Well, as I left off I had gotten the sign. I was going home with him for Christmas to meet his mother and family. His family lived several hours away from where the town we lived in so the ride up was pretty uneventful. I was dressed in "church clothes." No matter what anyone else had on I was dressed. You only have one chance to make a first impression on someone's mother. I had time to think and get myself all worked up and nervous. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there. I did not tell Harrington. I wanted to be cool as a cucumber on the outside, while I might have been a quivering jelly fish on the inside. We arrived and we got out of the car. I took a deep breath. It was on!
I walked into a house full of people. Of course after meeting anyone , I promptly forget their name and had to listen before speaking to get all those names down. He had 3 sisters, a brother and of course mom and dad. I was pleasant, open and talkative. I got the feeling that Harrington's mother was watching me and she was. She asked me all about me and I told her. Then the question came.
How old was I?
I told her. I realized that she thought I was toooo young. I did not get any sort of feeling like that from the sisters or anyone else but what does that matter. Who is the matriach of any black family?! MAMA! What ever she thougth was it. We finished our dinner and lounged after dinner and eventually Harrington and I came home. This was the Sunday before Christmas.
Harrington and I planned to have Christmas together...just the 2 of us. I was doing all the cooking at my house. It was to be the first Christmas we had spent together, just the 2 of us. I planned a virtual feast. Turkey with all the trimmings, rice gravy, vegetables, rolls, sweet potatoe pie and tea. I had spent 2 days cooking and slaving over that stove and everything was going to be purrrfect! I had it perfectly timed so that I would have time to get dressed before Harrington arrived. I had told him to come over at 3pm. By 2:30pm, I had the holiday music playing in the background, I had on a semiformal black gown and was waiting, relaxing with a glass of wine. Eveything was timed to be turned off at 2:45, to be ready to eat at 3pm. This to me...this dinner...was another rite of passage for me. I had to prove I could be the hostess with the mostest. Harrington was used to living a high kind of life and this was really the first chance I had had to prove, I could cook up a designer meal fit for a king. For the most part, we had always eaten out or he cooked for me. It was my first formal meal for him.
Well, I looked like I stepped out of a magazine, the table looked like something Martha Stewart would have at her house and the food was as good as anything Emeril would have whipped up. BAMM! At 2:45, I tunrned all the food off. Harrington was always on time, so he should he arriving at 3pm on the nose. 3 came, 3 left, 3:30 came and I put everything on low to keep the food warm. I tried calling him as I was afraid something had happened. I called his home, office and business partner. All I got at all 3 places was the answering machine. I left messages to call me as I was expecting him and was hoping that he was okay. The turkey I also put on warm in the oven. When 4pm came and left, I became really pissed off! I finally got a call that he got tied up with his parnter with some old friends who dropped by out of the blue. He said he would be there by 5pm.
OKAY! He is a business man and sometimes things can come up. I tried to keep that in mind but it did not help. I was very disappointed and angry and thought he should have been just a little more attentive as to time and the he alrady had a prior engagement. ME! This was not just any old meal or holiday. It was Christmas, for God's sake! 5 came and 5 went. That damned nigga did not show up until 6pm. 6pm and smelling like Opium perfume!
I know Opium, my mother used to wear it.
I asked him why he was so late why did he leave me here waiting for him for so long with no call what was he thinking was that not the rudest thing he could have done did he not have no respect for me or our plans what was that smell who were you with really why do you smell like Opium perfume I want the complete details of where you were today nigga you had better start talkin' cause I want some answers right now and yes, it all came out in one run on sentence and yes my neck was moving and yes I had my hands on my hips! You know that sista' stance!
His answer was that he had friends come over out of the blue and he lost track of time and that he was sorry. I reamed him a new asshole. As for the Opium, he said that was his cologne. It was not. It was Opium. He was lying to me. There was no way to really salvage the day. We just had to finish the day. We had dinner and it was all just a little overcooked. Well it had been warming for 3 hours. Do you know what Harrington had the nerve to say to me about the turkey? He said it was overdone. Well it was on again. We had another big fight about that and he was told many times that if he has shownup when he was supposed to, the turkey would have been perfect. We ate for the most part in silence, I drank more wine to calm down and eventually by desert, I had calmed some. Not much, because I was now on high alert that because of dinner with his parents, things were not the same between us. I thougth we were heading in the right direction, but after that family visit, we may have just taken about 900 steps back ...and only he knew about it. I was finding it out on my own.
After dinner we sat around in the living room near the christmas tree and it got time to exchange gifts. Harrington bought me several very nice articles of clothes..a jacket and some other things I had told him I wanted. His big gift to me was a watch. A beautiful gold Seiko watch with a black face. It was stunning. That was the thing I wanted most that year, a new watch. I had recently lost mine.
I gave him gold cuff links and several other things. My biggest gift to him was going to be to tell him I loved him. I had purchased several months before a personalized book. I know you know what I am talking about. Books for kids that you can have personliazed. You give 3 names, 2 places and 2 favorite things, and one saying and those things are put in the book, story form and they tell a story. It is all done up in a hard back story book....like the Doctor Zuess books. Well, I had done that with the 3 names as Harrington, his partner and mine, our town and his hometown and the saying at the end was, "I love You!" It was very, very clever! And very, very cute! Love conquers all, doesn't it? My vision was a spectacular dinner, gift exchange, my book and both of us being in love and then getting' a little sumthing, sumthing after diner.
Well, I bought out the book with still a little glimmer of hope in my heart. I gave it to him. He read all the pages and when he got to the last page, he read the "I love you," and he suddenly slammed the book closed like it was on fire. Well. That was that. He did not say anything. I did tell him I did love him but tonight I was very hurt. He simply said he was sorry again. There was no return , I love you. He then asked where the newspaper was so he could read it. I had planned for him to spend the night at my house, but after awhile I made an excuse up and asked him to go home. I was very upset still over the day. He left and I spent my Christmas night...all night... in tears.
Christmas was bitter sweet that year. More bitter than sweet.
Harrington's next BIG move brought out the RAMBO in me! More on that later.....