Episode 668: Garden Party

"Since when have you known my parents to understand anything?"

Ryley shrugged. "Maybe they’ll surprise you this once. Or we could go home."

"No, I need to get it over with and tell them I’m unemployed. I figured the garden party is the best place to do it, with an audience around maybe they’ll be less free with the I told you so’s."

Jesse took a seat on the front steps of the Marques’ massive house. He leaned back and closed his eyes.

A soft hand pressed against his forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Jesse opened his eyes as Caroline sat beside him in her pale blue dress. "There was a lull in the guest arrivals, maybe the last of them even, I figure I’d relax." He loosened the tie his mom had forced on him at roughly the same time she’d forced this job on him, when the other person she’d hired had cancelled last minute. He’d asked Caroline to work with him.

"You have to tell me if you’re feeling sick, promise."

Jesse nodded and he kissed her. He hadn’t really meant for Caroline to become his girlfriend, it had been a sort of Hail Mary play. But it wasn’t terrible. He had someone he could talk to when he fely sick, and someone who could help him cover it up. Plus, he liked kissing her.

"I’m way underdressed," Lucy said, smoothing a hand over the simple yellow dress Paul had seen her wear a thousand times. She tucked in behind him, as if to hide.

He turned and faced her. "It doesn’t matter what you wear. You’re the most beautiful girl here."

"Correction." Lucy’s eyes narrowed accusingly on Paul as she pointed beyond him to where their little girl stood with her parents.

Episode 669: Locked Out Of Heaven