CHAPTER 34
“You look so adorable,” she said as she sat on the side of her bed and took in her girlfriend. “Babe, you’re wearing a tie.”
“Is it too much?” Arlowe asked. “Not enough? Maybe I should lose the jeans.”
“You can lose the jeans when we’re alone later.”
Eline winked at her and pulled Arlowe into her by the hands, taking her in more.
“I meant that I should change my pants. I should dress up more, right?”
“No, you look perfect. They’re just coming for dinner. It’s not a big deal.”
“You’ve been cooking all day.”
“Yes, because my parents will judge my food.”
“And not your girlfriend?”
“They liked you then; they’re going to love you now,” she replied and stood up, wrapping her arms around Arlowe’s neck. “Both of my parents taught me to cook. My mom was the baker, but my dad loves to make a meal as well. I have to somehow impress both of them, and I’m not exactly a chef.”
“It smells great in here,” Arlowe noted.
“Thank you. Will you come out there and help me get the chicken out of the oven?”
“Yes, I will, but if I get anything on my clothes, you have to tell your parents that it was your fault while I go change or something.”
“I will tell them that it is all my fault.” Eline kissed her. “Hey, I love you.”
“I know. I love you, too,” Arlowe said.
And she looked so cute in another of her short-sleeved button-down shirts, skinny tie, and a pair of dark jeans with short boots that Eline wished her parents weren’t about to arrive for dinner because she wanted to take Arlowe out, have a drink, dance somewhere, walk home, and let Arlowe have her way with her.
Instead, she let Arlowe pull the chicken out of the oven while she poured wine into glasses and got the rolls on the table.
“Hey, wear that again another time,” she said just as she heard a knock on the door.
“What?” Arlowe laughed a little.
“Babe, wear that shirt-and-tie combination again when my parents aren’t coming over for dinner.”
Arlowe laughed once more, and Eline went to the door.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Arlowe replied and moved to stand behind her but left some space between them.
Eline answered the door and saw her parents standing there. Her father was in a blazer, like he was teaching instead of having dinner with his daughter and her girlfriend, and her mom had on a summer dress with daisies on it. Then, her dad held out a bottle of wine.
“Here you are,” he said in English because she’d asked them to only speak English for Arlowe.
“I told you not to bring anything.”
“Well, that’s a bottle from our collection. It’s a very good year. You’ll like it.”
“Thank you.” Eline took it from him and moved to set it on the table. “Come in.”
Her parents walked inside, and her father closed the door behind them.
“This is a nice neighborhood,” her mother said.
“Yes, it is. And you remember Arlowe, don’t you?” she asked, changing the subject because Arlowe was just standing there, hold-ing her hands together in front of herself, anxiously waiting to be reintroduced to Eline’s parents.
“Yes. Hello, Arlowe.”
Her father held out his hand.
“Hello, Mr. Claasen. It’s nice to see you again.”
Arlowe shook the man’s hand stiffly, which had Eline smiling and moving to her side.
“Hello, Arlowe,” her mother said.
“Mrs. Claasen.”
Arlowe held out her hand, and Eline’s mother shook it, which felt odd because her parents had once hugged Arlowe when they’d greeted, but Eline would let it go for now.
“How have you been? When Eline told us that you two were back together, she mentioned that you’re an engineer, too,” her father said.
“Why don’t we all go sit in the living room?” Eline suggested. “I have a few appetizers. The chicken is just cooling on the stove right now. It needs another ten minutes or so.”
“You made appetizers?” her dad asked, looking around them toward the table where she’d plated everything.
“I bought appetizers and put them on a plate, but I did make dinner.”
“Well, I skipped lunch, so I wouldn’t mind an appetizer.”
Her father walked by them and into the living room.
“And Arlowe isn’t just an engineer,” Eline said mostly to her mother, who was standing there, sizing Arlowe up. “She owns her own company.”
Eline glanced at Arlowe, who appeared to be frozen in place, with wide eyes aimed at the refrigerator behind Eline’s mother.
“That’s right,” her father said from behind them. “Some language thing.”
Eline heard him crunch on something right after.
“So, you’ve done well for yourself, then?” her mother asked.
