*Thank-you for all the reviews on the last chapter. They were greatly appreciated. Thank-you all so much! =)
A couple weeks later Dave, Max and I arrived at my parents' home in West Newbury. Dave was still a little nervous about meeting my parents and I had grown nervous because this was the first time I was going to see them since the night John and I announced I was pregnant. I knew my mom was upset with me and I was ashamed to face her. I had never disappointed my parents before and this was definitely probably the worst thing I could have disappointed them with. Luckily for me Dave, Max and me were only staying the night before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving and the day after. Max and I were heading back to Tampa while Dave was heading back to work. He only got two days off for the holiday but I guess that was better than nothing.
Dave took my hand as we walked up the sidewalk to the front door. I took a deep breath as I rang the doorbell. It was only a few seconds before my dad answered the door. "Hey, Tess," he said with a smile. "I'm glad to see you," he said hugging me.
"I'm glad to see you too, Dad."
"Did you have a good flight?" he asked.
"Not really," I said as we broke the hug, "flying on an airplane while about 5 months pregnant isn't recommended. I was really uncomfortable and I had to use the bathroom every 10 minutes." The flight was really horrible it had nothing to do with service it was mainly me being uncomfortable in the seats and sitting for a long period of time. Not to mention the excessive bathroom breaks.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I hope your flight home is better."
"Me too," I said with a smile. "Dad, I would like for you to meet my boyfriend Dave and his son Max."
"Nice to meet you," said my dad extending his hand for Dave to shake.
"Nice to meet you too," said Dave shaking his hand. My dad's reaction to Dave was a lot better than I expected. I assumed it was because my Dad got over a grudge quicker than my mom not to mention the fact my dad just wanted me to be happy.
"And how are you doing, Little Guy?" He asked Max.
"Good," said Max hiding behind Dave's leg. He was playing the shy card for my dad.
"He's so cute."
"Thank-you," said Dave proudly.
"You guys can come in," he said opening the door for us, "and Dave, by the way I am Charles since Tessa failed to leave that out of the introduction," he said giving me a smile.
"Sorry," I said as we walked into the house. I had yet to see my mom and I would have thought she would have came to the door to greet us but she didn't. I guess she was more disappointed in me than I thought. "Where is mom?"
"Oh," said my dad with his smile dropping. "She's next door talking to Carol and visiting John."
"Oh," I said, "So John is over there?"
"Yeah he got in last night. Your mom wanted to go see how he was doing and to make sure he was okay plus she wanted to visit with Carol she'll be back later."
"Figures," I said. "Well, Dave, Max and me are going to go upstairs to the guest room to settle in. Call me when she decides to come home."
"I will," he said. "I still love you just so you know," he said.
"I love you too, Dad," I said as I hugged him before I showed Dave and Max the upstairs and showed them our room. Dave and me didn't bother unpacking because it would be too much work to repack everything two days later. We were used to living out of suitcases anyway so it was no big deal. Once we had everything settled in I gave them a tour of the house showing them the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room where Dave made fun of my 1st grade school picture hanging on the wall when I had absolutely no teeth. I was literally missing my four top front teeth along with two of my bottom front teeth. He got a good chuckle and I was embarrassed that my mother still had that picture hanging up after all these years plus if you throw in the glasses I looked like a total dork.
"What happened to your teeth in that picture, Tess?" asked Dave with a laugh.
"I lost them," I said. "My teeth just started falling out at once. I couldn't help it. Shut up," I said.
"And I love the glasses and the pigtails. Very cute," he said.
"Shut up," I said. "I hate that picture."
"I want a copy!" he said with a smile.
"No you don't. I can't wait to meet your parents so I can see embarrassing pictures of you."
"Not going to happen. I have no embarrassing pictures," he said.
"We will see about that," I said as the front door opened and my mother walked into the house.
She walked into the living room to see us standing there. "Hello, Tessa."
"Hey, Mom," I said hugging her.
"Look at you. You're showing and you're practically glowing. You look great."
"Thanks," I said. I was a little confused because she seemed genuinely happy for me. I figured there was no better time than that to introduce her to Dave. "Mom, this is my boyfriend Dave and his son Max."
"Hey, Dave," she said with practically no emotion before directing her attention to Max, "and Max it's so nice to meet you! You're such a little cutie. How old are you?"
"Four," he said holding up four fingers. "I just had a birthday."
"Did you? Happy late birthday!" she said with a smile. "Tess, he is adorable. Speaking of adorable I just saw John. He told me to tell you hi and he wishes you a happy Thanksgiving."
For some reason I really doubted John would say hi and would wish me a happy Thanksgiving. I was not his friend and I was not his favorite person. "Oh," I said knowing that she only did it because of Dave standing there the funny thing is Dave probably could have cared less he even told me if I chose to be friends with John he would support that. It was John that didn't want to be friends so I really doubted my mom's word.
