Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

My mom, Amanda, Hailey, Rachel and I all pack up the SUV and head for the airport. We all sing and dance to popular songs on the radio. A song called "All the Girls Come" plays over the radio and we all roll our eyes. Hailey and Rachel snicker to themselves and mock the words of the lyrics.

"What a load of horse shit!" I say, breaking the glances of pure horror at the words of the song. "I mean, can this guy get anymore self-centered and objectifying towards women?" I roll my eyes and everyone else laughs.

"Wait until she finds out who Jacob's son is." Rachel whispers to Hailey.

"Why? Who's his son?" I ask, with a bit if fear in my voice.

"All in due time, big sis. All in due time." Amanda pats my back as she laughs with Rachel and Hailey.

We board the plane and fly across the large Atlantic Ocean. Rachel and Hailey sit behind me and they are fast asleep. Rachel sits in the seat across from my mother and I. Jacob arranged that we get the first class treatment and put us in the first class cabin of the international flight.

My mom looks over at me and takes my hand. "Thank you for understanding." She says to me with tears making their way to the surface. "And thank you for being my maid of honor." She chuckles. "I think that's your third job, you know?"

I burst out laughing. "Oh yeah, with my one other time as being the M O H, right?" I look at her, full of admiration. "I love that you trusted me, loved me, and appreciated me enough to ask me to be your maid of honor. I love you. I've grown to love Jacob. I just... I have a question that I've been dying to ask." I search her face.

"Where are we planning to live?" She raises an eyebrow. I nod. "Well, we're going to live in Columbia during the summers and in Manchester in the Winter." I sigh. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just... I'm still getting used to all of this."

We land at the Manchester Airport and grab our luggage. We walk outside and see Jacob standing next to a limousine with the door open for all of us to get inside. The driver puts our luggage in the back of the car, and waits as we all pour inside. He goes back up to the driver seat. We all wait anxiously as the limo roars to life and pulls out of the airport terminal.

We drive through beautiful regions of landscape. We all look out of the tinted windows and gawk at all of the sights that Manchester has to offer. We drive over a red brick bridge and back a soft dirt path, through the thickness of trees, until a beautiful iron gate comes into view. The driver pulls up to the code box and punches in a series of numbers and the gate creaks open. We pull through the gate and a large mansion appears to us. There is a lovely pond with two fountains spraying up water with a cobblestone path leading from the pond to the main steps of the estate.

"Welcome to the Eastman Estate, ladies." He smiles and takes my mothers hand in his.

We unload the limo and five people walk out of the house to greet all of us. Each one grabs a piece of luggage and ushers us inside. We all gasp at the beautiful entryway that has gray and white marble flooring so clean you can see your reflection, stone white pillars on either side of the grand stairway, and a huge, but admittedly gorgeous chandelier hangs above our heads. The people who grabbed our luggage has all of us follow them up the grand staircase to the second floor. Amanda's room is the first door on the right, Hailey and Rachel are put into a room diagonal from Amanda's and then I am ushered to a room at the end of the hall. I walk in and gasp.

The room is very spacious. The king sized bed has a canopy over the top, there's a large dresser and walk in closet to empty my stuff into and an old antique winged back couch sits at the foot of the bed. I scoff and the man sets my stuff down on the floor, bows, clears his throat and walks out of the room. I go over to the bed and crash down on my back. I must have fallen asleep. I wake an hour later to a knock on my door.

"Ms. April. The man of the house would like your presence in the dining room." A small female voice echoes behind the door.

"I'll be down in a moment." I yell out with a groggy voice. I get up and change into a white blouse with black dress pants. I walk over to the door and open it to reveal a scared looking woman on the other side.

"I am to escort you, miss." She bows.

"April." She gives me a puzzled look. "My name is April. Just April. You can drop the Miss."

"Of course, Miss- I mean, April." She gives me a small smile and leads me back down the large hallway. I look at all of the paintings that are aligned on the walls. I noticed the red and gold runner carpet laid out perfectly over the hardwood floor. There is a desk with crystal glasses sitting on it and three decanters filled with different types of liquors. I walk down the staircase and we turn left down another hallway. She walks me into a large room that is filled with two china cabinets, and a large, rectangle, wooden table with 16 chairs around them. There is food laid out from end to end on the table. Jacob stands and welcomes me to sit down. The woman bows and makes her exit.

"My son should be arriving shortly, then we will begin." He nods and sits down at the head of the table. He clears his throat and then we hear the large door opening and closing. "Ah. That must be him now. We are in here Christian." He yells down the hallway.

My eyes go wide. Surely not. I'm sure there are many-

"Hey! How is everyone doing tonight?" Rachel and Hailey look at Amanda and they look at me and start laughing. "What? What happened?" He sits down to the right of his father. He turns and looks at me and yells, "JULIET!" Right in my ear.

I flinch. "Christian." I relax my shoulders from my ears, then roll my eyes. Amanda is still laughing. "My name is April, not Juliet." I correct him.

"Right, April. That's right. I just recall people by their characters. My bad." He leans in close to my ear.

My shoulder instinctively raises back up to my ear as I feel his warm breath against my skin. It makes my skin feel like spiders are crawling all over me. Jacob graces the food and we all begin to eat in silence. We finish our meals and then I receive a phone call. I reach in my pocket but realize it isn't my personal phone that is ringing. I retrieve the phone from my sack that the president gave to me. I excuse myself from the table and run out of the dining room into the meeting room.

