"Eyes wide and jaw slightly dropped, he looked at Cam in amusement. He sure had expected something of this nature, but witnessing it firsthand still left him speechless.
Looking around, he saw that all had varying expressions, but underlying it was acceptance. Nobody seemed surprised, embarrassed but not surprised. And nobody even looked like they would interfere.
Taking a breath in and with a smile, Daru said,
"No, what I meant was Gloria had roughly introduced all the family members that I should be expecting to meet."
"Oh." Cam turned a bit red, realizing he had jumped the gun.
"But I believe all those other people that you mentioned are only talking about how charismatic and delightful you are.
"I mean, what? It has been a minute meeting you, and you already are so… vivid. What I mean is you bring so much light to the room and much more."
Cameron was outright blushing at this. [An: I swear Daru is not flirting with Cam.]
"Oh, Daru, that was very sweet… but I guess I am the bringer of joy… I mean, I am Fizbo…" with all the humbleness Cam was physically possible, Daru rolled his eyes, holding his shirt like a princess her dress. [An: I am not so sure right now.]
"Well, let's get to the dinner table… the dinner is ready, and I will introduce you to the rest…" said Gloria.
"Hmm… hmm…" coughing to get attention, Gloria said, "Well, let's get to the dinner table; it's ready, and I will introduce you to the rest over there…"
"He is straight, right?" Haley whispered to Gloria standing next to her.
Daru stumbles on his walk towards the table.
He looks back to see Gloria and Haley holding in their laughter.
All now seated. Gloria introduced the rest.
"This is Claire, Jay's daughter."
"Phil, her husband."
"You met Alex and Haley, and this is Luke. Phil and Claire's children."
"Cam, well, you know, and this is Mitchell, his husband, and Jay's son. And this is our sweet Lily, Cam and Mitch's daughter."
Daru nodded and smiled at everyone.
"And this is Daru, my brother that I have not seen in years."
Daru's lips twitched, looking at Gloria's deadpan expression.
Everyone at the table then looked at them puzzled.
"Alright, let's get this over with. Long story short. I ran away from home and came to America."
Everyone had their eyebrows raised and leaned in to hear more.
"When I just came here, I was but a teenager, and it was a bit of a struggle. The first job was a bouncer, then bodyguard. And my last job was working with Hollywood and also some high-profile people. I provide whatever they need. I was… a supplier of sorts."
Now all had an impressed expression. Well, Gloria had her eyes narrowed, but her chest was puffed; she looked proud.
"Really, you worked with Hollywood stars. Can you tell me about the actresses that you worked with?"
Well, Luke doesn't seem to be as innocent as his face suggests.
"Luke." Claire glared at him with the face Phil finds sexy.
"Alright, alright, you can tell them all about it after the dinner. Now let's eat; the food is getting cold." Gloria said.
Daru was famished; he was eager to start engorging on the food. From one dish to another, when he saw that they were all his favorite dishes, he couldn't help but smile widely.
From the cheese rolls that he likes, to Bandeja Paisa, with Ajiaco. He didn't need to see the dessert to guess that she made Postre de natas; all his favorite.
He looked towards Gloria as she explained some of the exotic Colombian dishes the others didn't know about.
Smiling with a full heart, he dug in to fill his stomach.
The others too started eating.
If all could continue like this, then it would have been a wonderful dinner. But two people were acting a bit too irregularly.
Everyone had been ignoring it until now. But I guess the elderly had thin patience.
"I have had it with you. Claire, Phil, what is it? Why are you stuffing his plate, Claire, and while, why are you just sweating and not telling her anything about it?"
"Dad, aha." Mitchell looks at Jay and shakes his head trying to stop him.
But the harm was already done. Claire seemed too bottled to stop and burst.
"Dad, do you know what happened when I went to the supermarket? I saw Phil talking to this other woman whose house he went to and had lunch even after already eating at home. And then he says to her that I don't make food as good as her."
"No, no, I didn't mean it. She is a client who just got divorced…"
"So was that why you were flirting with her?"
"I was not flirting; I was only helping..."
"So when she asked for a house in our neighborhood, you said that the community is bad and it is a shady area."
"I didn't want you to misunderstand, not that there was anything. I was only using one of my techniques."
No matter what Phil said, Claire was having none of it.
Though Daru noticed that it doesn't seem like anyone thought in the direction of Phil cheating.
'Guess nobody thinks he would cheat on Claire.'
"Come on, that's all..." said Jay.
"What do you mean 'that's all,' Jay… it's not a small issue." Gloria now glared at him.
"Not this again."
"You don't understand at all…"
The Tao of argument, at the beginning there was one, then two, then three, now four…
And guess it would have continued to spread to encompass the whole Modern Family.
If they had not seen Daru sitting there with an awkward expression.
"Sorry," Gloria apologized, and the others too looked apologetic.
"It's not like this usually," Cam said with a wry smile.
"Not true." Lily commented on that with her monotonous voice.
"Ahm…" Mitchell almost chokes at that and then shows a shush gesture towards Lily.
"It's alright; you don't have to explain. It's natural for family to have disagreements usually."
Still embarrassed, all the adults looked around and just nodded.
When the tension was almost gone, Daru looked at Jay and said,
"We will have a talk later."
Jay just nodded stiffly; the sharp glint in Daru's eyes seemed familiar from a lot of friends he has from the military and some from not so right professions.
When they again get back to their dinner.
"Well, anyway, I am going with Phil tomorrow to clear the misunderstanding with Janice," said Claire.
Daru looked at Phil while he had his head down and stuffing his mouth.
"Why don't I go with Phil?" suggested Daru.
"I mean, I deal with divas almost every day. You can say I have a certain way with women."
Seeing the opportunity fall from the sky, Phil leaps at the chance.
"Yeah, it would be better…" not completing the sentence due to Claire's glare, Phil says instead, "You know, Janice might be uncomfortable meeting Claire too."
Not making more eye contact with Claire, Phil continues, "And, as he said, he must have dealt with infamous actresses; he should be good for this, right?" Phil looks around, gathering more support.
"Right." Except for Mitchell, the rest just gave pitying looks. Good for him that it didn't seem Claire wanted more explanation.
"Alright."
[AN: I am thinking of trying the webnovel prompt for this month. should I?. first I had plans to finish this novel then do a harry potter fic and then anything original.]