Chapter 8: Maria and Lacey

Larissa had never seen Maria quite so nervous as the day that Maria introduced Larissa to her parents. They were having dinner together in a restaurant, but Maria nearly couldn’t actually go inside. She stood outside, wrapped up in a big hug from Aaden and Larissa, shaking gently, and close to crying.

“I just don’t know if I can do this, Larissa,” she said.

Larissa knew that Maria had challenges with her family, but she didn’t realise it was this bad. Gently, she coached Maria toward being ready to go inside. Maria didn’t talk about any particular issue, she just generally expected it to turn into shit. Not that she’d seen her parents for nearly six months. So it wouldn’t really make any difference, but still: shit.

“And I can’t even drink, Larissa. Your fault!”

But she did laugh at that too, and Larissa knew she’d be able to coax her inside. She just hoped it would be worth it once she did.

Inside, they found the table. Maria was still super nervous, so she held Aaden’s hand tightly and hugged Larissa tight, but she was able to introduce them to her parents, Gino and Tonia, and her sister Helen. Straightaway, Larissa could feel it, the tension, the reserve. Both her parents, and Maria. But they smiled and made the right small talk. Maria didn’t explain who Aaden and Larissa were, but she did sit close to Larissa for comfort. Normally, it would be Aaden, but tonight it was Larissa since Larissa was the one who landed her in this.

Her parents decided to get things started by asking her what she wanted to drink. Proudly, Maria said, “Mum and Dad, I want you to know that tonight, I’ve now done one week short of four months without drinking any alcohol, thanks to my friends.” This was the first time she’d said it aloud, and Larissa knew just how big a deal it was. She turned to her, and gave her a huge hug, and said “I’m so happy for you, Maria. Well done!”. She could see the satisfaction that Aaden had, and she reached behind Maria to give him a high-five. Yeah.

Oh. As far as her parents were concerned, that had gone down like a lead balloon. Why? She turned to them, “I would think that you’d be happy for Maria that she’s done that, it’s a huge achievement!”

“Well, yes,” Gino said, “But it shouldn’t be something she needed to do.”

Whoa! But her sister looked happier, and said, “Maria, I’m so pleased for you. I know how big a deal that is for you.” She got up and came around and gave Maria a hug. Interesting, Maria didn’t expect that.

There was silence as Gino ordered some wine for the three of them. He didn’t bother asking what either Aaden, Larissa or Maria wanted. But they could stick to water OK.

Well, she searched for some happier ground. “It’s lovely to meet you. Maria’s been a really great friend for me, so I’m really pleased to meet some family. Has she told you that we’re in the same course? She’s doing great!”

Gino’s response started out a little more positive. “That’s good to hear. Of course, Maria should do great, she’s a clever girl. When she’s not distracted by her ‘friends’.” Hmm. Larissa felt as though some of that hostility was aimed at her personally?

At this, Maria stood up and said, “Larissa, come with me to the girl’s room.” Well, that wasn’t subtle, but yeah, she better follow. Poor Aaden, left there by himself.

As soon as they entered the women’s room, Maria burst into tears. “I knew this was a bad idea. I should never have done this. They just never respect me. And now you’ll hate me too.”

“No, Maria, I’ll never hate you! You’ve done nothing wrong. And even if you had, we’ll still be bestest friends. You and me, best friends always. Specially after everything that’s happened this year! You can always depend on me.”

“But,” Maria wailed loudly, “you said that you won’t fuck with me unless I’m right with my family, and you can see that that’s never going to happen, and why did I do all this if you won’t fuck me?”

Whoops. Larissa looked around and caught the rather surprised eyes of two older women who were washing their hands. She smiled at them apologetically, whispered ‘sorry’, and turned back to Maria. “No, sweetie, I said you have to meet them and try. You don’t have to get right with them.” She kissed Maria.

While she was doing that, one of the women hugged them both, and said to Maria, “Sorry to hear about your family. I hope it turns out the best for you, dear. I’d certainly want to fuck her too.” That was lovely, and suddenly they were both giggling.

“OK, Maria, let’s do this: you’re already going to make love to me because you met with them, because you tried. And you even get to tie me up if you want. But how about I go out there and talk to them and see if I can things off to a better start, and if I can, I’ll get you to come and talk to them some more. I’ll send Aaden out here to keep you company, OK?”

