Oh Joy

Sean and I were lazily lying around my apartment deciding what we wanted to do that day before we met up with Guy and his girlfriend Kim for dinner later that night. He’d stayed over the night before and we were still in our pajamas debating the merits of going out for brunch or making it in my apartment. There was a knock on my apartment door and we looked at each other.

“Are you expecting someone?”

“No…” I got up and walked to the door.

“…What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Afghanistan!” I said when I opened the door and saw my brother standing in my hallway.

“They keep pushing everything back, I’m supposed to go next month, for real this time. I had some leave so we thought we’d come see you and hang out.”

“We?” I looked around my brother and saw Shannon standing next to him. She waved at me and smiled. GREAT. “No one told me…” I trailed off, a little (okay…very) hurt.

“I wanted to keep it a surprise. Can we come in?”

My eyes got pretty wide then and I stepped outside my apartment into the hallway closing the door so it was barely open. I didn’t want Sean to meet my brother and never like this. My parents have only met one of my boyfriends and it was the guy I dated as a freshman in college. I didn’t want them to meet another one unless I was sure he could handle my mother’s type of crazy. I knew if my brother met Sean my mom would know in less than 24 hours because it would take the heat off of him and Shannon and re-direct it to me.

“Why don’t you guys go to the coffee shop across the street and I’ll meet you there in about 20 minutes?”

“Faith? Is something wrong?” I winced when I heard Sean’s voice coming up behind me.

Sean pulled the door open, took in the situation, and smiled sheepishly.

“Sean, this is my brother, Justin, and his girlfriend Shannon. Guys this is Sean.”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Sean said reaching to shake my brother’s hand. He waved to Shannon.

“Um...we’ll meet you guys at the coffee shop, then?” Shannon said trying to move past the awkwardness of the situation. She was practically pulling my brother, who had a huge grin on his face, down the stairs with her.

“Faith, what’s wrong? Why didn’t you want me to meet your brother…are you ashamed of me?”

“No, Sean…I just don’t really want to talk to my mother about us. She asks too many questions too soon and she’s extremely judgmental. Now that Justin knows I’m sure I’ll be getting a phone call later tonight…he’s probably calling her right now.” I sighed and started banging my head against the door jam.

“Let’s just go get dressed and meet your brother and Shannon, okay? It’s an opportunity to see him before he leaves for Afghanistan for real.”

“How much of our conversation did you hear?”

“All of it…your brother has a pretty loud voice.”

I smiled, he was right. My brother doesn’t understand the concept of volume control sometimes.

We got dressed and met with them across the street where my brother grilled Sean for nearly thirty minutes. By the end of our brunch I was practically screaming in my head.

“What do you guys have planned for today?” I asked trying to change the subject from Sean and what his childhood had been like.

“We were planning on going to a few museums and then..” Shannon trailed off and looked at my brother.

“And then we wanted to have dinner with you. Faith.” His voice implied that he expected only me to be involved in that plan.

“Oh.” I said. Sean and I had made plans with Guy for later that night and I didn’t want to cancel so last minute.

“Where did you guys want to go?” Sean asked, “I know a great place downtown. We could go there.”

After some light discussion, we decided to meet each other there once I got off work and then we said our goodbyes until later that day. On the way to work (Sean walked me there) Sean and I were talking.

“What are you going to tell Guy?”

“Don’t worry…he’ll understand. We can always reschedule with Guy, but your brother is leaving soon, you should spend time with him.”

“I’m sorry he’s being so rude to you. At least I can maintain a level of politeness with his girlfriends.” I said with snobbishness coating my voice.

“Aw, come on…Shannon’s okay.”

I stopped walking and turned to Sean, “She is a 31 year old (a fact I had learned today) divorcee. She is NOT okay for him.” Sean got the hint and didn’t push the issue. He gave me a kiss when I got to work and now I’m on my lunch break. I am SO not looking forward to dinner later tonight.