LIV

I walked around Rob's house as I waited for him to finish getting ready. We were on our way to his parents' place for dinner, which was honestly a surprise to me. I thought my mom would have insisted on hosting, so that the whole thing would be happening in her home, by her rules. But it made sense the more I thought about it. She wasn't obligated to cook or order anything, which gave her time to focus on other things.

Like asking why I was driving with Rob instead of them.

It took me like twenty minutes more than it should've to leave my house. She had all these questions, and she just seemed like she was in a terrible mood. The last thing I wanted to worry about was appeasing my mom while I tried to 'impress' Rob's parents. Knowing her, she'd show up at least looking pleasant, but it still added some stress to my day. I left before she could go on another tangent about him influencing me.

I'd made my way into his kitchen, and before I could steal a grape from its vine on the island counter, his phone started ringing. I went and answered it without a second thought.

A woman seethed on the other side of the line, "listen, asshole, we need to talk-"

"Um," I took the phone away from my ear so I could see who was calling him. It was an unknown number. "Who is this?"

She seemed surprised, and I could because she audibly gasped. Without another word, she hung up, and left me confused.

Rob walked up behind me, and when I turned around he had a big grin on his face. I took in his outfit; he was wearing a dark button-down shirt, opened with a white t-shirt underneath, and his hair was carefully into a quiff. He looked really good, and it almost made me forget about the strange phone call I'd just had.

I reached out to hand him his phone, "you look good." I smiled when I said it, but my voice didn't match my expression. His smile faltered as he seemed to notice, and he took his phone from me. "What's wrong?"

I sighed, "some woman called you, and she sounded very upset."

He looked down at his phone, then back at me, "what did she say?"

"Listen, asshole, we need to talk."

Rob looked shocked, until he realised I was quoting the woman, and those weren't my words. He unlocked his phone, and I could see him relax when he looked at his call history. "It was probably a wrong number." Rob gave me another smile, which made me feel better. As much as I wanted to let this go, I had this feeling in my chest.

"Do you trust me," he asked. I looked into his eyes, unable to hide the unease that I was feeling. "I want to."

He seemed concerned, but decided to leave it alone. "We should get going," he muttered, then led us out of his house.

******

With Rob and my parents behind me, I knocked on the front door of Rob's family home. My mom held a large basket of cheese, fruit, and crackers in her hands, and my dad held two bottles of wine in his. We stood there for a minute, and there was no answer.

"Ces gens ... Ils ne sont pas à la maison [these people... they're not home?]" My mom asked, tapping her foot on their porch. Maybe it was because my parents visited people so often, but my mom hated showing up at someone's house and them not being home. "Combien de fois s'attendent-ils à ce que nous frappions [how many times do they expect us to knock?]"

I sighed, getting a bit impatient. "It's fine-" at that same moment, the door swung open.

"Hi," A young woman exclaimed after she'd opened the front door. She looked to be about my age, and she seemed very happy to see us. "Good afternoon," my parents said politely, but I just stuck to "hi."

"This is Celia, my younger sister," Rob announced. "Come in," Celia smiled, then stepped aside to make room for us.  brightly at both of us, then moved aside so we could get in. "Hey, Cel." Rob said to his sister as we stepped into the foyer. She closed the door behind me, shaking her head. "Don't call me 'Cel', it sounds like salt. As in salty." I smiled at her comment, but Rob didn't understand what she was saying.

He looked at her, puzzled. "Sel is salt, en Francais," she stated, as a matter of fact.

"Ah," He nodded. "Are you actually fluent now? Or, just flirting?"

"Ha, ha." She rolled her eyes, then looked at me. I had been watching the exchange between the two of them. "I'm Celia, 20. And you are Olivia, right?" She extended her hand and I took it.

"Yes. It's nice finally meeting you."

"You're here!" A woman called out. Celia slipped into the kitchen as the older woman rushed into the foyer. I turned toward the living room and there she was, with her arms spread, a man in tow. I wasn't sure, but I figured she was Rob's mom. He hadn't said anything about aunts or uncles being at dinner today.

Then again, he didn't mention that his sister was gonna be there, either.

She came up and attacked Rob with a hug and kisses. "How I've missed you, sweetie," she exclaimed with pure joy. "Missed you too, mom," Rob told her, with a smile. She finally let go of Rob, which gave him a chance to greet his dad. "Long drive?" He asked, giving his son a hug. "It was okay," Rob told him with a pat on the shoulder.

I felt a pang in my chest. Even though I didn't want to, I took the comment about our drive being 'okay' personally. We were the only ones in the car, and I hadn't been in the mood to talk about anything.

Rob's parents both looked at me at the same time, and smiled in sync. I pushed my concerns about Rob aside, and greeted them pleasantly.

"Good afternoon. I'm Olivia, it's good to meet you," I reached out to shake one of their hands at least. Rob's dad took it with a smile, while his mom chose to give me a hug instead.

"I'm Liana! It's nice to finally meet you. And sorry for being so rude," she then looked over at my parents. "Liana and Connor Braden. We're Robert's parents, of course." She went over to hug my mom, who seemed surprised. Still, my mom smiled at her, then shook Rob's dad's hand. My dad shook both of their hands as well, "I'm Benjamin Haydon, and this is my wife Uzoma Haydon. It's nice to meet you as well."