Maria nodded. She was good with that. Larissa left her in the women’s room and walked back out to the table. Aaden was sitting there in stony silence. She leaned down to him, and hugged him, and said to him quietly, “Maria’s in the women’s room. Can you go to her and keep her company until I come and fetch you?” He jumped up, and she could see that he was concerned for Maria. She kissed him and said, “She’s fine. She just needs some love.” Then she sat down at the table and looked at Maria’s family.

“Do you guys love Maria?”

She could see their shock at that question. “Of course we love her, she’s our daughter. How can you even ask?”

“Seems pretty easy to me. Maria told you that she’s gone nearly four months without drinking any alcohol – a huge, huge achievement for her, and you guys are like, so? She’s gutted, just destroyed.”

Her sister understood, yes, she could see that. But not her parents. “So she stopped drinking,” Gino said, “well, good, but it’s just what she should do.”

“Yes, it was what she should do. And if you were anyone else, you could say, duh. But you’re her parents and your emotional support is really important for her. Does she have that?”

“Of course,” Tonia said, “She always has our support. But I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal of this? Why is it such a big achievement for her?”

Oh. Yeah. Maria did kind of jump into it, and Larissa just assumed that her family should know. A bit like her and her mum. She frowned. “Did you guys know how much she was drinking? Were you concerned about that?”

Tonia said, “Well, she was drinking a little too much. But that’s not the actual problem, it’s how much she sleeps around. That’s what she needs to fix! We see the photos. Dancing around in her underwear. Sleeping with different men all the time. It’s because she has the wrong friends. We taught her better, and she had such potential, we don’t know what went wrong with her.”

The look on Tonia’s face was clear: Larissa was the wrong friend, and she’d seen the photo.

She sighed. “OK, so you saw a photo of Maria dancing in her underwear, no doubt the photo showed me doing it too.” Yes. “Alright. You’re both right and wrong. She was sleeping around, yes. So was I, worse. And back then, yes, I was the wrong friend for her. Or she was for me, I’m not sure. And we were drinking together lots. Totally bad. Then, at the start of the year, an angel rescued me, and I stopped drinking and was able to make a stable relationship, and that’s going great. Maria was a wonderful friend and went far out of her way to help me during that process. Since then, I’ve been working really hard to help Maria back, to get her drinking under control. Perhaps you didn’t see how bad it was. And to get her to the point where can have a stable relationship, so that she can keep her drinking under control. Those things feed off each other for her, and for me. And she has got a stable relationship, and that’s her second big announcement she wanted to make to you tonight, and it’s the one she’s really nervous about, and why she’s so gutted when the one about drinking fell so flat. And you probably won’t understand, but for both of us, the dancing in our underwear thing is about celebrating that we have stable relationships and that we’re not drinking too much. So sure, you don’t need to like me. But you need to love Maria.”

She could see that they understood at least partially.

“What you need to understand is that tonight is fork in the road time. Maybe Maria hasn’t lived up to your expectations. I get that. Maybe the things she’s so proud of tell you that she’ll never do the things that you expected of her, the things that will make you proud. I understand. She shouldn’t have waited six months and then landed this on you, sure. But if you don’t get on board tonight and be proud for what she has achieved, they’ll evaporate, and she’ll never talk to you again. But if you are proud, and you cherish what she is and has achieved, you’ll be able to help her very slowly work towards goals that are good for her.”

Helen asked her, “Why is she so nervous about this? Is she coming out with you?”

“Oh, no. It’s not me, we’re just friends. Very close friends, who rescued each other. So yes, of course, it’s Aaden. They’ve been building a relationship, and he’s a great guy and he’s helped her really a lot in this process, and she’s come to really depend on him.”

“So what’s she nervous about?” Tonia asked.

“Oh, she knows that you expect her to settle down and marry a good Italian boy. But she doesn’t think that’s going to happen. And also, there’s some ways that her and Aaden’s relationship is not normal, and you’ll surely figure that at some stage. Not tonight, but it’s still making her nervous. Because she does care very much what you think, and for months she’s been dreaming that you’ll be happy when she tells you her big achievements; that’s when they’ll be real.”

She could see that they understood now.

“What I’d really like to happen is that you talk about it and decide to get on board with Maria as she is, and then I ask her to come back, and you support her, and she’ll be happy. But what do you want to happen? Do you want to talk about it without me listening?”

