I've Never Stopped Loving Chris Mallon

CH 41 (16) - Meeting Friends

Chris finds meeting new people hard. It's of no help to him if it's expected of him to be open and emotional, something that he struggles to be with even with people he's close to, much less strangers. It's of even less help to him if those new people have preconceived notions about him based on his past actions. I know Chris didn't want to meet my parents. But he did it. He did it for me. The meeting was far from perfect, but it could have gone worse. Chris was great. Polite and as open as he can be with strangers. My dad was great, too. Calm and accepting. My mom, on the other hand, was a disaster. I begged her not to interrogate Chris, but she still asked him a bunch of questions. Worse, even though she tried to cover it with smiles, the disdain she feels for him was obvious. My mom neither trusts him nor likes him. What would it take to change her opinion of him? For him to take a bullet for me?

I'm being too hard on her. I know that. But is it wrong that I want Chris to feel comfortable around people I care about, instead of cornered or attacked? That's why I decided to meet him with someone who doesn't know about our past. Since most of my friends are friends I shared high school with, the only people who fit that bill are Jamie and Layan. They know nothing about what Chris had done to me ten years ago, and think he's just some guy I met recently. Chris needs that. For someone important to me to treat him like normal. Make him feel welcomed instead of judged.

The guards wave us into the neighborhood. Most people would need a security check, but I'm a regular here, and Chris gets a free pass since he's with me. "Your friends live here? Who the hell are your friends?" I point at the black SUV waiting for us. "That's our ride." A cab can't get inside this neighborhood without complications. I thought my inability to drive would be a problem when I started working for Jamie, but, as it turned out, I have access to a private driver during working hours, and, in this case, even during non-working hours. "Seriously?! Who the hell are your friends?" I pat his hand. "No one you have to worry about." I'm being a bit evil for not telling him, but, the best part about having celebrity friends, is the shock on your non-celebrity friends' faces when they meet them.

"Hi!" Layan, who has returned from Greece last week, throws her hands around Chris. "I never thought I'll live to see the day!" He stares at her with wide eyes and open mouth. I giggle. I can't help myself. The expression on his face is comical. Then he regains his composure and returns the hug. "Hi! You never thought you'll live to see what day?" She brushes off the tear from the corner of her eye. "The day Brandon brings a boyfriend around." She slaps my hand. "Why didn't you tell me that sexy corporate types are the ones you like? I have given you all the wrong numbers. No wonder you didn't call them." She hugs me. "I'm so happy you found someone." Her reaction is not a surprise to me. She doesn't know about Chris, but she does know about Jaden. She knows I used to be in love with love, but had given up on it. She thinks that's because I'm afraid of being hurt, so she made it her personal mission to find me a non-threatening and kind-hearted boyfriend. "Thank you."

We sit down in the living room where Jamie joins us. It's not a secret that Jamie and Layan are attached to the hip when they're not working continents apart, so Chris isn't nowhere near as shocked to see him as he was to see Layan. He is rigid around them at first, as he tends to be around people he doesn't know, but he soon grows comfortable. Hard not to, when the pair treats him as a friend, an extension of me, not someone they've just met. The conversation ranges from my job, a topic Chris is quite interested in, being that it's the only secret I ever kept from him, to Jamie and Layan's careers, to Chris opening up and telling us more about his own job, including an explanation that it's not strictly an office job as I thought, but that he sometimes visits his clients in their homes or plays golf with them even though he thinks golf is the most boring sport in the world. After our career choices, the conversation moves to hobbies, which prompts a discussion between Chris and Jamie about workout, and then it moves to likes and dislikes, which prompts a discussion between Chris and Layan about wines. We spend three hours socializing, and have a great time doing it.