Chapter 37
Elias pulled into the driveway of his parents’ house.
His aunt and uncle’s driveway and the street were already filled with cars, and he didn’t want to get blocked in by anyone.
It was easier to park at his parents’ and walk a few houses down.
He turned to Eri, who was on a call with a client.
He squeezed her thigh to gain her attention.
You want me to wait? he mouthed.
That’s okay. It shouldn’t be much longer.
Are you sure?
She nodded, shooing him from the vehicle. He glared at her playfully before pointing to the keys still in the ignition and exiting the car.
Elias took the short journey to the house hosting the holiday and entered through the side gate.
He waved to the family friends he knew as he weaved through the crowd that comprised his uncle and dad’s employees, his zias’ and mom’s friends, some of his and his cousin’s friends, and plus ones of those people.
He found his parents, zia, uncle, and cousin. The two older men were at the grill while Marco added more ice to the cooler, and the other two arranged the table that the food was on.
“Hey,” Elias greeted.
Greetings were returned as his mom turned around excitedly, then looked past him as if he wasn’t there.
“Why are you here by yourself? Where’s Eri?” she asked.
He raised an eyebrow as the others laughed. “Nice to see you too, Mamma.”
“Mhm. Yes. You too. Where’s Eri?”
“She’ll be here in a minute. She’s in the car finishing a call.”
“And you didn’t stay with her, why?”
“Because she didn’t want me to, Mamma.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed,” his dad started. “Eri is your mother’s favorite child.”
His uncle nodded in agreement. “Don’t feel bad. Avian is definitely Lorna’s,” Matteo said.
“Yours too,” the mentioned woman stated as she exited the house with a tray that his cousin promptly took from her. When his uncle didn’t deny her claim, Marco snorted as Elias shook his head.
“Do you need help with anything?” he asked.
“No, I think we—” his mom trailed off to walk past him. “Hi, Sweet Girl,” she stated, and he knew before looking over his shoulder who she was talking to.
“Her favorite child has arrived, and I’m now invisible,” he mumbled, causing the others to laugh. Greetings went around again, and Elias wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Is it just me, or are people staring?” Eri asked.
“It’s not just you,” Avian replied. “It happened to me the first time I came to a family event with Marco.”
“They’re in mourning,” Lorna laughed.
“Every time we’d have one of these gatherings, they would try to fix the two of them up with their daughters or granddaughters. When Avian and Marco started dating, then got married, they lost a prospect, and now that you’ve tied my son down, they’re down another one,” his mom informed.
“I don’t think they realize we don’t always like what our moms do,” Eri said. “So, while it’s a loss to them, it might not be to their daughters and granddaughters.”
“That’s true,” Avian agreed.
Elias couldn’t help but agree in her and Marco’s case. His cousin was not someone her mother would have ever chosen for her for many reasons that were, in his opinion, ridiculous.
“That doesn’t apply to me,” Eri said, looking at him. “I’m almost positive my mom would have loved you, and probably asked about you more than she did me.”
“The way mine completely ignored me in favor of asking where you were?” Elias countered playfully.
They stayed there for a few more minutes before venturing off to where there were games set up.
As they walked through the crowd, he introduced her to a few people who stopped them, but kept the conversations short.
People liked to be too nosy nowadays, so he wouldn’t give them the opportunity to be.
“Did you get things situated with your client?” he asked as they began a game of corn hole.
“I did. What they wanted wasn’t translating in the messages they were sending, and I thought it would be better for them to call me when they could.”
“They weren’t detailed enough in their messages?”
“They aren’t great with description. What they submitted made little sense to me and seemed to contradict itself.
I didn’t even try to start it. I wanted to talk to them first because I knew there was no way I could produce what they were asking for with the information they submitted.
It would have been a waste of both of our time. ”
“They conveyed it better over the phone,” he stated, and Eri nodded.
They played a few rounds of the game and then moved on to a couple of other games until all the food was ready. He made them both plates while Eri grabbed drinks and sat at one of the tables with Avian, his mom, and his aunt. The four of them joined them a few minutes later.
“Eri, was your dad unavailable?” his mom asked after a couple of minutes.
“He’s out of town for work, but he said he wouldn’t miss Thanksgiving at whoever hosts.”
“That sounds nice. We haven’t decided who will do it yet, but will let you know,” Lorna replied.
“Speaking of dads. Where’s yours, Avi?” Eri asked.
“He said he had a prior engagement. Which I’m sure means he’s spending time with whatever woman he still won’t tell me about.”
“Do you need to know?” Marco asked. “Or are you just trying to be nosy?”
“Both, of course,” Avian responded, and the group shared a laugh.
“He’s probably not telling you because he’s enjoying not being tied down and might be dating multiple women,” Matteo said.
“Ooh, that might be true. Your daddy is fine after all.”
“Ew, Eri,” Avian replied as Elias cut his eyes at her. “Your boyfriend is also right there.”
“She isn’t wrong,” his aunt said at the same time his mom said, “But he is attractive.” Avian groaned.
“My boyfriend’s fine too,” she shrugged, leaning over to kiss him. “And we’re just messing with you, Avi,” Eri replied, laughing.
