Caz, her die-hard commitment to romance, although if it weren’t for Carlos being in my life, it would be the one thing I hated about her.
We spend the morning gossiping and sunning ourselves, sipping on strawberry Daiquiris; time flies and before I know it, the sun is the wrong side of us and I’m a little tipsier than I really should be.
I make my excuses and head back to Carlos’s place, promising that we will have another day together this week.
As it turns out I left in vain, Carlos does not materialise until around four, and contrary to what he said this morning he did not call to say otherwise.
“Hey sweetness, sorry it was really busy” he says, offering me a kiss. Damn it, I can’t stay mad at someone so sexy.
“That’s Ok, now that you’re here, can you help me decide what to wear tonight?”
“It doesn’t matter what you wear, you always look gorgeous” he says, melting my heart.
I make him pick between three outfits anyway, settling on the green, ‘good for all occasions’, dress that I wore on our first date. There is just enough time for me to take another quick shower to wash the sand out of my hair, before I get ready. My stomach is doing continual flips, I’m so nervous. Meeting the parents is frightening at the best of times, let alone when they’ve seen you practically naked!
I have to re-apply my mascara twice after my shaking hands clump it badly and smudge it onto my eye lids. Styling my fringe as best I can to cover the stitches then gingerly applying cover-up around what’s left, so it’s not quite so glaringly obvious.
Carlos is nothing but amused by my hour long struggle, to achieve a casual, minimalistic look; his effort goes as far as changing into black trousers and a shirt.
“I love that dress on you, it reminds me of what we got up to last time you wore it” he says, coming up behind me and nuzzling my neck suggestively.
“Oh no you don’t” I exclaim, swatting his hand away from my breast “it’s taken forever to get ready, so I’m not letting you get me all ruffled up at the last minute”
“Aaww, but…” he starts to whine.
“No!” I cut him off, “you will just have to wait till later, like you made me do this morning”
He exhales exaggeratedly, “fine. Come on then, we might as well go now” he’s calling my bluff, knowing I’d rather do just about anything than relent to face his parents, but I’m not backing down on this one and undoing all my hard work, “Ok” I reply cheerily.
We are having dinner at his parent’s house, a ten minute walk from Carlos’s, again hidden behind a wall of trees; but this is no house, it’s a carbon copy of the main lobby. Glass fronted, with magnificent, white marble pillars. It’s easily three times the size of Carlos’s place and in much better condition, there is nothing sweet and rural about it; it can only be described as grand and imposing.
I wasn’t expecting this, I don’t know where I thought they lived, but I had no idea it would be a mansion, it does nothing to lessen my nausea.
Carlos leads me up the stone steps to the front door, which is opened for us before we reach the top.
“Diego” Carlos bows his head towards him in greeting.
“Mr. Carlos” he returns, bowing slightly from the waist. The foyer is majestic, high ceilings which make every step on the grey marble floor echo; from the centre, a sweeping staircase with thick, dark wood banisters which curve up alongside them, dominating the space.
Carlos leads me round to the right, through a heavy oak door; the room on the other side of it is light and airy. A long wooden table which could easily seat sixteen people decorates the centre of the room, and beautiful portraits of the family adorn every wall. They all look professionally shot and range from the parents with their young children, to what looks like as recent as a year or so ago.
I immediately recognise his sister, she was apparently just as stunning as a child as she is now; her hair raven black and impossibly glossy, the same piercing green eyes as Carlos, her perfect smile, her beauty frozen in time.
“That’s Julia, my sister” Carlos explains as he catches my studying her.
Alongside them, in one of the pictures of the whole family unit, there is another boy; Taller,