Friends and Foes

This weekend I met Adam’s friends and he met mine. And let me just tell you it was a DOOZY of a weekend.

I arrived at Adam’s place in between shows (on the weekends we do two shows, an early matinee and an evening show with about three hours in between) and I was nervous to meet Dan and Peter. Adam opened the door and smiled.

“Hey, come in!” He stepped aside to reveal his two friends, who looked very different from each other.

Adam took my hand and closed the door.

“Faith, this is Peter.” Adam said motioning to the man standing to his left.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Peter extended his hand and I shook it.

He was wearing black jeans that appeared to have actually been pressed and a light blue button-up with dark sailor shoes. His dark brown hair was meticulously parted to the side and he had a cold affect about him. He seemed to be about the same age as Adam.

“And this is my friend Dan.” Adam motioned to the man standing to his right.

Dan was wearing khaki cargo shorts, flip flops, and plain black t-shirt. He had a light beard, happy eyes, brown hair, was rather fit, and appeared to be slightly older than Adam.

“SO nice to meet you!” He said swooping in for a hug, “Adam won’t shut up about ya!”

He playfully punched Adam in the arm when we broke apart.

Peter and Dan returned to the couch and I went into the kitchen with Adam to help get drinks and snacks. I smiled at him as he poured a bag of pretzels into a bowl.

“What?” He smiled and didn’t look at me.

“Your friends are just…they’re not who I expected.” I said.

“You’re going to love them.” He said.

I followed him out of the kitchen holding sodas and passed them out as we sat down in the living room.

“So, Faith, tell us all about you. Where are you from, what do you do, how did Adam trick you into dating him?” Dan joked.

“I work at a theatre called The Glass Penny as the in-house stage manager, I’m sort of from all over because my dad was in the army but we ended up settling in Omaha when I was in high school, and Adam and I met when we worked together…was it four years ago?”

“Yeah, somewhere around there.” Adam said.

“So, what do your parents do now?” Peter asked.

“Well, my mom is a pre-school teacher and my dad works as a financial administrator for one of the universities.”

“Wow! That’s pretty cool.” Dan said trying to distract me but I noticed that Peter gave Adam an unreadable glance after I answered.

“They like what they do.” I shrugged and smiled.

“What do you eventually plan on doing?” Peter asked.

“With what?” I asked genuinely confused.

“Well, do you intend to settle down at some point and keep working as a…?”

“Stage manager.” Adam said pointedly.

“Right.” Peter gave him a cold look, “As a stage manager.”

“Uh…I…well yeah, I do want to keep doing that.” I looked at Peter and then at Adam who had an unreadable look on his face.

“So, uh, what does a stage manager do, exactly?” Dan asked trying to ease the tension and distract me.

“Oh, well, it’s a big job,” I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, “My main goal is to just ensure that the entire rehearsal, tech, and production process runs as smoothly as possible and that everyone is in the loop the entire time. I also direct all of the cues in the show while it’s actually playing.”

“What does that mean?” Dan asked.

“Well, so, you know how when you go see a show and the curtain opens?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, someone is giving the cue for that. Same with lights, sometimes actors’ entrances, set pieces, etc.”

“And that’s all you?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, Faith, that sounds like such a cool job. Would a visitor ever get to sit in the booth and watch you do that?”

“Dan, do you want to job shadow me?” I joked.

“Yes.” He looked at me very seriously and nodded his head and then broke into a smile to let me know he was kidding.

“I could arrange it, if you really want.” I said.

“I’ll be in touch.” Dan joked.

“So what do you do?” I asked him.

“Oh, I’m a photojournalist. Adam and I went to college together where we were both journalism majors. Although, because I’m not a slacker like him,” Dan joked and Adam smiled, “I double majored in photography and journalism.”

“Dan was a year ahead of me but we graduated at the same time because of it.” Adam explained.

Dan kicked back and put his arms behind his head, “Being a super senior was pret-ty great.”

“Are you married?” I asked.

“Nah. I’ve been engaged for, like, 6 years, though. Her name is Penny. But I’ll be right back.”

He got up and walked to the bathroom.

I liked Dan. He was laid back and funny and his report with Adam was happy. Peter on the other hand…

“So what do you do, Peter?” I asked.

I saw Adam shift uncomfortably in his chair out of the corner of my eye it was almost imperceptible.

“I’m an investment banker for a firm here in the city.” His voice had an air of snobbery about it.

“Oh, wow.” I said, “Are you married?”

Peter held up his left hand and showed me his wedding band as an answer. He seemed almost bored and offended at my questions.

“Oh, how long have you been married?”

“Three years. We met in graduate school.”

“Oh, so is she an investment banker, too?” I asked.

Peter gave me a cold look.

“No. She maintains our household and cares for our son, Timothy.”

It was such an odd way to say “stay-at-home-mom/wife” and I was nervous so I laughed. I’m not proud.

“I’m sorry.” I said at Peter’s offended look, “How did you and Adam meet?”

I looked at Adam and then back at Peter. Adam was staring at him with interest.

“In high school. Adam and I went to the same all-boys private high school.”

“Oh.” I said looking at Adam, “You never told me you went to a private high school…”

“It’s not that big of a deal. You know, I just realized I needed Peter to look over my resume,” He said motioning to Peter to go into his office, “we’ll be right back, Faith.”

They went into his office and he closed the door and I found myself alone in the living room. I stared at the office door and couldn’t help myself. I went up to it and eavesdropped.

“Dude, what is your problem?” I heard Adam say angrily.

“Oh, come ON,” Peter retorted, “THAT is who you want to bring home to meet your family? They’ll eat her alive.”

“You barely KNOW her and you won’t even give her a chance.”

“Neither will they, Adam. She’s not like the other girls you’ve dated and brought home, you’re just messing around with her anyway.”

