Family Secrets

Dinner with Nathan was nice. I got to his apartment about 6pm, the poor boy looked so tired, I almost felt bad for being there, he should have been sleeping.
He opened the door in a hoodie and tracksuit pants, he looked so adorable.

“Hey, you look tired. Are you sure you want company?” I asked, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah of course, plus I need a massage...” He said as he hugged me from behind, kissing my neck.

The rest of the night was fun; I made a pretty yummy dinner, stir fry with noodles! Nate fell asleep watching Spiderman, it was his choice. I dragged him to bed; he was insisting he was ‘just resting his eyes’. Sure. We got into bed and Nathan asked something I didn’t hear, his voice was muffled against my hair, my head was lying on his chest.

“Pardon?” I asked, circling my finger against his stomach.

“I said, do want to know why my mum and I have so many problems.” He asked.

“If you want to tell me I want to know.” I said pulling back and looking at him.

“My...well my dad committed suicide...” He said gulping, I realised this was probably to stop himself from crying.

“Nate I’m so sorry. I had no idea. How long ago?” I asked.

“When I was 16, he uhh he walked in on my mum...with somebody else, and two days later he killed himself.”He said barely holding it together. “The kicker? The guy mum was with was West.”

I didn’t know what to say. I was too shocked. “Oh. I...I Don’t know what to say. That must have been horrible for you, all of you.”I said looking at him; he was looking straight up at the ceiling.

“Yeah it’s hard when we all go there and West is in my dad’s house...you know sitting in the same chair as him. West is an ok guy, but honestly Paris when I am around him it takes everything for me to be civil. They were married less than a year later too...”

“God Nate that must have been horrible. I understand why you’re angry. I am really sorry Nate.”

A couple of tears escaped his eyes, he quickly wiped them. His moment of vulnerability was over, at least with his family stuff...

“It’s not your fault. I haven’t really told anyone about that before, so it’s between us ok?” He said quietly.

“Yeah of course, but Nate if there is anything ever you want to talk to me about you can. Anything.” I added.

He gave me a quick kiss and pulled me back into his chest, and he slept soundly for the rest of the night. I was going to tell him that I had lost my dad to, but it didn’t feel like the right time.

The Morning after the Night Before

I woke up in Nathans arms, just after 10 am the day after the wedding. He was still asleep and I was just replaying last night in my head. We got home around 1am, and went straight to bed. Lesley showed us where we are sleeping. The house was a beautiful two storey house; it had hardwood floors, and balconies that wrapped around the entire houses two levels and bushland as a backdrop.

“And you Nathan will be sleeping in here and Paris you’ll just down the hall.” She joked. I laughed.

“Ha, ha.”Nathan said sarcastically. I hit him playfully on the arm. Lesley chuckled.

“Ok well Nathan you know where everything is, so you can just show Paris.”

“Thanks heaps for having us Lesley.” I said.

“Hey no worries, we love having people here.” She smiled.

Nathan and I walked into the room and it took my breath away. It was a 4 poster bed, with white lace curtains around the frame, it was beautiful and the moon was shining through the window onto the hardwood floors. This house had lots of character and warmth; it was the house I could imagine Nathan growing up in. His mother’s house was cold from the inside out.

“Oh...This is so beautiful!” I said while touching the curtains.

“Yeah, it’s pretty nice.” Nathan said intently watching my fingers on the curtains.

“Nate, why didn’t you tell me you lived here growing up?” I asked.

He sighed loudly but he wasn’t angry, “It just didn’t come up, I...mum and I had problems lots and lots of problems Paris. So Lesley said I could stay with her, and I did.”He looked sad.

“I’m sorry Nate, you don’t have to tell me...I just want you to know, that you can talk to me about this, if you want too.” I said wrapping my arms around him.

He gulped repeatedly before speaking, “I can talk to you Paris. It’s just hard. There’s a lot...”He stopped talking before he finished his thought.

“It’s ok Nate.” I said kissing him. He kissed me back, and led my over to the bed.

We both got lost in each other after that. His hands travelled the length of my body over and over again, and his lips only left mine once to tell me he loved me...I don’t think he realises how special he is.

Nathan woke up about 15 minutes later and pulled me in for a kiss.

“Morning beautiful, how’d you sleep?”He asked.

“Actually it was the best sleep I have had in ages.” I answered honestly.

“Me too.” Nate said.

“Hmmm ok let’s get up, can you show me where the shower is?” I said.

“The shower is just there, that door.” He said as he pointed to the other side of the room.

I shook my head, “No...Can you show me?”I smiled.

He chuckled softly before untangling himself from the sheet and dragging me to the bathroom.

Nate and I walked down the stairs about half an hour later laughing at some stupid joke from the best man speech at the wedding.

“Hello you two, nice of you to join us in the world of the living.” Lesley said.

“Sorry, we were tired.”Nate said smiling at me.

“Yeah sure...”Lesley said with a knowing smile that made me go bright red, and Nathan cough loudly.

“Well Brad’s making breakfast and your mum, Belle and Matt, Georgie, Chelsea, Jake, West and Uncle John are coming over.” Lesley said, counting everyone on her fingers.

“Oh cool. Well I guess you’ll get a chance to meet everyone then.” Nathan said to me.

I smiled, “Guess so, I think I’m going to go see if Brad needs any help.” I said.

