Waking up once again to the sound of his alarm, I simply waited as he reached over and turned it off. Looking up at him, I find him already looking down at me. “Good morning,” he says in greeting, looking much more refreshed than he had in a few days. 

“Good morning,” I responded. Since we went to bed so early, I decided to get up as well and get started for the day. I knew that there was some planning we needed to do before we could travel to my parents house and I genuinely just wanted to spend more time with him. So before he could tell me that I could go back to sleep, I said, “Can I go with you to the gym today? It might take me a little bit to get ready, but I thought it might be fun if we go together.”

Despite knowing that he would like the idea, I didn't expect the pure joy that was evident on his face. A massive grin fills his face as he says, “Take your time, I’m going to go get some coffee ready and we can leave whenever you are ready.” Kissing me on the forehead, he then makes his way to the kitchen. 

Deciding to get ready quickly so that he doesn’t have to wait too long, I go to my closet and pull out some leggings and a hoodie and decide to wear my favorite pair of sneakers to complete the look. Walking into the kitchen, I find him in sweatpants and a hoodie sipping a hot cup of coffee. “Are you ready to go?” he asks me excitedly.

“Yeah, if I can get some coffee to go.” I replied. 

“Of course,” he says, handing me a mug. “I already added cream and sugar. Do you want to drive to the gym or walk there?”

“It is pretty cold, I think that the car is a good idea.” I respond, grabbing my purse and keys off the table. 

Getting into the car, we wait a few minutes for the car to warm up before making our way to the gym. We were there so early that there were very few people. I did learn that he had already purchased a membership here and we decided to get me one as well, since I planned to try to be more active.

He takes his time teaching me how to use each of the machines and suggests a few exercises that I should practice to start with. Following his recommendations, I did try my best to complete the exercises, but I’ve got to admit that watching him lift weights with ease was quite the distraction. Despite occasionally getting sidetracked, both of us managed to get a good workout in before we headed back home for breakfast. Usually I would suggest that we go out for breakfast, but he can cook better than most of the options that are open this early and I had some stuff I needed to use up before we visited my parents. 

We settled into our usual morning routine after getting home and after a wonderful breakfast, we got to work on finishing up some of the house chores he hadn’t gotten to yesterday and doing some deep cleaning in preparation for traveling to my parents for Christmas. The two of us also cleaned out the car to make sure that my trunk was empty to hold all of the gifts and our luggage that we needed to bring. Despite the fact that we are only staying the night on Christmas Eve, we still have our christmas sweaters and pajamas to bring as well as nice outfits for Christmas dinner. 

After cleaning out the car, Chris decided to start working on lunch and finished using up some of the fresh veggies that would be expired by the time we got back. As he does this, I finish folding and putting away the rest of the laundry that we hadn’t finished this morning. We enjoy our lunch before deciding to take a break and watch a movie while cuddling on the couch. The next thing I know, I wake up on the couch alone, although I can hear Chris on the phone in the kitchen. I could hear concern and a slight note of panic in his voice and immediately I jumped up, heading into the kitchen to comfort him. As he sees me walk into the kitchen, he immediately changes the tone of his voice saying, “Cade, she just woke up. Do you mind if I call you back in a bit?”

“There is no need for you to hang up. If you need to talk to him alone, I can give you some space. You just sounded like you needed some comfort.” I say as I look into his eyes. 

“No, it involves you. We just don’t have much information yet, so I didn’t want you to worry.” Chris says to me before talking into the phone. “Hey Cade, on second thought, I’m just going to put you on speakerphone and you can tell us both at the same time. Just give us a second so that we can sit down and get to my computer.”

Returning to the couch, we sit down and he hands me his phone as grabs his laptop from the coffee table and says, “Cade we’re ready,  tell us the news.”

Cade begins by saying, “Hello Noel, it’s nice to meet you and although I wish it was under better circumstances, I hope we can meet in person soon.”

“It's nice to meet you as well, I’ve heard quite a bit about you from both Chris and Lila. It's also really nice to actually meet the person who has been helping us so much.” I reply before adding a sincere, “Thank you for everything.”

“I don’t know if I am deserving of your thanks just yet,” Cade says. “I just found out that they were able to track your location and our parents are on their way to see you two. I have spent the last hour trying to figure out how close they are to you, but I have no way of tracking them. They seem to be trying to cover their tracks well, and I happened to find this out by accident.” Cade says quickly as we can hear his hands typing quickly.

“Okay,” Chris says, clicking through a few things on his laptop. “I can see the stuff you sent me and if this is anything to go by, they will be here within 2 or 3 hours. I might be able to call them and at least delay meeting with them until tomorrow. But if they know where we are, there is nothing stopping them from doing what they want.” he says with a sigh. 

