21. Pretty & Drew
THANKSGIVING
“Baby, cheer up. It’s Thanksgiving,” Maman declared, kissing my cheek. I was sitting on the couch beside my father, who had his arm wrapped around me.
Maman had come to sit on the other side of me, and my siblings were moving throughout the house talking to their significant others, their children, and a host of our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
“I’m fine, Maman.”
“No, you’re not. I know my daughter. You haven’t been fine all day,” Maman countered.
“It’s not hard to figure out why. She’s missing her man. Everyone who is a couple is booed up today except for her,” my youngest brother, Maxime, declared from where he was lying on the floor watching the game.
“Quit being such a jerk and have some compassion,” Chloe replied and threw a throw pillow at Maxime’s head.
He caught it and smirked at her, but she threw another one that caught him in the face.
“That’s enough. You guys still act like little kids,” Maman fussed.
Papa and Uncle Pierre reacted to something on the game on TV.
It was the late afternoon game, and when this one ended, there would be another one played this evening around eight; that was the game Drew would be commentating on.
I snuggled even closer to Papa. Drew left yesterday morning to get ready for the game, and I had been missing him since.
“Mon c?ur, I have an idea,” Papa declared, giving me a squeeze and kissing the top of my head. If he wasn’t calling me Bulles, he was calling me mon c?ur, which translated to my heart. Those had always been his two nicknames for me growing up.
“What’s that, Papa?” I asked.
“Thanksgiving isn’t over. Why don’t you go and be with him?” he suggested.
“You think I can get tickets at this last minute?” I searched his eyes for the answer, because I didn’t need false hope.
“Absolutely. Your brother isn’t an airline exec for no reason,” he explained, tossing a look at Enzo who had just walked into the room with his arm wrapped around his wife.
“What reason would that be, Papa?” Enzo asked.
“Your sister needs last-minute airline tickets to Orchard Park.”
“You couldn’t take it anymore. You’re going to see him, huh?” Enzo asked, smiling.
“If you can get me tickets,” I replied with an endearing smile of my own.
“If? Girl, call up a car service to be picked up within the hour. You’re on your way to New York,” Enzo replied.
I grinned at Papa and hugged his neck. After I kissed his cheek, I declared, “Papa, you are the best. Je t’aime.”
“Not as much as I love you,” he replied, kissing my forehead.
I hopped up from my seat beside him as Maman laughed at me.
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked as I headed for the stairs to go to my old bedroom. We had an annual tradition of spending Thanksgiving night with our parents and getting up to go shopping early the next morning.
“Where do you think? You heard the man. To pack a bag for my trip to Orchard Park.”