“Becca, it doesn’t matter whether you fix every detail! Life is fine with flaws!” Nate ran his fingers through his hair agitatedly, racking his brain as to why his girlfriend was crying on the couch.
“I’m not saying everything has to be perfect, but I prefer things to be decent when you are about to meet my parents for the first time!” Becca inhaled deeply, trying to stop the flow of tears that threatened to smear her makeup.
“This is my apartment, and represents my reputation. This doesn’t reflect on you at all!”
“Doesn’t it, if I said I’d MARRY you?”
“It’ll be your problem after you sign those papers, but for now, it doesn’t matter that I haven’t done the laundry in two weeks. You’re parents aren’t going to be coming into my bedroom. And the tablecloth looks fine even though I didn’t iron it.”
“THEY’LL NOTICE!” Becca cried.
“AND SO WHAT?” Nate raged, pounding on the table, which he had apparently poorly prepared for the evening. The lamp above the table flickered, as did the ones in the kitchen. The couple hardly had time to look up before every light in the apartment went out and they were sitting in pitch black. Becca started swearing profusely about how she couldn’t win for losing, but Nate’s calculating mind was already quick at work trying to solve the problem at hand.
“Becca, you know I love you. Let’s look at this practically.”
“It’s practically a disaster, Nate. What will my parents say? What if, what if…”
Nate reached out in the darkness and felt along the side of the couch until he found a space to sit next to her.
“Honey, they won’t be able to see the tablecloth when they come.” Becca’s sobs softened as she thought it through.
“I’ll light some candles, ok? It’ll be an intimate dinner with your present and future family.” Nate got up and walked to the kitchen. He used the light from his cell phone screen to dimly illuminate different drawers as he fumbled around, looking for half-used candlesticks and matches. As he lit each one, the room started to glow a little more. He took the candles to the table, placing them as aesthetically as he could in the center of the table.
“How does that look?” Nate asked, worried about the answer he’d receive, but wanting to please his future bride none-the-less. She turned around from the couch and studied his arrangement for a moment.
“It actually looks kinda nice,” she said, wiping a tissue under her eyes. “Do you need any more help getting ready?”
“Yeah, wanna help with the salad?” Nate lit the rest of his candles and put them around the kitchen. It seemed almost festive, like each of the candles were a Christmas light or a star on a clear night where it should be could, but the company keeps you warm. Becca walked in, straining her eyes against the contrast to find where the produce had been set out. Nate fumbled around the kitchen some more and found her a cutting board, knife, and a bowl to put the salad into.
“Procrastinate much?” Becca asked sassily as Nate cleared a space for her on the counter. “My parents are going to be here in half an hour.”
“Not at all. The salad would have wilted if I had made it any earlier,” Nate said, smiling sarcastically. In the dim light, Becca could only see half of his face, but all the irritating parts of him must have been shrouded in shadow because at that moment, all that she saw was her charming best friend that was sacrificing to have her parents over for dinner.
“Go pick out a tie,” she said playfully, turning to the vegetables.
“Be careful not to cut your fingers,” Nate said gently, before leaving to fulfill her request. He returned a minute later with two ties draped over his shoulders. One was gray with blue stripes, and the other was an olive green with a subtle checked background. “Which one?” he asked.
Becca stopped slicing the vegetables and turned to face him. “I can’t really tell in this light.”
“Good, because they’re both awful.”
Becca chuckled as she strode over to her fiancée and took the gray and blue tie. She closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. “You’ll look handsome regardless.”
Nate laughed, admiring how the candlelight glittered in Becca’s eyes and how it reflected delicately off her hair. “Look at us,” he said as she worked the tie around his neck. “We were fighting just a few minutes ago. What happened?”
Becca took in the moment before she answered. “I guess I just forgot we were fighting. It just slipped my mind.”
“I think you’re hypnotized,” Nate said quietly, a smile creeping onto his face. “I should bring out the candles more often.” Becca laughed as she finished smoothing the tie down his front.
“Maybe I am. But I’d still appreciate it if you’d iron the tablecloth next time my parents come to your apartment. Especially if they’re coming over for the first time, and we’re about to tell them something crazy, like we’re recently engaged or something like that.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind next time,” Nate smiled slyly as he kissed Becca. The moment lasted a little longer than they both expected. Becca was the first to come back to reality.
“I still have to make that salad,” she whispered, studying Nate’s face. “I didn’t mean to share my lipstick with you, but seeing as I’m such a generous person, you should probably wash it off before my parents come. You know, for first impression’s sake.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nate reluctantly pulled out of the embrace and headed to the bathroom, dropping the unused green tie off in his bedroom on the way. He tried to use his cell-phone light to illuminate where the tokens of Becca’s affection were smeared, but it was simply too dark. He scrubbed his face and hoped that no marks were left behind.
He re-entered the kitchen just as Becca placed the freshly made salad on the table to accompany the breadsticks and homemade lasagna. Her silhouette looked so elegant against the inky backdrop, and she glanced up and gave him a confident smile.
“It looks great, Nate.”
They heard the door knock once.
“You sure? Anything else I need to get?”
They heard a second knock, more persistent than the first.
“No, this is fantastic. You’ll be great.”
The third knock was accompanied by a muffled, irritated complaint from the hallway: “We can’t see anything out here.”
“We’ll be great,” Nate corrected her, as he opened the door to meet his future in-laws.
I actually purposefully made this piece less passionate and less physically intimate than others I've seen in the forums to make the point that romance fiction doesn't have to be steamy. Romance fiction just needs to have romance and love as the main conflict, so in this piece, I chose to focus on love that does not lust, if that makes sense. I appreciate your input though, and will look to see where I can highlight the couple's emotional ties. Thanks again!