“Guys, just relax.” I say. “I haven’t even met your parents and you are both acting as though they have already decided they don’t like me. I say we meet them and if they don’t like me, that is their problem. Besides, we’ll be going to my parents house on Christmas Eve. All we’ve got to do is distract them for a bit.” I said with all the confidence that I could muster. Truthfully, I was really nervous. I was trying to be hopeful that they wouldn’t outright hate me, but I didn’t expect them to like me either. Despite saying that it would be their problem if they didn’t like me, I couldn’t help but want them to like me. 

“Are you sure you want to meet them?” Chris and Cade ask at the same time. I could see the concern on Chris’s face and I could picture a similar expression on his brother’s face as well. 

“Stop worrying so much.” I say. “Meeting them was going to be inevitable in the first place so we might as well take this time to prepare.”

“You’re right,” Chris says. “Cade, I’ll talk to you later. For now, I’m going to prepare her the best I can.”

Since my house was fortunately extremely clean after all of our cleaning this morning, I didn’t have much to do other than dress up a bit. As I was picking through my closet for an outfit to wear, Chris began to give me some useful information about his parents. He started by telling me some of their favorite things. His mom loved to hear compliments about herself and his dad loved to talk about golf and fishing. As he told me about them, I could tell that he genuinely loved his parents and from what I could tell, he had a great relationship with them before they ruined his last relationship and tried to force him into marriage. After preparing and making sure that I was well dressed and looked put together, we went into the living room so that he could give me some last minute advice before they arrived. 

Feeling more nervous after all of his advice that when we started, I felt physically sick by the time we heard the knock on the door. Following Chris to the door, I see his parents at the same time that he does. I could see his face go through a range of emotions before settling on slightly veiled anger. “Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?” he asks through clenched teeth. 

Reaching over, I grab his hand in mine and greet them, “It is good to finally meet you two, although I must admit, I would’ve preferred a little warning. We do have some plans to travel soon, and it would’ve been awful if you came all this way to find that nobody was home.” I say with thinly veiled sarcasm evident in my voice. 

Despite the fact that I didn’t want to ruin any potential relationship with his parents, I couldn’t help but dislike them. Neither of them tried to ask how he was or rushed to greet him as normal parents would and as I grabbed his hand, the two of them narrowed their eyes at me in warning and shifted slightly so that I could get a glimpse of a blonde woman, likely the one his family wants him to marry. “You two are welcome to come in, although I am a bit hesitant to let her in my house. She doesn’t seem to be too comfortable with the fact that I am holding my boyfriend's hand. And I refuse to tolerate anyone who disapproves of our relationship.” I state before turning to kiss his cheek. 

As I turn around, I see the looks of disgust on their faces, before grinning and saying, “I invited you guys in, are you planning to come in or are you just here to say hello?”

Looking up at Chris to see how he is handling this, I find him already looking down at me with a loving expression. Turning back to face his parents, I can see the blonde woman getting more frustrated before she blurts out, “I thought you two said you would convince him to marry me. Why aren’t you helping me? I’m obviously the better choice to be your daughter-in-law than that piece of trash standing in front of you.”

Despite Chris’s silence through the majority of this conversation, I immediately felt him tense as he said “I suggest you watch your mouth, especially as you talk about my girlfriend. I never liked you in the first place, but now I consider you worse than gum on the bottom of a shoe and I suggest you and my parents leave the premises before I call the police. Your invitation inside has been revoked and I suggest none of you return here again.” With a venomous tone in his voice he says, “Goodbye,” before he slams the door in their faces and locks it. 

Turning to me he quickly pulls me into their arms and apologizes profusely. I quickly reassured him that he didn’t need to apologize to me for their actions and that I was just surprised that his parents weren’t more outspoken about it. Deciding to lighten the mood I said, “Besides it is evident who won that argument, I don’t know how much worse it can get than being called ‘shoe gum.’ Did you see the look on her face after you said that?” I asked before I broke down into giggles. “What do you say we start referring to her as ‘SG” from now on? I can’t be bothered to even learn her name, she is so irrelevant.” I continue hoping to cheer him up a bit. 

Fortunately for me it works and the two of us burst in full-blown laughter. We decide to go out for dinner and after returning we call Cade and give him a quick update on how the meeting with his parents and SG went. He also thought that ‘Shoe Gum’ was an appropriate name to call her and he promised to only refer to her by that name going forward. After the eventful day we had and the workout this morning, I was exhausted and felt myself falling asleep on the couch within half an hour of starting a new movie. Half-asleep, I open my eyes to find Chris carrying me to bed and as we cuddle together in my bed I immediately return to sleeping.