"So how are you feeling?"
"I'm all right," I said sitting down on the couch as Dave sat down next to me holding Max on his lap. My mom sat down on the chair across from us. "Tired but good."
"Pregnancy does that to you," she said. "So do you know what you're having?"
"We're waiting to find out," said Dave. "We want to be surprised. Only the doctor knows what we're having. Tessa thinks it's a girl though."
"That's nice," said my mom coldly. I could tell by her glares to Dave she did not like him at all. If she would have been any colder she would have been an ice cube. "Tessa, you know they say a mother always knows."
"I know. I just feel like it's a girl."
"You should still find out because then you know what kind of theme to get. Don't you want a pink theme for a girl and a blue theme for a boy?"
"Nope," I said. I honestly didn't want a pink theme or a blue theme. I wasn't really into all that gender stereotyping thing. Dave and me had agreed the nursery would be green and the theme would be something with frogs. It was very gender neutral and that's what we wanted. We just had to start working on it and buying stuff for the baby and the nursery. "We're painting the nursery green and having a frog theme of some type."
"Frogs? What if you have a little girl? Little girls don't like frogs," she said. "John would have never allowed that."
"John isn't the father," I said. "Dave is and we decided on that theme and color."
"Believe me I know," she said with disgust.
Dave cleared his throat before Max said, "I'm going to have a brother."
"Are you?" asked my mom.
"Yeah he in Tessa's tummy. Right, Tessa?"
"Maybe, Buddy. We don't know yet." Dave was shifting around which showed me he was uncomfortable and no wonder with the way my mom was glaring at him. I don't think she had taken her eyes off of him once then we had the John comments. She was making him feel great.
"So are you two planning on getting married?" she asked us.
"We haven't talked about that yet," answered Dave.
"I would hope so. You know for the baby and all."
"We don't have to be married to raise a baby together," I said. "I don't think I want to get married."
"You should, Tessa."
"But I don't want to," I said. "We go through this ALL the time. I think we should be lucky I'm having a baby because I didn't want that either but well here I am."
"So you don't want the baby?"
"I do. I'm actually excited now that I've gotten used to the idea but I'm saying I didn't want to get pregnant at first."
"But aren't you glad you did?" asked my mother.
"Sure," I said.
"If only it would have been with John. No offense, Dave."
"Yeah," he said. I took his hand to help him relax. He was doing pretty good by not flipping out on my mother. I probably would have if I was him because she was being downright rude with him. There was no need for that last comment.
"Mom, that's not necessary. Did you ever stop to think maybe it wasn't supposed to happen with John? As many times as we tried it never happened and the ONE time I sleep with Dave without protection it happens for us did you ever stop to think it wasn't meant to happen with John because I think about that everyday. God made it happen for a reason with Dave."
"Don't bring God into your soap opera life. He has nothing to do with it," she said. I knew I upset her with my last comment but it was true. It obviously wasn't supposed to happen with John or it would have. "So Dave, you are a wrestler too?"
"Yes, Ma'am I am."
"That's nice," she said, "and you've been married before?"
"Yes," he said.
"How many times?"
"1 time," he said.
"Why did you two get a divorce?"
"It's a long story," he said, "and it's really not appropriate to discuss it in front of my 4 year old son. That is his mother after all."
"Come on, Dave, what was it?"
"Mom," I said, "he said he didn't want to talk about it."
"I just want to know," she said.
"Long story short we just grew apart. We weren't meant for each other so we ended things," Dave answered. That was part of it but there was much more to the story but it wasn't my mom's business and she was starting to annoy me with her rudeness.
"I see," she said. "So back to the baby. Did you two come up with any names yet?"
"Not yet," I said, "but Dave did suggest Cecelia Grace for a girl but I want to look at other options."
"Ew. Cecelia. I don't like it," she said, "may I suggest you give the baby a family name? They make the best names for a baby."
"We'll see. We haven't really gotten to that point yet," I said.
"Well, your grandmother's name would be perfect for a little girl."
"What's your grandmother's name?" asked Dave.
"Victoria," I said.
"That's pretty," he said with a smile.
"We'll see," I said.
"And I assume you're naming a boy after his father?" she asked with a little bit of coldness.
"No," said Dave. "I don't want to give my sons my name or I would have given Max my name. I want my sons to have their own names."
"I see," said my mom. "I suggest a family name for a boy too. My maiden name would make the perfect first name for a boy and your maiden name would be perfect for the middle name."
"And what is that?" asked Dave.
"Bennett Montgomery," I said. I had to admit it did have a ring to it but we still needed to discuss it. That was another thing we needed to catch up on but I was in no rush. We still had plenty of time.
"I like that," said Dave with a smile. "Bennett is a cute name. Bennett Montgomery Batista. We can add that to our list."
"The list we haven't started yet."
