I talked to Brian for a while about my brother and how he had mentioned wishing he could have had fun like he did at the stag party. I was feeling so much guilt about my brother pretty much cooped up in the nursing home where he was being cared for that it was eating away at me. He's always been someone who was so full of life, energy, strong willed and was always down for a good time. Watching and seeing all of that being stripped from him, not just once from the car accident but twice now from the cancer, it was breaking my heart.
Brian sat and contemplated something for a while and then proposed something, "Why don't we throw him a party? Like a last hurrah party?"
I gave it some consideration, "I guess we could do that. I wouldn't know where we could throw it, I don't want some of his friends in my home or anywhere near the club."
Brian waves his hand, "Don't worry about that. We'll find somewhere, but we should talk to David about this first. He may not want to have a last hurrah party."
I chew on my lip, "Yeah, you may be right. He's been tired a lot and really might not be up for one. Well, I guess we'll ask him here in a little bit." I smile at him, as we drink our coffee and he makes breakfast.
His phone starts ringing from the bedroom, "Can you go answer that for me, please? I don't want our bacon to burn." He's starting to pull out strips, so I scurry to the bedroom and grab his phone off the charger.
"Hello?" I answer.
A deep baritone voice comes over the phone, "Well, hello. You must be Sarina."
Taken aback I answer, "Umm yes?"
A chuckle comes over the speaker as I'm walking to the kitchen, "Well, I'm Robert, Brian's father. Is my boy able to talk right now?"
I chuckle back, "Hello, Mr. Huller. Um, yes just one moment, he's finishing pulling the bacon off the stove." I motion to Brian to come answer the phone.
He takes the phone and puts it on speaker. "Sup pops?"
"Hey, Brian. I tell you what, she sounds just as pretty as your mom's been saying she is. How are you doing, son?"
Brian chuckles, "I'm doing good pop, by the way you're on speaker phone." He says glancing at me, smirking at me blushing from head to toe as I pour us some juice to have with breakfast.
It's quiet on his dad's side for only a second before he clears his throat, "Why does that matter? Did I say something inappropriate?"
"No pops, you didn't, you're just making someone blush before she's had her breakfast." Brian smirks, as he plates the omelets and hands them to me to take to the table. He grabs his phone and the toast before we take a seat.
"Oh, I highly doubt that she's not had breakfast... Brian."
The casual but still emphasized way his dad says breakfast and Brian has me looking up at Brian wide eyed. His dad is talking about us having sex.
Oh my god.
I cover my face with my hand and start eating breakfast, as Brian silently chuckles as he talks to his dad for a moment.
"Sorry pops, can't do lunch. We have plans to go visit David, Sarina's brother. We could maybe do dinner with you guys?" Brian looks up at me with a questioning look and I nod with an awkward smile.
"Why can't you do dinner with the brother? I wanted to take you to this great new place, but they're only open for breakfast and lunch." His dad asks.
Brian clears his throat, "Um, because dad we can go another day to that restaurant, but her brother has some terminal health problems and is tired come the end of the day." He looks up to me to make sure that he was okay sharing that information and I give him a thin, half baked pull of my lips up, nodding that it was okay.
His dad sighs heavily, "My apologies, I didn't know. I'm sorry to hear that about your brother. Would he like to maybe join us for lunch? If he is able to?"
Taken aback, I freeze for a moment. He wants to include my brother?
"Um.." I start out, "I can call ahead and ask if he would. It all depends on how he's feeling today."
"That would be nice, then afterwards, we could bring you all back to the house to hang out and Brian can grab some of his stuff that we've been keeping here." His dad says.
"Is your house wheel chair accessible?" I ask, knowing my brother would have some issues with stairs if their was more than a step.
"Um... Well upstairs would be a no, but there's only the lips at the front and back door that would be a problem otherwise." His dad says.
"Okay. I'll go make that phone call." I stand and go to the bedroom to fetch my phone and give David a call.
David is all for it, letting me go so he can freshen up after I tell him that we'll be meeting Brian's parents.
Laughing to myself as I rejoin Brian, I sit and nod, "He said yes, he's up for it. He seemed rather excited to go out."
"Oh that's great! See it all works out!" His voice booms even though it sounds like he's pulled the phone from his face, "I told you honey! Never hurts to ask!" Scuffling is heard as he puts the phone back to his face, "Alright then, enjoy your breakfast. We'll see you for lunch later say half past noon?"
"Sounds great pops. We'll see you later." They hang up and I can't help but chuckle.
"Should I be concerned about my brother and your parents meeting? I don't want them to lose this nice opinion they have of me." I try to laugh off my unease about them meeting. I don't want them to look down on me or my brother for his poor choices.
"What? No." Brian scoffs, shaking his head in confusion. "Why would they lose their opinion of you?"
I shake my head, "No reason, I'm just being silly cause my brother is well... you know... my brother?" I shrug and take a bite.
