This is the eighteenth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV, Part XV, Part XVI, and Part XVII before continuing.
Dinner didn’t go much better. As we all filled our plates with food, I waited to see if someone would say Grace, but when everyone started eating without any mention of prayer, I followed suit. Owen had never given any indication of being religious, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions about his family. Maybe he was the black sheep in a family of religious zealots, but it turned out not to be the case. I thanked my lucky stars for that because if I had to pretend to praise God at every turn, in addition to being a helpless Disney princess, it might have proved too much for even my significant capabilities.
I was expecting to be interrogated — it’s a right of passage for every girlfriend — but I was not expecting Owen’s dad to start the conversation by asking, “So, Kiera, all Owen’s girlfriends are damaged in some way. So how are you damaged?”
What the hell kind of a question is that?
I giggled, hoping it was a joke, but no one else laughed. Owen and Chad hung their heads in embarrassment. Glenda’s eyes widened in what appeared to be shock, but she didn’t say anything. And Owen’s mom didn’t react at all. His dad just kept looking at me, so, for lack of anything better to say, I said, “I don’t think I’m damaged.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see if you stick around long enough.”
I made a face at Owen. I should have done a better job of controlling my reaction, but all this was so completely out of left field that I couldn’t help it. Owen didn’t say anything, but he reached an arm around behind me and squeezed my shoulder, which I took to be an apology on behalf of his family. I certainly know what it’s like to have family members who do things you can’t control.
Owen’s father didn’t appear to have any follow-up questions, so he turned his attention to his dinner and I sat there awkwardly, too nervous to try to start a normal conversation.
Fortunately Owen’s mom saved me by asking what I was studying. Inwardly I sighed in relief as I answered the question and things got better from there … for a while at least.
We weren’t even done with dinner before Owen’s dad was asking me about giving him grandchildren!
I had no idea how to play this. I was thrilled he already seemed to see me as a future daughter-in-law, but I didn’t want to scare off Owen by getting into the marriage-and-kids talk too early. I tried to walk that very, very fine line by saying, “We’re still pretty young, so I think you’re going to have to wait a while.”
“I don’t know how much longer I have to wait.”
“You seem pretty healthy to me.” He wasn’t that old, but Owen had told me his dad had had some health problems.
His dad just shrugged, and I didn’t know what to do with that either. Was he having some sort of midlife crisis? I hadn’t heard of demanding grandchildren as a sign of a midlife crisis, but I definitely did not feel comfortable talking to my boyfriend’s dad about his imminent demise.
I decided to deflect attention away from myself. “What about Chad and Glenda? Are either of you dating?”
It turned out Chad had a girlfriend who lived in another suburb and Chad would be going to spend the weekend with her. Glenda was unattached, which I found easy to believe given her man-hating appearance.
To be continued…