“Um…”
“Let’s go into the living room,” Eline interjected again, glaring at her mother, silently asking her to relax, and when her mother joined her father, she leaned into Arlowe and added, “Babe, come on. Let’s get you something to eat. You look a little pale. Are you all right?”
“Nervous,” Arlowe whispered. “Your mother is plotting my death.”
“She is not,” Eline said, taking Arlowe’s hand and turning them around. “Yes, it’s a language app, but it’s a lot more than that.”
“I’ve never understood why Americans always begin with talking about their work. We don’t do that here,” her mother said.
“You just did,” Eline argued. “He brought it up.”
She pointed to her father.
Arlowe and she had brought in two of the four chairs from the kitchen table so that they could sit in the living room together before dinner, but Eline hadn’t thought about the fact that her parents would take the sofa, and she wouldn’t be able to be close enough to Arlowe in their separate chairs to hold her hand, so she waited until Arlowe sat down and then scooted her chair over a little closer, taking Arlowe’s arm and wrapping it around the back of her chair at least.
“That was your father’s way of letting you know that he remembered what you’d told him when you mentioned that you were dating Arlowe again,” her mother said.
“We’re not dating, Mom; we’re together. Arlowe is my girlfriend,” she replied, placing her hand on Arlowe’s lap.
“She was your girlfriend before, too.”
“Yes, she was,” Eline said, wondering what had gotten into her mother.
The woman hadn’t exactly been overjoyed when she’d told her about Arlowe on the phone, but she hadn’t expected her to act like this.
“And she is again. I suppose we’ll see.”
“What does that mean?” Arlowe asked, finally speaking up.
“That you were together once, and now, again, but we’ll have to see, won’t we?”
“What is there to see?” Arlowe asked.
“Where did you get these?” her dad asked about one of the appetizers that Eline had placed out for them before he took a bite.
“Albert Heijn,” she said of the grocery store.
“Eline lives here, and you live there. Nothing’s changed, and you ended things with her before for the same reason,” her mother answered Arlowe.
“I didn’t end things with Eline back then,” Arlowe said and looked over at Eline as if to ask her to back her up. “We made the decision together.”
“She’s right,” Eline added. “And you know the visa application has been submitted for me to return.”
“To work at Arlowe’s company? Is that even wise?” her father asked. “You have a job here.”
“A job that bores me to tears, that I can’t wait to quit?” she replied a little louder than she’d planned.
“What do you mean, you want to quit?” he asked, finally giving her more attention than the food.
“He might be a better coder than me. Did he happen to tell you that when he mentioned the job to you?”
“No, but he works in computer science, so–”
“He’s a nice man, but he has to check my work at the end of every day, so he gives me stopping points, and I can’t work ahead. I don’t want that. In Arlowe’s company, I’ll be an engineering manager, and my goal is to move back into QE shortly after.”
“Yes, but you and Arlowe would be a couple and working together. Wouldn’t that be too much?” her mother joined in.
“No,” Arlowe answered for both of them. “She wouldn’t report directly to me, but to someone else, and we can be professional and still love each other.”
“It’s a little too soon for all that,” Eline’s father said.
“For what?” Arlowe asked.
“Love. You just reconnected.”
“We’ve been together this time for two months and last time for five. I knew I loved her then, and I love her now,” Arlowe said.
“I knew it!” her mother stated, shaking her head. “Arlowe is the reason that you want to live there instead of here. You have a beautiful apartment in a nice neighborhood with a good job, Eline.”
Eline was now growing angrier by the minute, and Arlowe’s hand on her back helped calm her some, but not by much. She took a moment and cleared her throat.
“I am thirty-four years old. I’ll turn thirty-five soon, in fact.” She nodded once for good measure. “I love Arlowe. I want to move back to America. I want to work at her company and maybe stay there for a while, but if not, that’ll be fine, too, and Arlowe agrees with that.”
“But you’d need a work visa again,” her mother replied.
“I wouldn’t quit until–” she stopped and looked over at Arlowe, who gave her a smile.
“Until we’re engaged or married. I’m not saying that’s happening tomorrow.
