AGAIN HE BEAMED WHEN I CALLED HIS NAME, AS IF HE loved to be remembered, which was adorable. "I'm looking forward to it. They aren't homophobic, right? Because I'll be taking Tiago, my boyfriend, with me."
"No. Ethan, my third brother who's 22, is engaged to his long-term boyfriend from highschool. My second cousin, Madoc, who's 25, also dates a guy from his work. So we are all very cool with it. You will feel safe and at home around us, don't worry."
All of them, even Thays, seemed grateful for that. "Sounds like I'll make some friends there," he's definitely adorable. "Good to know that you have lots of tattoos, cunhadinho," now he is also calling me brother-in-law, seems like I passed. "It means your family won't have a problem with Manu's."
"No worries on that. My parents actually enjoy tattoos, so hers won't be a problem. Besides, my mom came here a while ago, saw them, and found it very beautiful." My eyes went down to her and she blushed, but tried to pretend she didn't. "Mom was actually stunned by how gorgeous your daughter is. Just as I also was when I met her."
She gasped, "Stop it, idiota."
"You are right, our Manu is outstandingly beautiful. She as beautiful as her temper is fierce," her dad added and I couldn't agree more. "And she took that from her mom, isn't that right, meu amor?"
Her mom blushed and glared at him, "Amor, don't tell him that. He'll be intimidated."
"Mamãe, he's dating Manu out of all the girls in our family, I highly doubt he'll be intimidated by your temper when he deals with hers. Especially when he clearly messes with her, enough for her to curse him to us."
"Brother-in-law is right," I agreed and he blushed. "She's as fierce as a beast."
"That's on you. No one told you to piss me off," she muttered and went back to making the sandwiches of Italian bread, cheese, eggs, salami, and bacon.
"To be fair, we piss each other off. I'm quite prideful and stubborn, as much as she is."
"Sounds like a match," her mom giggled. "I always knew Manu would end up with someone as hard to deal with, as she is."
"Mamãe!" She yelled. "I'm not hard to deal with."
"Yes, you are," I exclaimed before even thinking.
She glared at me, "You are a different story, Aaron. And you are as hard to deal with as I am."
"That's precisely the point," I mocked.
"Alright, mamãe, papai, it's better if we leave them. They seem to be busy, hm? Besides, they must be starving after… exercising."
Setting where she was before, I held the phone and she came closer, standing right behind me and looking at them. "How tall are you, Aaron?" Her mom asked. "You two seem to have a big height difference."
Thays scoffed, "Mamãe, you know the Na'vi from the Avatar movies? Aaron is a white type of them. He's ridiculously tall. Like, two heads more than me, maybe more!" She's exaggerating.
I rolled my eyes and brought her closer, holding Thays by her waist and making her sat on my lap again, "I'm 6'5.9 precisely. Around 198cm, which is a lot more than your daughter, indeed."
"She always like tall guys," her brother added.
"Which is ironic, since the blonde trash bag wasn't really tall compared to her. So much that with a pair of high heels they were on the same height," but the tone of her father's voice, I could tell he seemed to hate the boy.
And blonde? Really? Is that her type? "Than it's good that I'm tall. It feels good to tower her all the time."
She growled again, "I can't say the same. I almost break my neck to look at you."
"I can just carry you," the words came out easily and she blushed. "It makes it easier for me too," I rolled my shoulders and turned to her parents and brother that were still staring at us. "By the way, are all the others beautiful like the three of you?"
Even her dad blushed to that. "Is your family as beautiful as you are?" Her brother asked instead.
I grinned, "Well, I did take my looks from my parents, but I'm still the most handsome out of the five of us."
Of course she would laugh, "Narcissistic asshole."
"Am I lying, though?" I asked her my eyes on hers.
She gulped and rolled her eyes, avoiding mine, "No."
Grinning widely I turned to her parents, "As she said, I'm the most handsome in my family. Better than me there are none. But they are almost as good as I am."
"Meu amor, seems like Many got someone with an ego as big as hers, hm?" Her mom mocked.
When I turned to see Thays, she was blushing hard. "Mamãe, I'm not egocentric like him!" She protested but none of them seemed to be buying that.
"No? But you certainly spend your first 15 years yelled to everyone that you was the most beautiful, most talented, and smartest out of the 10 of us, hm?" Her brother scoffed. "And you couldn't even get near a mirror that you would stare at your reflex and flirt with yourself!"
I burst out laughing, "No shit? And you judge me?"
She cursed, "Don't say merda, Alessandro. When was I like that?"
"You were always like that!" Her parents exclaimed together.
"Even as a baby, you couldn't even get near a mirror that you would stay there for ages," her dad reminisced.
"And after you graduated at 18, on the 5 years that followed, while you were spending each semester of the year in a different country, your ego got bigger and bigger and you grew more successful. More beautiful too. You are really radiant nowadays, Manu. Even more than before," well, I agree. At least she does have the potential, but her looks are disastrous to say the least.
"I wasn't being narcissistic. I'm just that beautiful, talented, successful, and smart. And the fact that I was the only one out of the 10 of us to go to college at 15, and Harvard at that, proves my intelligence. My beauty you just have to look at me. Even when I'm messy, I'm still gorgeous," now, that's true. "And I won't even get started on being talented and successful, you can just look at my life."
The way they all rolled their eyes in sync, showed how they had heard that thousand of times before. "See? I told you. And believe, cunhadinho, I had to hear her saying that for ages. Even now, when she fight with any of us, she says that."
"Okay, mamãe, papai, Alessandro, that's enough. We've talked. You know I'm more than well. See you in a week," then she held the phone near her. "Te amo, bye."
Just like that she hang up and let out a deep breath.
"So, you flirt with yourself in the mirror?" I couldn't hold myself, and she jumped from my lap, annoyed.