“Sure, sure. But if he’s going through a hoe phase, I support it. He deserves to live his life,” Avian replied.
“Did you extend the invitation to your mother?” Lorna asked.
“Nope,” Avian replied. “I did to Aunt Willa and Mickey, but they’re spending the day with her.”
The conversation shifted, and a few minutes later, Javier, Nesiah, and Ricardo joined them, pulling up chairs.
After greetings, his aunt told them about a trip the four of them were going on in a few weeks.
This sparked his girlfriend, Avian, and Nesiah to suggest they all take another trip together.
Elias was sure that before the week was out, they’d have a destination and an entire itinerary for where they were going.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Eri sat in her office the next morning, working on her client’s design.
Once she’d been able to speak with them, she understood what they wanted and realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to create.
She expected to be done that day with the design approved by the client.
She had three designs she needed to work on for Koa for the Christmas merch drop she was planning.
Eri was tweaking two designs the other woman had already purchased to make them fit the holiday and creating one specifically for it.
She wanted to get those to Koa soon, so she would have ample time to order what she needed.
She’d decided to send the client two different options and was finishing up the second one when her phone vibrated with a text from Avian.
Avian: What about Aspen?
Eri thought about it for a moment before looking up whether or not it would be snowing when they went. The thought of skiing sounded fun even though she’d never done it before.
Eri: Aspen works. It’s a six-and-half-hour drive. So no further than where we went last time.
With Nesiah’s fear of flying, they would drive again, and going anywhere that couldn’t be driven in a day wasn’t ideal.
Avian had proposed a four-day trip, but if they were going to spend thirteen hours round trip, driving, they might have to extend it or go somewhere closer.
The latter would be easier for most of them, considering that four worked together.
Eri: Let me finish this design, and I’ll see if I can also find some other options just in case.
Avian: Okay.
Eri finished the design, watermarked it and sent it to the client, then started looking for places they could go that would be a shorter drive.
She looked for almost an hour, but couldn’t find anything she liked more than Avian’s suggestion that was closer.
She picked up her phone to call her friend.
“Hey,” Avian greeted.
“Hey, so I found nothing that sounded better than Aspen, but with it being a total of thirteen hours, I’m not sure if people will feel rushed, and then we have to think about our favorite tattoo artists.
The shop will be closed when they aren’t there.
I don’t know if they want to be away for more than a few days. ”
“That’s true. How long is a flight from here to Aspen?” Avian asked.
Eri quickly looked it up. “About three hours. An hour and twenty minutes from here to Denver, then an hour from Denver to Aspen, but flying with Nesiah is out of the question.”
“What if we give her a valium?”
Eri thought about it. “I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, but I guess we could ask her.”
“Hang on a second and let me add her to the call.”
Eri waited, and when the other women returned to the line, Avian wasted no time getting down to business.
“Okay, so we were thinking of going to Aspen, but it’s a six-and-half-hour drive. It would be faster to fly, and we’d be able to spend more time there. I know you have a fear of flying, but we could get you some valium, and make sure we’re all seated around you.”
“How long is the flight?” Nesiah asked.
“Two hours in the air,” Eri responded.
“Okay. We…we can fly.”
“Are you sure?” Eri asked.
“We can drive if we absolutely have to,” Avian added.
“It’s fine. I should try to deal with this at some point, and a short flight seems like the best way, but I’m definitely getting a prescription.”
“Okay, do you want to get together this coming weekend and decide on where to stay and what to do?” Avian asked.
“Sure,” Eri replied.
“That works for me,” Nesiah responded.
“Oh, we should ask Romi if she wants to come,” Avian suggested.
“Didn’t she start a new job last week? You think she’ll have the time to take off?” Nesiah asked.
“I mean, she works from home. So she might be able to come if she wants,” Avian responded.
“I’ll call her when she gets off and ask,” Eri volunteered.
“Great! Let’s meet at my house on Sunday at noon. I’ll make brunch for us,” Avian said.
She and Nesiah agreed, and they ended the call. Eri turned her attention to the designs for Koa.
“Hey, Eri,” Romi greeted later that evening.
“Hey, girl. I have a quick question for you.”
“What’s up?”
“We’re planning a group trip for mid or late October to Aspen, and we wanted to know if you wanted to come. I know you just started working, but I thought I’d ask.”
“Do you know what days we’d be gone?” Romi inquired.
“We’re thinking of flying out Thursday evening and coming back Monday afternoon.”
“Yeah, that should be fine. I work four-day weeks, and I can do any work I need to for Monday when we get back or start on it before we leave.”
“Are you sure?” Eri asked. Since they’d decided to leave on Thursday after the shop closed, when they were driving, she didn’t see them changing it just because they were flying. That way, the shop would only be closed for three days, and Avian wouldn’t miss teaching her classes on Thursday.
“Yeah. Just let me know how much I owe and who I need to send what to.”
“We’re meeting at Avian’s on Sunday to plan everything. You’re welcome to come.”
“Okay, send me the address, and I’ll meet you all there.”
Eri agreed, and the two spoke for a few more minutes before ending the call. She brought up her favorite shopping app on her phone and decided to look through a few options. If they were going skiing, she’d need a cute little suit.