On My Way To Mr. Right

Chapter 60

“So, Charlotte, I heard you’ve got yourself a new boyfriend,” Aunt Minda started as we sipped our soups. “Going two for two years, huh.” She added nonchalantly.

I had to gain patience and practice with a lot of willpower to get through this dinner tonight. What with all these vultures picking on me.

“Yes, she does, Minda. It’s her childhood friend, James Tucker. You might know him, he comes around a lot for Sunday barbecues,” Mom answers for me, not letting her sister-in-law’s snarky comments slip past her. “How about your daughter? How is poor, sweet Jane? I heard she’s giving birth to her third child, was it? It’s unfortunate she couldn’t spend the holidays with her loving family.”

Jane was older than me by a year. But the stark differences, starting with the number of children delivered, were uncanny.

Aunt Minda’s smirking turned into a grimace before pushing away her soup and reaching for a bread roll.

“Yes, she’s fine. Her two children are fine. She’s living with the boy’s family so her traveling here wasn’t much of an option.”

“She’s delivering the baby anytime soon, isn’t she?” Mom adds.

“Yes, Lizzy. Another reason why she can’t travel too far this holiday.”

The rest of the dinner went smoothly, except of course for the late arrival of James and his mom. We were mid-lambchops before they could park their car outside.

“Is that your boyfriend?”

“Yes, it is,” I get up to greet them both by the door. The snow was pretty heavy today, and I honestly thought they had decided against coming. But here they were.

James’ pale face was shivering, but he took no time to wrap his mom in his parka jacket.

“Hey,” I call, helping Mrs. Tucker with the wine she brought.

“Happy Christmas Eve, dear!” She greeted with high enthusiasm.

“Hey, Lottie,” James greets with a peck on my cheek. “We’re sorry we’re late. There was a problem with the, um, weather.”

“It’s okay, dinner has been bland, anyway,” I say, referring to the lack of substance in our dinner celebration.

“We brought wine!” Tess announces in the dining table.

“Oh, goodie. I cannot wait to get drunk tonight,” Mom laughs in response.

“You always say that Lizzy, but every year, you’re the only one sober by the end of the night.”

“James, don’t fuss. I’ll get the plates. You just sit opposite Charlotte, okay?” Mom rushes to the kitchen and returns with two sets of plates. “And for the record, Jamie, somebody’s gotta watch all the drunk losers.”

The dinner ended in no time, with a slight fun note at the end. Although, there was also the snappy exchange between mom and Aunt Minda again.

My cousins sat in front of the television. While the adults were in the backyard. Uncle Fred and Manny were by the porch, lighting a cigarette. They knew they weren’t allowed to smoke that stuff anywhere near real people.

Tess was helping Mom clean up in the kitchen, while James had weirdly gotten into a Yugi-oh card battle with my 9-year-old niece.

“I have never lost a battle my entire life,” Hannah says with a smirk.

“Well, I have not lost to a 9-year-old. Let’s see who breaks their record first,” James refutes.

“Nice to see you having fun, Tucker,” I say, observing their battle. “But I think it’s better for you to not lose to a 9-year-old on Christmas Eve.”

“But Lottie,” he whines but I grab him by the arm.

“You know way too much about Yugi-oh. It’s weird,” I tell him as we make our way upstairs.

The older kids or cousins that were my age were hanging out in my other brother’s room. He couldn’t make it due to conflicts in schedule, he said. But his room was definitely useful.

“I have this, um, one cousin, Danny. He’s 18 and fresh out from juvie,” I begin to narrate to James as I fix him up. I wasn’t going to let him enter a den full of teenage girls and testosterone-filled boys with a macaroni hanging from his jean pocket.

“Juvie? Whoa,” he exclaims. “What for? Did he kill someone?”

I roll my eyes. It definitely wasn’t that severe. But yeah, Danny was pretty mad.

“Jesus, no. Just your typical vandals, pranks, and bullying. The last straw, though, was sort of like a murder.”

“What?” His eyes shot high and I could tell the frown on his face meant he dreaded walking inside.

I chuckle. Okay, it wasn’t a murder. Just kind of like one.

“He bullied this one student so bad, it got to a point that that student committed suicide. Didn’t fall through though, and his supposed suicide note never mentioned Danny, mostly just family problems.”

“Then, what’s it got to do with him?”

“Parents do all kinds of crazy stuff. Those parents chose to blame their neglectful attitude and mentally ill child’s suicide on Danny. He was the hole at the end of their tunnels.”

“Sucks, how long was he in for?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you can ask him that,” I say as I swung the door open, revealing an array of cousins on the room with bored faces.

“Hey, Charlotte,” Danny greets. He was a sweet guy. He just comes with defects and problems.

“Hey, Dan,” I greeted back. “So, what are you all doing?”

“Ugh, nothing. There’s literally nothing to do here,” Annie, another cousin my age, whines. She was whiny. I didn’t like her.

“Well, nothing except for this good bottle of Tequila.”

At this, my head perks so fast to turn to the cousin who said it and see Emily holding a hefty bottle of Tequila, and a shot glass on the other. She was one of the older ones.

“Annie!” I scream. She almost tipped the whole bottle and poured it into the fresh and very recently changed bed sheets of my brother’s bed.

“Shh, I didn’t drink it all,” she says in a slur.

“How many shots has she taken?” James asks, helping me steady her on the bed, and effectively taking away the bottle from them.

“About three or four, maybe,” Danny answers, taking the bottle from James and pouring himself one. “Take a shot, boyfie?”

He hands James the glass and I see him hesitate as he looks at me. I shrug my shoulders to let him know I was neutral about it.

On one hand, he was getting along really well with my family. On the other, I’m not sure getting drunk in my house was such a good idea.

He accepts the shot and downs it within seconds. The tequila shot left him looser, though.

“How about you, Lottie?” James asks as he pours one.

“Well, it won’t hurt to try,” I answer, doing the same.

It didn’t take us long to finish the bottle. It was already halved when we entered the room, and when you divide the shots between seven people, you get an empty tequila bottle. Danny was quick on his feet to go get one, though. He had drunk more than any of us, but still seemed like he was more sober than any of us. Downing three shots hasn’t made me do wild stuff yet. It was just starting to make my head swirl. I tried to talk less and move less, and just overall, lie on James’ lap.

Marcus, who was legal enough to drive and buy liquor, went with Danny to the shop downtown for another bottle. I hope they don’t buy another tequila. It doesn’t go down on me so easy. My stomach was rumbling, and I was full from the dinner my mom made.

“James?” I called out to my boyfriend who looked like he was in a daze.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Nothing,” I felt the cold air sweep in. I was feeling sleepy already. A smile lingers on my face. Christmas Eve could not have gone any better. I felt hopeful. Maybe it was too early to say, or even think of, but James was as strong as a rock, and I don’t think anything will ever make him let go.

I felt giddy as my eyes closed.