“Morning Brad, did you need any help?” I offered.

“Oh hello Paris, I would LOVE some help. Can you make scrambled eggs?” He asked.

“I can certainly try.” I smiled.

Half an hour later we were all sitting around the table, I was wedged between Nate and Georgie. Everyone was having a really nice time. Chelsea was nice but a little closed off just like Georgie said. Jake was a little serious but friendly. It was going well and Martine was keeping her distance. The newlyweds looked so happy, Matt was absolutely smitten with her, he looked at her like she was the only girl in the world. And then Martine decided to change the subject.

“Well this is lovely isn’t it? All the family together, oh and Paris of course.” Martine said. I felt Nate tense up, like he knew trouble was coming, I rubbed his leg under the table and gave him a smile, as if to say it’s all fine.

“It is lovely isn’t it?”Lesley said casually.

“So football season starts soon Nathan doesn’t it?” Brad asked, it’s like everybody knew when trouble was brewing and they all took on the appropriate roles to diffuse the situation.

“Sure does, I have training on Tuesday.”

“Oh well, won’t be able to have so much fun with Paris then?” Martine chimed in.

“Nope probably not, but will make time.”Nate said his voice light but his body was tense.

“Hmmm I’m sure you will.” She said angrily. At this point everyone had turned their attention to the intense conversation going on.

“Ok so who wants some more orange juice?” Chelsea asked, a few people said yes and the cups were passed around.

“So are you both planning to stay another night still?” Lesley asked Nathan and me.

“Yep if that was ok.” Nate answered.

“No worries. Happy to have you!” Lesley smiled.

“Oh so none of you are not going to stay with me tonight?” She asked her question directed at Nate, Chelsea, Georgie and Jake.

“Mum why would we? You treat us like crap for most of our lives and then you treat Paris like a stupid slut that’s just after Nathan’s money. WHY THE HELL WOULD WE?” Georgie screamed. I had definitely never seen her angry and it seemed like most of the table was shocked too.

“Don’t you ever speak to me like that. How dare you?” Martine yelled back. At this point the table cleared, Lesley grabbed my shoulder and we walked outside, followed by the rest of the family besides Georgie, Nate and Chelsea.

Jake grabbed my hand and steered me towards the garden. “Paris...I’m sorry, she...we’ve all been through a lot with her.” He looked exactly like Nate looked last night, extremely vulnerable and sad.

“It’s fine. Every family has baggage I suppose. I don’t know exactly what happened with all you kids and your mum but I’m sorry.” I said patting him on the back, while he lit up a cigarette.

“Stress smoking only.” He smiled.

We chatted easily for about 15 minutes, just sitting in the garden looking out at the bushland. Then we heard Georgie calling us up to the house, while we were walking back he said,

“Your good for Nathan, I can see why he likes you.” I smiled back at him and realised that all of family (besides his mum) were really genuine and kind.

Breakfast

Breakfast was awkward at best. I came downstairs about ten minutes later, I walked into the kitchen and it was evident that tension filled the air. It was also evident that I was the cause of the tension.

“Hey, how’d you sleep?” Nathan asked, obviously pretending we hadn’t seen each other less than 10 minutes ago.

“Not bad, what about you?” I said with a smile.

“Ok...”

“Morning Paris.” Nathans mum said barely looking up from her paper.

“Martine, would you like anymore coffee? Oh good morning you must be Paris?” Said a friendly looking man.

“Paris, this is West, my step-dad.” Nathan said, he forgot to mention his step-dad to me before, and so had Georgie...hmm.

“Hello, lovely to meet you.” I said smiling warmly at him, and he gave me a look I couldn’t decipher.

“So coffee Paris?” West asked. I nodded and Martine shot me a dirty look.

“So Paris what exactly do you do?” Martine asked.

“I work at Radiance magazine, I am an assistant for the editor but soon I start working as the beauty editor.” I smiled.

“Oh, is that the magazine all about sex?” She asked eyeing me up and down.

“Uh...well no, there are a lot of other things in there.”

“Hmm, so you think that somebody dating a footballer should be writing sex articles?” She said her voice full of hate.

“Mum –” Nathan said harshly.
“No Nathan, I want to hear what she has to say.” I said, I couldn’t help it, I hated confrontation but I wasn’t about to let her walk all over me.

“Well I am just saying, my son is in the public eye enough without you trying to gain material for stories, and I definitely wouldn’t want his contract to be put in jeopardy because his girlfriend couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”She said with a defiant smile.

“That is not an issue. And to be honest I don’t really like what you’re implying. My career is for me, it has nothing to do with Nathan...” I said honestly.

“Look love,” she said patronisingly “I just don’t want my son to used.”

“Well then, you have nothing to worry about, because he is not getting used by me...” I said I couldn’t help it. This woman really ruffled my feathers and I wasn’t about to be spoken to like I was some fame hungry whore. Not after last night.

“Ok, ok I think this conversation should end now...”West said.

Martine just walked about of the kitchen, giving me one of the dirtiest looks I have ever seen...

“I’m sorry Nate.” I said, suddenly angry at myself. That was my boyfriend’s mother; I should be at least trying.

“Hey, it’s fine, honestly babe. She deserved it.”He said kissing my forehead.

The rest of breakfast was pretty smooth, and soon me and Georgie were off to the brides house to get ready.