If the visa gets approved, I’ll have three years and another three if I file for an extension.
So, you don’t have to worry about me asking Arlowe to marry me tomorrow.
But if I did, that would be my choice, and it would be Arlowe’s choice to say yes or no. ”
“And if your visa doesn’t get approved?” her father questioned. “What then? Arlowe lives there. You live here.”
“I won’t leave her again,” Arlowe spoke up.
“Arlowe…”
“No, it’s okay. I get it. I left before, and you had to see your daughter hurting.
I want kids of my own one day, and I can’t imagine how hard it’s going to be to have to watch them have their hearts broken.
But I’m not leaving her ever again. If her work visa doesn’t get approved, we’ll date long-distance until we’re both ready to take that step.
Then, we’ll get engaged, and she’ll come over on a fiancée visa.
I know that’s hard on you because it means your daughter will live far away from you, but I wouldn’t want that for her if she didn’t want it for herself.
I would’ve asked Eline to marry me when we were in college, but I knew she didn’t want to move to the US back then.
She wanted to be here, finish school, start her career, and figure things out.
We made the difficult choice to separate for that reason.
” Arlowe glanced over at her. “I think it was the right choice, but I’ve been pretty miserable since I lost her.
She’s the only one for me and always has been.
I love her more than life, and I want to be her wife one day.
I’d like us to have those kids I want together because I know that she wants the same thing.
” Arlowe looked at Eline’s father. “And yes, I own my own company with three of my friends. We started out in our garage, and we’ve worked really hard for years and years to make something amazing.
Now, we have an office and employees.” She turned to Eline’s mother.
“I have a little money saved up. Not much. And I rent, so I don’t own a house yet, but I have paid off my car, at least, and I have a retirement plan and health benefits and everything else like that.
So, yes, I can take care of myself. And I know Eline doesn’t need me to take care of her in that way, but I would if she needed me to. ”
“She offered,” Eline said.
“Offered what?” her father asked.
“When I was trying to figure everything out, she offered to take care of me until I could get back on my feet. Arlowe loves me. I love her. I want everything she wants, and we’re going to be together.
” Eline looked at her mother. “I know you don’t want me to leave again, just like you didn’t want me to go the first time, but it’s what I want.
It doesn’t mean that I won’t come back for a visit. It does mean that I will be happy.”
Her mother considered this for a moment, looked over at her father, and then turned to Arlowe.
“How many children, exactly?”
“I’m sorry?” Arlowe asked.
“You mentioned wanting children. We’d like grandchildren. We know Eline wants them. We have one room in our house. Should we get two or three smaller beds, or just leave the one that Eline slept on when she returned?”
Arlowe looked over at Eline and asked, “Two or three smaller ones?”
“We’ll see,” Eline said with a little laugh. “Now, is our interrogation over? Will you start acting like the civil parents I know and love, and we can eat dinner?”
“I suppose so. But I’m curious to learn more about Arlowe’s company strictly from a learning perspective. Would it work for math, your algorithms?”
Eline smiled and shook her head.
“I’m going to plate the chicken. Just get your computer out and show him how it works, or we’ll never hear the end of it,” she said.
“I’ll help you,” her mother said, rising with Eline.
“I’ll be right back.”
Eline bent down, gave Arlowe a quick kiss with a wink, and Arlowe smiled up at her.
“You want to see it?” Arlowe asked Eline’s father.
“I’d love to,” he replied.
Eline and her mother went into the kitchen and got to work putting the food on plates.
“She is still madly in love with you,” her mother noted softly.
“And I’m still madly in love with her.”
“I can see that. It won’t stop me from worrying, Eline.”
“I know. It’s what I want, though.” She looked over at Arlowe, who already had her computer out on the table and was sitting next to her father, showing him something. “She’s the love of my life in the same way that he’s yours. I can’t let her go again. I won’t.”
“Then, you don’t. Your father and I didn’t mind America when we lived there before. I’m sure we can make a couple of visits a year. And you’ll come here, of course.”
“Of course,” she replied.
“Let’s eat, then. And you can tell her that if she wants, she can loosen up that tie she wore to impress us. Might be cutting off her circulation.”
Eline laughed.