They did. She went off to find Maria and see how she was going, but she wasn’t in the women’s, or anywhere else. What happened to her? She was looking around in confusion when a guy came out of the men’s and smiled at her. “Oh, you’re looking for your friend? She’s in there.” They both laughed. “I don’t think there’s anyone else there right now, so you can go in.”

In the men’s, she found Maria dancing in her underwear, doing a beautiful waltz, in Aaden’s arms, her top and skirt draped over his shoulder. They weren’t moving around, since there was no space. It was obvious she had been crying since her makeup was a mess, but she had a wonderfully peaceful smile on her face. Larissa laughed: “Love it!” she said, and Maria looked at her and giggled.

“I thought we’d get in trouble, but the guys who’ve come in have been great. I just tell them I’m hiding from my mum after a meltdown, and they smile at me so lovely. How’s it going?”

Larissa smiled at her. “Good, I think. We had a nice chat, and they’re thinking about what’s important to them right now. I’m going to go back in a few minutes, I just wanted to check on you. And I can see that you’re fine, though I don’t think you can stay here like this for long. We sure don’t want your dad to come in while you’re like this.”

Maria giggled again but reached up and took her clothes from Aaden. As she was pulling her skirt up, the door opened, and the guy who came in was the restaurant manager. He looked at them and smiled. “I heard you were in here, and that you were hiding from your mum. I totally get that, darlings, and you both look divine, but it would really be better if we could find you somewhere else.” Larissa was amused; this guy was gay and very camp, or at least, quite happy to make them think so. “And dear, your makeup has done its own meltdown!” Then he smiled at her. “I’ve got a secret stash of makeup. Do you want to come with me and see if our colours match? You can bring your delicious man with you!”

He winked at Larissa as he swept Maria out after she dressed. “Ask for me when it’s time for them to leave or talk to her mum again.”

Wow, there was a guy on top of his game! Larissa had seen a few family dramas play out when she was waitressing, but she’d never dreamed of handling them with quite such flair. She went back and looked at Maria’s family; they still had their heads down talking, so she went and stood at entry to the restaurant. Stupid, she left her phone there, so there was nothing to do but people watch.

A few minutes later, Helen came over. “We’d like for you to come back and talk to us, thanks.”

When they sat down, Tonia said, “We’d like to thank you. You’re really an amazing friend for Maria. She’s very lucky to have you.”

Larissa smiled at them. “Oh no, I’m very lucky to have her! I had my own meltdown with my family, but I was left there alone. I got smashed out of my brain, and Maria came and rescued me, and slept over with me, and nursed me through the worst hangover ever, and showered me with water and love, and then sat on my bed with me for hours and talked me back to life. She’s the amazing one, and I love her totally. She’s such a compassionate person.”

They smiled, and she was glad that it helped.

“So, can you tell us what we can talk to her about that will be something we can support her with?”

Larissa smiled. “Ask her about her friends. You mightn’t like me, but she has lots of other wonderful friends that have helped her such a lot, and she’s a great friend to people. And she loves animals so much – I think she’ll do great as a vet, so you should ask her what’s her favourite part of the course. And she’ll be nervous, so she’ll want to talk about me because that’s a safe place for her, so just keep pulling her away from that.”

“Oh, we might like you after all,” Gino said. “We can tell that this is a going to be a really important talk for us. Please guide us if we need help.”

Larissa smiled at him – that was really nice of them. “I’ll do my best. You want me to go find her?”

By the time Larissa found Maria, her makeup was cleaned up. Maria gave the manager a hug and a kiss, and Aaden gave him one too. Larissa laughed to herself watching that; she suspected that the manager wasn’t anywhere near as gay as he had made himself sound, and the manager grinned at her when Maria and Aaden weren’t watching him.

“OK, Maria, we’re going to try again. They do love you a lot, and they really want to get this right but let me help you if you need it.” Maria smiled at her and walked out holding Aaden this time.

This time, when she sat down, Helen smiled at her, and said, “Welcome back! You said your friends helped you to stop drinking. Can you tell us about them?” That got Maria talking, and words just poured out of her. At first, just because she was nervous, and so she talked about Larissa, but then Larissa managed to get her talking about Sarah and Lucy. And then she told them about Fiona and Alan, and some other friends. Eventually she got on the subject of Aaden.