"Trust me, he'll do fine. Have more faith in your brother. I don't think he'd do anything to give my parents a bad impression." Brian gets back to eating breakfast and after I nod my head in agreement, I do the same.
We help each other clean and tidy up the apartment, making sure laundry is in the bins or folded and put away, before a sweep, vacuum and mop of the floors are done. We work well together and everything gets done quickly. We relax for a few minutes watching tv, me sprawled out over the couch with my feet across his lap. He massages my feet, absentmindedly, while lost in thought.
I knew he was lost in thought, because he wasn't reacting to the tv show that was on. He gets so into the massage, with his preoccupied thoughts, that I don't mind what he's thinking about as long as he keeps doing what he's doing to my arches and the balls of my feet.
"Ohhhh... fuccck...." I moan out, as his thumbs work on a spot I didn't even know was sore.
That snaps Brian from his thoughts, as he goes back over the spot.
"We're not going to make it to lunch if you keep rubbing on that spot, Brian." I inform him, making him a cock a knowing brow at me, grinning mischievously.
"Oh, really now?" His smile grows.
"Yes, cause I'm going to fall asleep, this is relaxing my ass too much." I chuckle, making him release my feet.
"Can't have you falling asleep on my parents now. I'm going to go wash my hands. Do you need to do anything to get ready other than shoes?" He asks standing up.
"Maybe comb my hair, but no not really." I stand feeling refreshed and better as we go to get ready to leave.
When we pick up David, I'm shocked to find him, dressed in nice, khaki slacks, a light blue button up, with his beard trimmed and his hair styled and slicked back. I almost didn't recognize him. We get him loaded in the car, after I stopped gushing on how good he was looking. He told me to stop but when Brian mentioned in the car that he did look really good, David winked at him and told me to watch out. That his devilish charm was coming back again. We had a good laugh as we made our way to the restaurant to meet his parents.
I could see us all laughing at this moment and realized that this felt good. This felt normal, that this was how life was supposed to feel. Caught in this moment, that felt nostalgic, I couldn't help the tear that escaped my eye, but was able to brush it off while fanning my face from laughing.
We arrive at the restaurant and I take a deep breath, preparing myself for meeting Brian's dad. I could see a few facial features that Brian shared with his mother but knew that he must look like his father. I keep my eyes peeled for an older version of Brian as we take out David's wheelchair from the back for him.
He wheels himself up to the door, Brian and I not far behind him, when the door to the place opens up.
"Brian!"
The familiar baritone cuts through the air, as a taller gray haired man steps out, that was no doubt Brian's father. Brian's face lights up, giving his dad a quick one armed hug and pat on the back before turning to introduce David and then me. He gave David a firm handshake and friendly smack on the back as he said hello, then gave me a quick but firm hug.
"I'm sure Brittany told you, we hug." He laughs as he released my body that resembled a mannequin with how awkwardly I moved.
I awkwardly laugh it off, "Yeah, she did the same thing to me when I first met her too."
"I bet she did! Come on in, I already got us all a table." Robert, his dad, holds the door open for us to enter, then leads us past the hostess, who follows us, to our table. She gets our drink orders and leaves. Introducing Brittany, Brian's mom, to my brother, we all sit for a moment and get comfortable.
"It was very nice of you both to invite me out as well, thank you." David says, politely.
"Not a problem, dear. We're happy to have you join us." Brittany says warmly.
"So David, Sarina. What do your parents do?" Robert asks us, making me and David share a look.
"They don't do anything anymore, they died in a car accident a few years ago." David says calmly.
Brittany covers her mouth, as Robert apologizes. "I'm sorry, I..."
I quickly jump in, "It's okay, you didn't know."
Brian joins in, "Don't look so mortified mom, you act like dad asked it on purpose. Anyways," He turns his attention to David, "did you catch any of the hockey match yesterday?"
The guys all start talking about the game while me and Brittany start talking.
"So what did you do for Brian's birthday?" Brittany asks.
Blushing, I fumble to tell her, "I didn't do too much...."
Brian quickly interjects, "Nonsense, she gave me an excellent present, mom."
David snorts and looks away, acting like he just sneezed instead of laughed.
"So what was it?" His mom looks expectantly between the two of us.
"It was a painting she did for me. Plus she made me breakfast in bed after a late night at Lance's stag party. Which I needed." Brian laughs it off like he was hungover. Even though I know what kind of breakfast he's referring to.
He woke me up eating 'breakfast' and had my sore tender flesh quivering under his gentle touch. Just the memory of it causes my insides to quiver and tingle. As we sit back and enjoy our lunch, I can't help but feel like this is all surreal, like I'm just dreaming. My heart clenches at the memory that thought brings up.
As soon as I believed it was too good to be true, it normally ended up being correct.
I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the thought, hoping I'm just thinking too much.
"Everything alright, Sarina?" David asks me, noticing my shake of the head.
I chuckle, "Yeah, just had a hair tickling my face." I smile, before finishing my drink.