"Please hold for the President of the United States." An automated female voice says on the other line. I hear a click and then a man clears his throat. "April." He says on the other line. I say hello to him and then he continues speaking. "I was made aware that you are in England."

"How did you-"

"I'm the President, dear. I know pretty much everything." I scoff. "Have you heard of the mine collapse in Whales?" I verify that I did then he continues on, "Good, good. I need for you to go over there and record the things you see. Interview families. You know, get a sense of the land and report back to me if you think I should make an appearance."

"Um, sir, I am here because my mother gets married in a week. I can't just leave-"

"You can go for a few days. You will make it back in plenty of time for your mother's wedding. Yes?"

"Yes, Mr. President." I say through gritted teeth. The phone beeps and the line cuts out. I scoff in disbelief. I walk back into the dining room. "Hey, I'm so sorry but I just got a call. I am to go over to Whales and report on the mine collapse for a few days."

"Oh dear, yes, I heard about that. What a horrific tragedy. 120 lives or more have been lost. Many injured parties." Jacob says, scratching his white beard.

"Can't your boss wait a few weeks? I'm getting married next weekend! And to go over there by yourself?"

"I could go with her." Christian says. Everyone looks at him in disbelief. "What? I've got a mate that lives there and I'm sure he could put us up for a few days. We will be back in a flash." He smiles. "Besides, you've been saying I need to get to know my step family a little better. What better way than to spend the weekend with my soon-to-be step-sister?" He puts his arm around my shoulder.

"Very well. You take your manners with you, boy." He gives Christian a glare and stands and shakes his hand.

I scoff. "You've got to be kidding me." I say under my breath. Amanda, Rachel and Hailey are all snickering. This isn't going to go well at all.

The next morning, I gather up a few articles of clothes and toiletries and throw them into a duffel bag. I walk out of my room to find Christian on the other side. "What are you doing?" I ask him.

"Greeting you." He says with a hint of shock in his voice.

"No, I mean, what are you doing? Why would you offer to go with me?" I look at him, waiting expectantly.

"My father expects me to get to know you and your mother. He just didn't realize we already knew each other." He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "And besides, I really don't want to be stuck in this stuffy place for any longer than I have to."

I just let out a slow, steady breath and walk down the hallway. I say my goodbyes to Jacob and my mom. Hailey, Amanda and Rachel waggle their eyebrows at me as they hug me goodbye. Christian shakes everyone's hand and we walk out the door. Christian drives us to the train station in the heart of Manchester. We board the train and walk through a chaos of fans of Christian. Women and guys all run up to him and take pictures with him. He just goes along with it as we walk through the train. We move through four cars until we reach a private room. We open the sliding door to reveal a set of bunk-beds to our right and a table with a booth around it to our left. I put my duffel bag on the lower bunk and slide into the booth. Christian throws his bag into a cubby hole above the window. He takes a seat in the booth across from me and sighs.

"You dyed your hair." I point to his hair. He gives me a puzzled look. "The last time I saw you you had blonde hair." He just goes 'ah' and then sighs again. "And less tattoos." I said under my breath.

He laughs at that. "Yes. Well, actually my hair is naturally brown. The tattoos all have a different meaning. But yes. You look different as well. Last time I saw you, you were really skinny with short hair. Now you're, well, not as skinny, you have long hair, and you seem, I don't know... different?" He looks at me with a hint of concern. "You don't actually want to be here with me do you?"

"What gave that away?" I say in a high pitched tone. I get up and go over to lay on the bed. "I have to do this okay? I really don't want to be travelling to Whales when I ought to be with my mother, helping her get ready for her wedding!" I say. Christian just looks at me. "It doesn't help that you offered to go with me, if I'm being totally honest."

We sit in quiet for the rest of the train ride. I dose off for a while, but awaken to garbled voices over the speaker. Christian puts a notebook in his bag and starts for the door. The train comes to a stop.

"Coming?" He says with raised eyebrows. I follow him off the train, and move through thick crowds of people who are all trying to leave the train. He walks me over to a car being driven by a guy with long, knotted hair, black sunglasses, and loose fitted clothes. "Our ride is here." He smiles at me.

I get into the car and am immediately insulted by the smell of weed and week old food. I hold my nose, and get into the back of the car. The guy and Christian exchange animated words of welcoming and the guy takes off, almost hitting a family trying to cross the road.

We arrive at a hostel and the guy opens my door for me. "The name's Grinnick, James Grinnick." He has a thick Irish accent. He waggles his eyebrows and smiles at me.

"Nice to meet you James." I say while retrieving my bag from the trunk. We enter the building and walk up three flights of stairs before appearing before a wooden door with the numbers 219 painted on the door. "This is your place?" I ask him as he welcomes me inside.

"Don't hate. It's a lovely staging ground for me!" He and Christian laugh. "Who wants a drink?" He yells, making his way to the kitchen.

"Not me. But thanks for the offer." James protests and tries to push me into having a drink with him and Christian, but Christian finally intercedes on my behalf.

"She said no mate. Just let it go." He pushed James down on the couch. I raise my eyebrows at him, and he just nods to me.

Maybe this won't be a total disaster.