I smiled, then looked over at Rob, who'd been watching me the whole time. The look on his face was one I couldn't read, and before I could ask him if something was wrong, he looked away. "Are we expecting anymore guests," he asked his parents, who were busy receiving the gifts my parents had bought for them, and making some joke about how 'they grow up so fast'. Liana gave Rob a quizzical look, "by 'guests' you mean your other siblings?"

As if on cue, a man and woman came down the stairs. The guy looked a bit like Rob, but seemed to be slightly older. He was probably the older brother, Ronan, that I'd heard about. When I looked at the woman, I was confused. It was Celia, again.

Which "other siblings" was Liana talking about?

"I'm Ronan, this guy's older brother," he stated, then shook my hand. "Olivia. Nice to meet you." I replied, smiling. I looked over at Celia, confused as to why she was suddenly giving me a cold glance. Ronan nudged her, then she forced a smile.

"I'm Lilian, Celia's twin sister."

Oh.

"You must be Olivia. I've heard so much about you." As she glared at me, I could see that her smile didn't reach her eyes.

I shook it off, "yes, I am. It's great meeting you."

Ronan and Lilian went over to their brother, laughing and catching up. My parents were talking to Rob's parents about landscaping, and had big smiles on their faces as they talked about different contractors. I was left to watch them, wondering where I fit in, in this scene.

******

"Our parents seem to be getting along really well."

I looked up to find Rob standing next to me, two cans of Nestea in his hand. While everyone was inside reminiscing and getting to know each other, I'd muttered something about having ro catch up on some classwork. Really, I just wanted to sneak outside for some time to myself. Considering the fact that he was practically ignoring me, I didn't think Rob would notice. So, I was surprised to see him out in the backyard with me.

I nodded, accepting the can of iced tea. He sat down next to me on the large swing as he took in the air around us. According to Rob, it had been a long time since he was last at his family home. I wasn't sure when he'd seen his family last, but he seemed to be enjoying himself, which was nice. For him. As great as it was that everyone was getting along, I felt a bit out of place.

"Everyone seems to be getting along," I added. With a quick motion, I cracked open my can and took a sip. "It's going much better than I thought it would."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking our tea and enjoying the outdoors. "Are you having a good time," he asked. I looked over at Rob, and found him watching me. "Whenever I look at you, it seems like you're uncomfortable. I think that's partly my fault. I haven't been the best boyfriend today."

"And why is that?"

He sighed, then ran a hand through his hair. "You don't trust me, Liv-"

"I never said I don't trust you."

"But when I asked if you do, you said you "want to trust me". How else am I supposed to take that?" Rob sighed again, "it just threw me off, and I was in a crappy mood for much longer than I should've been. I'm sorry."

As good as it felt to hear him admit that he was wrong, I also hated to see him so dejected. I placed a hand on his arm, "we haven't been together that long, and trust is something that we have to build. It's hard for us to build that trust when you can't tell me why some woman called you out of the blue, sounding really pissed."

He searched my gaze, "I honestly have no idea who that was."

I smiled slightly, hooking my arm through his and leaning my head on his shoulder. "Okay... Just be honest with me, that's all I want."

Rob put a comforting hand on my thigh, and we sat there together until dinner was ready inside. The sounds of laughter from the house were a pleasant background noise.

******

"So, Olivia, what do you do?" Lilian quizzed. We were all in the middle of eating a dinner of tomato soup, shrimp, salad, and risotto. Our parents were sitting on opposite ends of the table, while Rob and I were on one side, and his siblings were on the other.

"I'm a sophomore at Ryerson, full-time. Outside of school, I like writing and visual art."

"What do you mean?" Lili pressed.

I laughed, "by 'visual art'? Sketching, mostly."

"Do you ever go out?" Celia asked, adopting some of Lili's curiosity.

"Yeah, I hang out with my friends sometimes. The mall, restaurants, each other's places. The usual," I added.

"Anything else?" Lili asked. I looked over at her, confused. I wasn't sure what she wanted me to say, exactly.

"Olivia and I actually have a class together," Rob chimed in. I smiled at him, thankful for the interruption. Everyone else continued eating, and Ronan and Celia complimented Rob's mom on the food.

Lilian smirked, and I got the feeling that Rob's rescue was about to backfire on us. "So, you guys met at the university. Isn't that against some rule or something?"

The idle chatter around us ceased, and I wanted to crawl into the ground and run away. My parents knew that Rob and I had met before he was my professor, but they didn't know it had been at a party. They also had no idea it was a one-night stand, and I planned to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Rob looked down at his plate, "we didn't meet at Ryerson."

His sister smiled, "so, where-"

"Lilian."

We all looked over at her mom, who was boring her eyes into her daughter. "I think you've asked Olivia enough questions." She turned to me and Rob, her expression now pleasant, "I want to hear about the twins. How are you feeling?"

We talked about our first appointment, and both my mom and Liana gave me advice and told stories about their pregnancies. Our families also gave us several baby name suggestions for our unborn twins, and places we should get registered for gifts. After a while, I glanced at Lilian, who was pouting over her dinner.

*********
A/N

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-Ruth