I was blushing so hard I’m sure my face was beet red.
“Yeah Laura, I know he’s amazing,” Adam agreed, joining us at the table.
He fixed his green gaze on me. “Luke, this is Laura. Laura, Luke. Wow, two of my favorite people’s names both start with L…” he mumbled thoughtfully.
It was only then that I knew Adam was nervous too.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Luke! I’ve heard all about you!” she said bubbly. “We’ve all been just dying to meet Adam’s new bae… I’m sure everyone in the family’s been tormenting him with questions!”
Adam nodded slightly.
My gut shifted uncomfortably. People were… they were talking about me? Gossiping, probably. And when the others came here, they would probably learn that everything good that Adam told them about me was a huge lie. I could never live up to their expectations.
Laura chattered away; a natural in a social environment. I barely had to talk at all; she seemed to have already formed a picture of me in her mind, decided she liked me, and that was that. It was pretty effortless with her, though I wondered what the others would think of me.
As she talked, I watched the way her face moved. There was that dimple when she smiled, the same one I saw on Adam’s face. There were the telltale high cheekbones, the green eyes, the long, dark eyelashes…
It was clear that they were family. And from the way they interacted, I could tell that Adam cared deeply about her too.
“So how’s Parson’s?” Adam asked her as he got up to go to the kitchen, leaving us alone at the table.
“Oh, it’s so great! It’s like I’m living in a fairy tale every day— I get to design all these clothes and then see models walk in them!!!” she exclaimed, practically wiggling with excitement.
Adam returned to the table with a charcuterie board. “Snacks,” he said, setting it down.
“Ooh, don’t mind if I do!” she said brightly, plucking at some crumbly cheddar.
“Luke’s been interested in fashion design,” Adam said, making the connection.
She turned her bright green eyes to me. “Really?! Oh, that’s awesome!”
I was feeling so uncomfortable. This was my big moment, and I was bound to mess it up. I’d ask her about getting into fashion and she’d see through it in a second, and think that I was just using her for something. Then she’d hate me, and she’d tell the rest of the family about me and my underhanded ways, and no one would like me and they’d all tell Adam to break up with me.
But then I looked to Adam’s dark green eyes as he smiled at me across the table, and that chased all of my anxious thoughts away.
“I am!” I said, matching her tone. “I was wondering how you got into it? Right now I’m just a beginner— I know how to pair outfits and stuff. I was wondering what it was like for you when you first got started,” I said.
Adam smiled at me from across the table, and I knew I’d said the right thing.
Visibly flattered, her mouth came open into an “o” and she put her hand to her chest, fingers splayed. “An expert? Me?! Oh no, I’m just a student,” she blushed.
“Don’t let her fool you,” Adam said. “Her work showed up in an expose in a famous fashion magazine last semester.”
I was feeling smaller and smaller by the second, the intimidation reducing me to the size of an ant. “Oh— oh really?” I asked, faltering.
“Oh it wasn’t that big of a deal,” she waved away.
But I could tell by the way pride was dripping from her voice that yes, yes it was a big deal.
“I just got lucky, that’s all…” she said, her long eyelashes flickering as she looked at Adam.
He shrugged, not sure what to say.
“I’m sure that wasn’t the case,” I said. “Do you have pictures of your work?”
“Oh! Oh yes, here let me pull up my Instagram…” she fished around in her purse for her phone, then said, “And you can see where I started, too. I’ve got some of my old pictures on there.”
While she was looking down into her huge purse, I shared a look with Adam. His eyes were sparkling with pride, and I knew I was doing well.
“Here it is!” she said in a sing-song voice. “Okay, here’s the one that they put in the magazine…” she said as the grid of square images appeared before my eyes. She clicked one of them and it took my breath away; it was a model wearing a long, shimmering evening gown that was sparkling with intricate beadwork.
“Holy hell,” I whispered, my eyes growing large. “All that beadwork must’ve… it must have taken you weeks!” I said.
She blushed. “Well, yeah, but I had this creative idea, and I couldn’t stop going until it was done. Do you ever get that?”
“Oh, yeah I do!” I said, thinking of writing short stories for my creative writing classes. “One time I was assigned to write a four-page short story. I couldn’t stop, and it ended up being forty-five pages,” I admitted.
“Woah, that’s cray-cray!” she said. “Okay, okay, so you’re a creative perfectionist type too.” She shot a look at Adam, then said, “You were right. He is just like me.”
Adam chuckled, watching us bond like he was watching a movie.
She scooted her chair over to me so that she was right next to me, and we were looking at her phone together.
I was intimidated, but I managed to keep my feelings on the back burner in my mind. It took so much effort not to let them show…
“Here, let me show you where I started… it’s waaaaay back here…” she mumbled, scrolling further and further into the past.
I waited patiently as the image of her life loaded. Even though I could only catch small glimpses of the pictures of her life before she whisked them away, I could see that
