Ashley said. "Yeah, you two make a hot couple" Scott said over his shoulder. Ashley hit him on the shoulder, "You can be really shallow sometimes you know that?" she said rolling her eyes. Rae felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned and saw Robert, one of Charles' clients, behind her and smiled. "Hi Mr. Winter" she said. He held up his hand stopping her from going any further, "Please, call me Robert" he said. Rae held her smile even though inside she was done with dog and pony show before it'd even began. "Robert, what can I do for you?" she asked politely. He took a step closer and leaned down, "Charles said that if I needed anything I could come to you and you'd gladly assist me." Rae continued to smile and waited for him to go on. "He told me there's a home gym and an office downstairs and I was wondering if you would show me?" Rae hesitated for a moment. She decided that she wouldn't worry about him trying anything seeing that there were eighteen other people in the house. "Of course. Follow me." Olivia watched her walk out of the game and down the stairs. She tried not to be suspicious of what was going on but she couldn't help it. She remembered Rae telling her about the things Charles' clients would try on her and it made her uncomfortable to watch Rae leave with the man.
They reached the lower level and Rae stood in the middle of the home gym. "Well, this is it" she said. "That door over there goes to Charles' office." Robert looked around before settling his eyes on Rae again. She saw a familiar look in his eyes and knew what was coming next. "You know, you are extremely beautiful" he said reaching up to touch Rae's hair. She moved away, rolling her eyes, "Yeah I do" she said, "is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked. "Well, I have a few things in mind" he said moving closer to Rae, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. She pushed his hand away and glared at him, "Listen, Mr. Winter" she said with emphasis on his name, making it clear they were no longer on a first name basis, "I understand that you're important to Charles and his company and that's great but you're not important to me. I'm a nice person so I was attempting to be a good hostess but you've obviously gotten the wrong idea. Don't. touch. me." she said punctuating her words. "There is a room full of cops upstairs, with one in particular, that I know would gladly kick your ass if you ever lay a hand on me again. Do I make myself clear?" she said with a fake smile and polite voice. He cleared his throat and took a step back, "Yes, crystal" he said embarrassment evident in his tone. With that Rae walked away and went back upstairs and sat back down with Liv.
"Is everything ok?" she asked when she saw that Rae's mood was different. "Yeah, everything's great" she said sarcastically. "Charles invites clients to dinner and then disappears and leaves it to me to help them to whatever they want. That wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't what they wanted" she said whispering angrily. "He tried something didn't he?" Olivia scooted to the edge of the couch ready to stand in a moment to confront the man. "Did he touch you?" she asked. Rae thought carefully about how to answer the question. She didn't want Olivia to make a scene. "I'm fine, Liv. I handled it. He won't be trying anything else" she said trying to calm her girlfriend. "That's not what I asked" she said knowing that Rae intentionally avoided the question. "He did, didn't he?" she said slightly raising her voice. "Liv, please calm down. He...He tried to touch my hair and he touched my arm. That's it. He didn't hurt anything" she said. "That bastard." Olivia moved to get up from the couch but Rae stopped her. "Olivia don't. Please, just let it go. My mother worked really hard to put this dinner together and I don't want it ruined. I took care of it. It's over so just...let it go" she said pleading with her. Olivia sighed and relaxed in her seat. "Fine. Just this once. If it happens again, I'm kicking ass first and apologizing to your mother later" she said. Rae laughed knowing that Olivia was completely serious. It made her feel good to know that Olivia was so protective of her. She was about to kiss her when her mother appeared in the doorway and cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, everyone. Dinner is ready" she said eyeing her daughter. Rae blushed like a little school girl before standing and heading out with everyone to go downstairs. They gathered at the breakfast bar where Soraya had set up the food and she and Rae stood across from them. Soraya nodded to her daughter to take charge.
