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An hour later and a half later, you, Peter and Victoria were sitting at a table outside with your mother and father. Pre-brunch pleasantries consisted of you and your sister hugging your parents and giving trained responses to their similarly mundane questions. To their credit, neither of them displayed any open hostility towards you. That was either because they were genuinely delighted to see you after all this time, or they didn’t want to lose face in a public setting. Your money was on the latter.
But all of that carefully concealed contempt took a back seat when you introduced their grandson.
<span class="mu-r">“Mom, Dad? This is Peter.”</span> you said, kneeling down and smiling up at them. <span class="mu-r">“He’s your grandson. Pete? This is my Mom, and your grandma, Ann. And that’s my Dad, and your grandpa, Peter.”</span> you continued, pointing to each of them in turn.
You paused for a moment. Did Rich seriously name his son after Dad? How were you just now realizing this?
<span class="mu-r">“He’s Richie’s kid. We’re uh, not sure who the Mom is.”</span> you admitted.
A long silence followed after that mind-boggling revelation, and when it had become too unbearable, Vicky felt the need to breathe some life back into the conversation.
<span class="mu-g">“Surprise!”</span> she nervously blurted out.
All the color had gone out of your Dad’s face by this point, but your Mother couldn’t help but start gushing over the “little darling”.
Figures. Dick Parker could do no wrong, after all.
—--------
By the time that the appetizers rolled around and they ran out of pointless questions to ask, your parents started getting around to more substantial inquiries. Like: “How has Richard been hiding a kid from us for this long?” and “Why hasn’t he introduced his girlfriend to us already?”. And then there’s your personal favorite: “Why couldn’t he make it to brunch, and why isn’t he answering our calls?”
All very good questions, really. And you didn’t have answers for any of them. The most you could do was tell them that you’d ask Rich when you got in contact with him again, but you just assumed that he was busy with some important call for the company that he worked for. That was the least that you could do for him.
You’d know more once your contacts got back to you. But for now, you had to focus on finding a way to convince your parents to leave town. How would you go about doing that?
>”I got a tip from a buddy that there’s a gang war brewing in this city. You don’t want to be here when it comes to a head.”
>”Those terrorist attacks are becoming more frequent and unpredictable, and I’m not comfortable with you guys staying here until the Avengers can get them under control.”
>”How would you guys like to go on a nice little vacation with your new nephew? Get away from it all for a few weeks.”
>”I know you two have been eyeing that lake house in Virginia for a while now. I could rent it out for you, and the four of you could head down there and soak up some sun."
>Write-in.
