“Ah yes, that happens to the best of us, doesn’t it?” she said with a small smile. “Gemma, I’d like you to meet my husband, David, Connor’s dad.”
“Hi. Nice to meet you, sir.”
“Ah, nice to meet you, Gemma,” he smiled. “Hmm, isn’t that funny, dear.”
“What my love?” his wife said to him.
“Connor’s got himself a Gemma and just last week, Lucas was telling me that he was also dating a Gemma. I’ve never even heard the name before, yet there’s two Gemmas running around New York City with our sons.”
“Ah, yes dear,” Connor’s mom tinkled and then looked at me. There was a light in her eyes, and I could tell that she wasn’t judging me. If anything, she thought the situation was funny. “I guess it is a small world, isn’t it, David?”
“I guess it is. What have we done to our sons that they’re in love with two Gemmas?”
“Now, now, David. It’s for our sons to decide what they want to do.”
“And you are in love, aren’t you?” David looked over at Connor and me. “I can tell from the look on your faces and well, you just came from upstairs and I mean, I might be old, but I’m not that old. I know what happens upstairs at parties.”
“Dad.” Connor shook his head and then beamed at me. “You must excuse him. He doesn’t think before he talks.”
“It’s okay,” I said, and blushed. Kill me now. This was so embarrassing.
“Don’t worry about my husband, dear. He’s a modern sort of man.” Connor’s mom smiled at us. “Now, would you like something to drink or are you still feeling a little faint?”
“I’ll get her drink, Mom. Don’t worry about it,” Connor said. “Come, Gemma. Let’s go and get you a drink and some food.”
“Okay,” I said softly. “Thanks. It was nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain.”
“Nice meeting you as well, dear. And perhaps we can have you over for dinner sometime next week?” Mrs. Chamberlain beamed at me.
“Oh, I’d love that. Thank you.” I looked over at Connor. “If it works for you, of course.”
“I’d love that,” Connor said with a grin. “Come on, let’s get you a drink.”
We walked over to the back of the room and he grabbed two glasses and poured me some wine and then he poured himself some.
“That wasn’t so bad then, was it?”
“Your parents seem normal.” I looked at him. “I’m confused.”
“What are you confused about?” he said.
“I mean, they seem really nice and sweet and I just pictured something else.”
“Oh, they’re fine on the surface and to other people. But once you get to know them, you’ll see.” He shrugged. “Their marriage, well, it’s not the happiest. Maybe to some people it appears so, but remember appearances can be deceiving.”
At that moment, Lucas chose to enter the room and walked toward us with the redhead.
“Trust me, I know,” I said with a smile and then kissed Connor on the cheek.
Lucas stopped next to us and gazed at us. “So you guys are official now?”
“Yes,” Connor said, standing in front of me, going close toward his brother. “You got a problem with that?”
“Connor, why would I have a problem with that?” He shrugged. He looked at me. “I got someone new.” He looked back at the redhead. “Hey guys, meet…” He paused. “What was your name again?” he said to the redhead.
“Jennifer.” She beamed at us.
“Nice to meet you, Jennifer.” I gave her a small smile and a little wave.
Conner nodded his head. “Hi, Jennifer.”
“Yeah, so me and Jennifer most probably are going to get out of here in about half an hour. You guys are free to do what you want.”
“Okay. Thanks, Lucas. We don’t really need your permission to decide what we’re going to do next.”
Lucas looked at me for a few seconds and I could see a questioning look on his face. “What is it, Lucas?” I asked him softly.
“I just want to know something,” he said.
“Yeah,” I asked.
“Was it always him?”
“What do you mean?” This was a really embarrassing conversation to be having in front of Connor and with Jennifer standing right behind him not knowing anything that was going on.
“Was it always him? I could always sense that you weren’t fully with me even on our dates. Even when you came over to my apartment, I always felt like your mind was somewhere else. Was it with him? Or that’s just your personality?”