"Ok, so as you all know, or at least I hope you do, my mother and I are Persian. We didn't traditionally celebrate Thanksgiving until she met Charles and they got married. He thought life couldn't happen without a Thanksgiving holiday every year. After celebrating it and seeing that the most important part, besides giving thanks and spending time with family and friends, is being able to eat however much you want and not feel bad about it, I had to agree with him and that is very rare" she said gaining a laugh from everyone. "Anyway, so because we are Persian we celebrate Thanksgiving with food that's probably not what you're accustomed to. There may be things here that you've never seen before let alone heard of but I suggest that you try everything. My mother is an amazing cook, and my input was minimal, so I promise everything will be delicious. These are all some of the foods that are traditional during Ramadan. We're all familiar with what Ramadan is, yes?" Everyone nodded simultaneously. "Yes, good. So I'm just gonna name everything and let you decide what you want. Ok so first, we have dates. I love these things. Fresh fruits and veggies" she said sticking her tongue out at the fresh veggies. Everyone laughed at her animations. "This is Paomo, it's bread and soup, Ramazan kebabi, it's a lamb dish, so yeah I won't be having that but you guys enjoy. There's Eggplant Chapatis, Lavash, it's just a bread, Fattoush and Tabbouleh, both salads, and Fasoulia, a turkey stew. Well actually I think she usually uses beef but you know, you Americans, you need your turkey on Thanksgiving" she said.
"Ummm...Rae, you're American" Maureen pointed out. "Shhh, Maureen jeez. Blowin' my cover" she said jokingly. "Sorry" she said holding her hands up. "It's tofurky anyway so score one the non-meat eaters" she said giving Kathleen a high five. "Oh and we have Mujadarra, also for us vegetarians. Yes, Kathleen you and me, gotta stick together" she said reaching over and giving her another high five. "Ful medammes, this is the dip for the Lavash, and Babba Ganoush. If you've never at least heard of Ganoush I just don't know what you've been doing with your life" she quipped getting more laughs. "This is Shabi kebab and of course my favorite, Iskender Kebab, which everyone is required to try. That's the rule" she said. "Says who?" Ashley asked defiantly. "Says...me just now. I just decided" she said. She was being her usual self, witty and charming, and everyone was loving her, especially Charles' clients. "And here we have the foods that you're more accustomed to. Turkey, stuffing, yams, mac and cheese, green beans, yada yada. You're all American so you can figure this stuff out right?" Soraya slapped Rae lightly on the shoulder and shook her head. "Ouch. I was just kidding" she said. She moved right along with her presentation of the food.
"Ok, there's more because you know it's Thanksgiving and what's Thanksgiving without dessert. Another requirement is Qatayef, which is an Arabic pancake with yummy goodness inside. Requirement" she said again. "This is Kolak, its a fruit dessert. We have Konafah pastry, Chabbakia, and Sherbet which is in the refrigerator because it has to stay cool. My mother also took the liberty to of chilling a couple bottles of my favorite wine for you people" she said. "I mean...her favorite wine. It's hers not mine because you know I'm not twenty one yet" she said back peddling. She cleared her throat, "Ok anyway, I think that's everything" she said as everyone laughed at her slip. "You can go over to the table and check out where you'll be sitting for the evening, grab your plate and have at it" she said. "Thank you so much for coming. Happy Thanksgiving. Nooshejan" Soraya said chiming in with her daughter. Everyone looked to Rae expecting her to clear up that last part. She laughed, "Bon appetit!" Everyone repeated the holiday wishes back before dispersing to go find their seats.
They all went down the line filling their plates and bowls with food before returning to their seats and digging in. Dinner was full of talking and laughter and toasts, just how any family meal should be. Everything was going great. Rae and Olivia sat across from Elliot and Kathy. Everyone had noticed how cozy the two of them were but no one had said anything. Elliot was getting more and more restless wanting to ask what the hell was going on but Kathy stopped him. She wouldn't allow him to ruin the great mood everyone was in. They sat and talked and drank, letting their food digest for a while before some went back for seconds, while others moved on to dessert. Rae checked in with Jimmy to see how was holding up. He assured her that he was fine and thanked her for forcing him to come down. She was really happy with him and how well he was doing as a host for the night.