"I know but now we do," he said with a smile.
"I love you."
"I love you too," he said with a smile before he kissed my lips quickly but softly.
My mom cleared her throat and said, "So do you plan on finding a job, Tessa?"
"Yes. I'm in the process now. It's kind of hard."
"Well, if we didn't make bad decisions we wouldn't lose our jobs would we?"
"Mom, that's not even necessary. I don't think it was a bad decision."
"Tessa, you cheated on your boyfriend of 16 years and with one of your associates none the less. I think it was a bad decision. If it wasn't you would still have your job."
"I like not having my job. I'm not as stressed and it's good to be home and not traveling. I don't think it's that bad. Things happen for a reason."
"Things only happen at our control which you had none of. I'm really disappointed in you, Tessa. That wasn't like you to do but you did it anyway. What were you thinking?"
"I should probably take Max and put him down for a nap or something," said Dave. I knew he didn't' want Max to hear any of that stuff but my mom obviously didn't care because she was firing at me.
"Good idea," I said giving him a half smile. He mouthed an apology to me as he got up. "Have a good nap okay, Buddy?"
"Okay, Tessa," said Max as he gave me a hug.
"I'm going to let you two talk," said Dave. He kissed the top of my head before he headed upstairs. I can't tell you how thrilled I was that he left me alone with my mom; whom I knew was waiting to rip me to pieces.
"Tessa, why would you make a decision like that? Was he worth it?"
"Mom, you don't know what my relationship with John was like. John is the one that pushed me away."
"Do not blame this on John. He is innocent. He was relaxing in his hotel room while his girlfriend was out having sex with some other guy. John is not at fault here. You are. You know better. We raised you better than that. You know it and I know it. We did not raise you to do things like that and I am ashamed that you did that. And then without protection what were you thinking? You are a smart girl. You know better."
"Mom," I said trying not to cry. "It just happened but at the same time John was trying to control me. He wanted me to do the things he wanted like having a baby. He is the one that made me get rid of the birth control which I did and do you see where it got us? He was too controlling. I couldn't deal with it Mom. His controlling ways pushed me away."
"Tessa, I don't want to hear excuses. Whether he controlled you or not doesn't mean you go and sleep with some random guy."
"Mom, Dave isn't some random guy. He's my boyfriend and the father of my child."
"But he was a random guy when you slept with him at first. How do you just throw away 16 years?"
"Mom, in all honesty I'm surprised I didn't break away from John sooner. I love John don't get me wrong but I have NEVER been with anyone else. John was all I knew. I thought it was true love.. The true love that lasts forever but it wasn't. If I loved him as much as I said or thought I did I would have NEVER cheated on him. From the time I was 16 till 32 I had only been with John. I had to go out and find out what else was out there. I may have gone about it the wrong way but I can't change it. It is what it is. I'm happy with Dave and this is probably the happiest I've been in a while. He treats me respectfully and we understand each other's opinions and respect them."
"Tess, I just don't understand. John was supposed to be your forever."
"There is no such thing as forever especially when you're a young girl that has NEVER been with anyone else. Mom, I'm sorry I disappointed you and I'm sorry I hurt you by doing this but this is my life. I made my decisions whether they were good or bad and there is NOTHING I can do about it now. I can sit and wallow in self pity or I can forgive myself, go on with my life and see how it turns out. If Dave and me get married we get married. If we don't then we don't. I don't' know what's going to happen with Dave and me but what I do know is he makes me happy and I love him. I do know I do not regret what I did with him and I do not regret that he is my baby's father. I'm not happy with the way I went about it but I am happy with the decision I made. And you know why? Because it's my life and I can do what I want with it. You're not going to agree with what I do but the least you could do is support me. It's not too much to ask for a little support from my own mom."
"Tessa, what frightens me the most is that you don't realize what you did was wrong and you have no remorse for what you did."
"Why should I feel guilty for doing what is best for me? I was in an unhealthy relationship and I got out of it. I'm damn proud of myself."
"Tessa, what you're doing now is unhealthy."
"Whatever," I said getting up.
"Where are you going?"
"Upstairs. I need a nap," I said.
"All right," she said, "but first I should warn you that your grandmother will be at dinner tomorrow."
"Okay," I said before walking out of the living room and up the stairs. Now I was scared because my grandmother was really old fashioned. She didn't believe in sex before marriage and she didn't believe in cohabitation before marriage. I knew she wouldn't approve of my pregnancy along with how it all came about. It was one thing to disappoint my parents but my grandma was a different story. Dave and me were in for a LONG Thanksgiving especially with my mother and my grandmother together. I am sure it was bound to be a GREAT Thanksgiving. I was not looking forward to the next day at all… not at all.
*A/N: So what did you think? And as you can tell Tessa is not a traditional person so that could have some type of affect on her grandmother's opinion of her but we will see.. Please review and thank-you for reading.