I blinked back tears and felt incredibly hurt but Adam’s response made it sting less.

“I’m not messing around with her, man…I love her. And yeah she’s not like other girls I’ve brought home. She has substance and a sense of humor and career aspirations, she-”

“She’s not like us.”

“Maybe I’m not either.”

There was silence. Then:

"She's already met my parents..." Adam said.

"Yeah, when they were in shock over your psycho girlfriend trying to stab you to death AND you introduced her as a friend then. Plus, they were in the room with her for, what? Twenty seconds, max?" 

"I can't believe you." Adam said, "I thought you'd-"

"What? Approve? I'm helping you, Adam. You know they don't care about who you keep as friends as long as they have no overlap with their social circle and could manage to embarrass the family. Jesus, it explains Dan. Don't be so stupid. When it's a potential wife? It's an entirely different story and you know that. It was for me, it was for your brother. Eventually you're going to have to settle down just like we did and pick someone more suitable."

"A potential wife?"

"Oh, come ON." Peter said with annoyance, "Every girl you bring home will be seen that way even if you're not thinking about it right now. Have you really been separated for so long that you've forgotten what it's like?"

"It'll be-"

“Hey, what are we eavesdropping on?” Dan came up behind me and I yelped.

“N-nothing.” I said walking away to gather my things, “Peter and Adam were just talking about job search stuff.”

“Are you leaving?” Dan asked with confusion.

“Um. Yeah, I need to get to work. Could you just tell Adam I had to go whenever he gets done in there?”

“Uh, sure.” Dan said clearly realizing something had happened while he was in the bathroom.

“It was really great to meet you.” I said letting myself out.

Dan waved at me half-heartedly with confusion and I practically ran out of Adam’s apartment building and back to work. I sat in the lighting booth alone with my thoughts. Peter didn’t like me and he didn’t think Adam’s parents would like me either. No, actually not just Adam’s parents…his entire family. Not only that, but Zoey had been right. Adam HAD brought up my family to segue into meeting his. Or maybe that’s what Peter had assumed in Adam’s wanting me to meet his friends? I was confused and hurt but I didn’t have a lot of time to ruminate on what had happened because I had a show to run and a bunch of errands to complete for the next day when Adam met my friends. 

_____________________

Thankfully, Adam meeting my friends was uneventful. I was a little worried with Zoey, Theo, and Anna being in the same room together but everything was fine and back to how it used to be. If Zoey had talked to Theo about how she felt, I couldn’t tell. Adam showed up before everyone else so it was just him, me, and Molly.

“Hey!” I said answering the door and hoping he hadn’t noticed how early I departed the day before. I gave him a brief kiss and then turned to look at Molly, “Adam, you know Molly.”

He waved and smiled, Molly was in the kitchen chopping up veggies for the fajitas.

“It’s a good thing you’re early because we’re going to put you to work, slugger.”

Molly came up behind him and threw an apron over him.

“Don’t worry, when the actual party starts, you can hang out with Calvin, my boyfriend. He’s not good at parties.” She winked at him.

“I’m okay at parties.” Adam joked.

Molly had figured it was time for all of us to finally actually get to know Calvin so she invited him, too, which was kind of nice because then Adam wouldn’t be getting the third degree the entire night.

“Okay, you’re in charge of cutting the peppers.” Molly handed him a knife.

“Actually, I, uh, need to talk to Faith for a second…” He said putting it down and walking over to me.

“Okay, but you guys can only go into her room and make out for a few minutes or else these fajitas will never get done. Oh, and Adam? Brace yourself because I’m the normal one out of our group of friends.”

Adam gave me a concerned look and led me to my bedroom where he closed the door.

“First…is she serious?” He asked.

“No.” I laughed and kissed him, “You’re cute when you’re nervous.”

“Okay, second,” he said sitting on my bed and pulling me over, “why did you leave so early yesterday?”

I deflated realizing that I wasn’t going to get away with it.

“Um. Our technical director called with an emergency and I had to leave.”

“Oh, w-”

“That was a lie.” I winced, “I…I overheard you and Peter talking…”

Adam was surprised and opened his mouth to talk but I cut him off.

“I want to talk about it, but just not now, okay?”

He closed his mouth and nodded.

“Okay.” He said.

I gave him a kiss and then stood up, took his hand, and we walked back out to the living room.

The party went off without a hitch. The fajitas were delicious, everyone had a great time, and all my friends got to know Adam. Plus, I got to have some twin time with Weatherly and Andrew. And so did Adam.

I was standing in the kitchen with Anna and we were drinking the sparkling punch I’d made. I was leaning on the counter and she was looking at Adam playing with Weatherly on the floor in the living room next to Theo and Andrew.

“He’s great with kids.” She said smiling, “You got a good one, Faith. Make sure you keep him around for awhile. Or forever.”

She shrugged and laughed.

“I’ll try to.” I smiled, sipped my punch, and watched him.

“You’re completely head over heels for him.” She said looking at me.

“Hush.” I joked.

“The way you look at him is the way I look Theo. I’ll help Molly make your wedding dress.” She joked.

I rolled my eyes.

“So she’s recruited you, huh?” I smirked.

“And Zoey. We’re in love with him, Faith. He’s perfect for you and he’s a genuinely good guy. Not only do babies like him but so do your pets. You can’t get a better sign of approval than that.”

Just then she felt her baby kick and put my hand on her stomach.

“That will never stop being weird.” I said looking at my hand and feeling the flutters underneath it.

“You get used to it when it’s inside of you for this long. I barely notice it anymore. You’ll get to have this, too, someday. Maybe one day soon.” She slyly looked over to Adam.

“You guys SO need to chill out.” I shook my head and laughed.