Soraya was going back and forth from the kitchen to the table, making sure there was still enough food and wine, and offering to get things for people. Rae shook her head at all the effort her mother was putting in while Charles, of course, just sat down and enjoyed dinner, talking it up with his clients. Rae stood up and walked over to her mother, "Maaman, sit down. Everyone is fine. You should be enjoying this dinner too, not wearing yourself out" she whispered in her ear. Soraya smiled, "Ok, I guess you're right" she said receiving a nod from her daughter. She took her hand and they walked back to their end of the table together. Rae pulled out the chair for her mother to sit when Charles spoke from the other end, "Raya, honey. Can you get us more wine?" he asked. Soraya nodded and was about to go back to the kitchen but Rae stopped her. "No, mom wait. There's wine here, we can just pass it down."
"No" Charles said, "We want the other bottle." Rae could tell that Charles was trying to start problems but she'd promised her mother no fighting tonight so she bit back her smart ass remark, "Fine. I can get it" she said. She turned back to her mother, "Mom, sit down please" she said. Soraya thanked her daughter and then took her seat
"I asked my wife" Charles said smugly. By this time, their exchange had everyone's attention. Rae didn't understand why he was trying to cause a scene. The evening was going so beautifully but of course he had to do something to ruin it. Rae rolled her eyes and was about to talk back but her mother stood up. "It's fine, azizam" she said to Rae, "I'll get it." Rae stepped in front of her mother to stop her from going to the kitchen, "Mom, if he wants that wine so badly he can get it himself. I mean, he's right there. He's just trying to show off for his stupid clients" she whispered. Soraya pulled her into a small hug, "I'm fine. Please, you promised no fighting" she said. "He's the one causing problems, not me" Rae said back. Soraya just kissed her lightly on the cheek and went to the kitchen. Rae shook her head and sat back down next to Olivia. She leaned over and whispered in her ear, "If he keeps up with this shit, I'm gonna lose it" she said. Olivia put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder, "Don't let him get to you babe" she said back.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry but did you two have something you wanted to share to with the rest of the group?" Charles said referring to Rae and Olivia's side conversation. Ashley and Maureen looked at each other, nervously anticipating what would happen next. Rae was about to flip out when Olivia squeezed her shoulder, "No, we don't" she said before Rae could get anything out. She looked down to see her mother pouring wine for him and his clients. She looked over to see that Jimmy's earlier relaxed form was now tense and uncomfortable. Suddenly she couldn't wait for this evening to be over. Soraya left the wine with Charles before walking back down to her seat. The table with now quiet, no one really sure what to say next. Ashley figured she'd say something to break the ice, "Rae you have a show coming up right?" she asked. Rae looked over and gave a thankful smile before speaking. "Yeah, I do. Next Saturday. You're all welcome to come" she said.
"What's the name of your band?" Kathleen asked. "Wild Magnolia. We're a cover band, mostly rock and pop" she explained. "Rae had her first show with them a week ago. She was amazing" Ashley said looking around the table. Rae blushed slightly, "I was ok" she said modestly. "Whatever. She killed it. Everyone loved her" Ashley said. "I'm so sad I missed it. Maybe this time I'll be able to be there" Maureen said looking at her dad. "Yeah, we'll see" Elliot said. Maureen pouted, "Come on, dad. You're invited too" she said getting a chuckle from everyone at the table. The light mood that was lost by Charles' antics returned and conversation flowed freely again.
"Oh, Rae I meant to ask you, who's Suri?" Maureen asked. "I am." Rae said simply. Everyone looked confused. "Uh, it's just a name. It's Persian; it means princess. It's what my father use to call me" she said sadly. They all heard the sadness in her voice when she mentioned her deceased father. "Well it's a very pretty name" Kathy said. Rae smiled, "Thank you" she said softly. They continued talking, eating, and drinking for awhile longer. Once everyone had their fill of all they could eat, they all moved back up to the game room. Soraya, of course, tried to stay downstairs and clean up but Rae insisted that she join everyone upstairs for the festivities. She promised to stay and help her clean up once everyone had gone home.