Been Here the Whole Time

“Two?” Oh, how I wished the hostess would have been right. Two, just me and Gerard, would have been great! Sure, the nervousness had worn off a bit, but there was still that little part of me that wanted to freak out, run back to my bus, and never get off my bunk ever. I kept thinking that, if Gerard’s parents were anything like him, they would at least accept that I loved their son. But my parents….well. It wasn’t like they were those kind of people that thought they were better than everyone, but there were times when I really just didn’t know what to expect from them. And that scared me shitless in a situation like this.

Gerard shook his head, a confident smile on his face. How he kept such a straight face, I couldn’t understand. At least it was my parents that were here already, that way I would hopefully calm down sitting next to my daddy. “We’re here with four others, two of which are around here somewhere. Elsie and John?” Yes, those were my parents. The hostess looked down at her podium, but before she could say anything, a figure made his way towards us.

“Lindsey!” I heard. I turned around and smiled really wide. My daddy was standing not ten feet away from me, and suddenly all my worries and nervousness from before dissipated. I giggled and ran into my daddy’s arms, feeling like I was back home in an instant. “My baby girl!” he said, trying not to be loud. He held me close, making me feel like a little girl with no worries in the world again, and I seriously loved him for it. But then he let me go, and I knew why. I cleared my throat and pulled my shirts back down, then turned to Gerard, nodded in my direction, and smiled. He smiled back, nodded at the hostess and headed over to us.

“Daddy, this is my fiancé. Gerard, this is my daddy!” Gerard’s smile didn’t falter, and that was a good sign. But he waited for my dad to stick his hand out to shake, which my father did with a smile of his own adorning his face. Whew.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Gerard. Why don’t we go back to the table? You’re mother’s been dying to see you,” he said. I nodded before taking Gerard’s hand and walking a few steps behind my dad. I smiled at him, letting him know that my daddy liked him. I could tell; my daddy knew my type of guys wasn’t all that good, but there was definitely something about Gerard that he saw. It was something that I saw too, even if I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was.

When we got to the table, my mom stood up and raced over to me, engulfing me in a larger hug than I could ever remember receiving in my entire life. “Lindsey, baby!” My parents had a knack for calling me that. “Oh, you look just as gorgeous as the last time we saw you! But…did you do something different with your hair?” I cocked an eye brow up and shook my head, smirking just a bit at my mom. She was known for misplacing things or events, at least between my father and myself. “Oh, well that doesn’t matter. Is this him?” Oh dear. I nodded and pulled Gerard closer to me.

“Momma, this is Gerard.” She looked him up and down, and I’m pretty sure Gerard almost twitched in an awkward sort of way. My mom was the only mom I’d ever known that was totally cool and completely awkward at the same time.

She gave a short little, ‘Hmm’, the smirked and gave me a sly smile. She approved too, and I knew it before she even said anything. “Just as good looking as you said, Linds.” I rolled my eyes and pulled Gerard over to the table. I sat next to my Daddy, Gerard next to me with two extra seats in the booth empty for his parents. But my mom dove right into conversation, and although she could make some situations awkward, I’d known since I could remember that she was good at avoiding such awkward situations at the same time. “So Gerard, how long have you and Lindsey been dating?” So it wasn’t the best place to start, but at least it was a start.

“To me, it feels like forever. It can’t be any longer than a few months though, right?” He looked at me, still blushing from the first part. He had no clue how much I’d wished that was true. Under the table, out of the watchful eye of my seemingly friendly parents, Gerard grabbed my hand, and I looked at him with a huge smile on my face. He turned to my mother then with a smile that matched mine, and I knew only sucking up could come out of what he wanted to say next. “I see where Lindsey got her beautiful looks from.” He then turned to my father quickly. “Seems like we have similar tastes in beautiful women, Mr. Ballato.”

My dad looked like he’d turned into Santa Clause then. His cheeks got as red as mine, and his smile grew. Fuck Gerard and his way with words; he was making me look really quiet in front of my own parents! But then Gee turned his head and his eyes widened. He got out from between my father and I and sprinted over to two people I could only then guess were his parents. My eyes widened, but not in the way Gerard’s had. My parents both turned and smiled, but I knew I looked like a deer in headlights. I wanted to get up and run out of the place, but my mother on my father kept me from doing so. I scooted over to sit next to him so Gerard could sit next to his parents, because honestly I didn’t want to be near them. It wasn’t like I hated them or anything, but I was seriously nervous. I had to pull it together though.

After all, Gerard had survived my parents.

But as Gee brought his mom and dad closer to the table, my stomach started turning again. I put on a front, mostly because I had to in order to get my impression across. I had to say something eventually, but I’d learned fast from what Gee had done. He’d waited until he was asked a question, which seemed like a great thing to do-until I got a look at Gerard’s Parents. Both had light hair and looked to be about the age of my parents, both with huge smiles on their faces. They looked so friendly, like my own parents, and suddenly my nervousness seemed so unnecessary. With a smile on all of their faces, the Ways made their trip to the table and stopped so Gerard could ensue introductions.

He looked at my dad first. “Mom, dad, this is Lindsey’s father,” he said. My dad held his hand out and stood up like the gentleman he’d always been and said, “Call me John, please!” Gerard’s father was so handsome, it was unreal. He was like Richard Gear from Pretty Woman, and when he smiled he had those cute little eye-wrinkles that I hoped Gerard would get one day. They showed how much someone smiled, as far as I was concerned. As he held and shook my father’s hand, he said, “I’m Don, nice to meet you John!” Then my father turned to Gerard’s mother, who was undeniably gorgeous. Though her hair gave away her age, she reminded me of a more….common type of Meryl Streep. Classic looks with a great smile that resembled Gerard’s and made me insanely jealous. “Donna, pleasure to meet you!” I didn’t find it odd at all that Gerard’s parents were Don and Donna.

Then Gerard turned to my mom. “And Lindsey’s mom.” My mom followed my dad’s example and stood up to shake hands.

“Elsie,” she said. Ever since watching Rent for the first time, I’d always thought of the cow that Maureen tells the story about when my mom called herself Elsie. After both of them had shook hands with my mom, Gerard turned to me with the widest smile I think I’d ever seen. The nervousness returned, but this time with a side of acceptance. So far, everything had been going perfectly, or at the very least much better than I’d been expecting. I felt like my previous freak out was completely ridiculous.

I stood up before Gerard could say anything and moved to be next to him. He wrapped his arm around my waist and held the hand on the opposite side of me from his body. “And this is my most favorite person on the planet.” I blushed again, which I had a horrible habit of doing when Gerard said things like that about me. Donna opened her arms and moved to me, instead of waiting for me to move to her. She squealed, which was seriously adorable, while she embraced me. You have no clue how at home I felt.

“It’s so glad to finally meet the woman behind the words! Gerard talks about you all the time, love, and I can certainly see why!” My blush deepened, and I looked at Gerard through the corner of my eye. He rolled his eyes, but blushed too nonetheless. He’d so been sold out by his own mother. But I giggled as she pulled back from me, still holding on to my arms though. She looked at Gerard and totally pulled an Elsie. “She’s gorgeous, Gerard!” That really wasn’t helping my blush whatsoever. But she let me go and Don moved closer to me then. His smile was undeniably familiar, as it matched Mikey’s to a T.

“Certainly is. It’s definitely a pleasure to finally meet you, Lindsey!” I shook my head and said, “You have no clue how great it is to finally meet you too, Don!” He gave me a quicker hug than Donna had before we all sat down again, and instantly I felt like I was walking on water. Everything was perfect finally, and it stayed that way through the dinner. Once everyone had been situated with food, eaten, and had their fill of speaking and telling (some embarrassing) stories (mostly the parents), it was time for Gerard and I to come clean. I looked at him and nodded, and he cleared his throat. He didn’t need to stand up for this announcement, since it was only the six of us at the table.

“Lindsey and I have something to tell you, obviously.” He took my hand, even though I hadn’t noticed he’d let it go until then, and smiled. “We’ve planned this all out, and we wanted you to know before everyone else,” and then I cut in with, “Besides Alicia, who has the biggest mouth on the planet, along with the biggest ears.” Gerard rolled his eyes and continued. “But we’ve decided to get married!” Both of our parents burst out laughing like it meant nothing.

“We knew that, hence the fact that you kept calling Lindsey your fiancé.” He gave Gerard the, ‘She has a point’ look before turning to the table to say what I had to say.

“We were planning on doing it before the tour ended. Well, technically on the last night of the tour. Nothing big, not even dresses.” All laughing cased as the parents sat at the table, taking in what I’d said. I felt like an asshole for ruining it all, but there wasn’t really anything else to lay down for them. Gerard held my hand tight in his, a sign that he was finally nervous for the night. Finally, my mother blinked with her eyes looked on me.

“You mean….we…no… Lindsey Ann, why?” Her question wasn’t harsh, like she wanted an explanation, but rather soft like she really wanted an honest answer. I shrugged and looked at Gerard for some help. How was I supposed to tell my parents I wanted a small wedding, when from the day I was born they’d been dreaming of a huge white wedding with white roses and a prince charming? Well, they’d understand since I’d found my Prince, right?

Gee sighed and looked from my mom to his. “We don’t want anything big at all. This whole thing is really that we could rather do without the huge mess big weddings bring, and that we just want to legally be recognized as man and wife.” That summed everything up pretty nicely, but my mother’s face didn’t shift just yet. My dad didn’t really look like he cared, which was a sure sign he was glad I was getting married. All dads liked that idea though, and I could see it on Don’s face too. His oldest son was finally marrying someone, and I think the fact that he liked me made the whole situation even better. My mother finally caved in though, and she sighed at first.

“I guess all that’s really important is that the two of you are happy.” Donna nodded, and my whole world fell into place. I sighed and smiled. “We can always celebrate later, right?” I nodded, that smile still on my face. I was so relieved to get this over with. Just a short while later, the check came and Gerard and I had to part ways with our parents. It took us a good fifteen minutes, but we were finally back in the rental car and on our way back to the busses, which happened to then be parked at a hotel just a few minutes away from the venue. Gerard got out of the car first, then came around and picked me up, standing me on the other side of him while he closed my door. He then smirked at me and held my hand as we made our way to the elevator inside the hotel, then up to our floor after picking up the key to our room from the reception desk in the lobby.

Again, we’d managed to share a room.

Once we were in the room, Gerard let me put my jacket and bag down next to the luggage Alicia must have dragged into the room beforehand before pulling me around and pushing me up against a wall with his arms on either side of my head. I smiled at him before he kissed me, every bit as passionate as the first kiss had been. My arms locked themselves around his neck before he pulled away slightly to look right at me. “Now that our parents are out of the way, do you feel better?” I blushed lightly and nodded, looking down out of habit. With one finger, Gerard pulled my face up to his and kissed me again. “Good. Now it’s just you and me baby,” he said, kissing me again while the hand that had been under my chin made its way to my waist.

One thing led to another, but you can guess where everything went.