Faithfully

“Boys, quiet down,” Annette scolded and pointed for them to all take a seat.

I smiled when James took a seat and leaned over to kiss my lips. “Tomorrow I have a surprise for you,” James tease, pulling back to look around the table. I could tell he didn’t like Dominick’s presence there but he stayed quiet, which I was proud of because he was getting better.

“Let’s eat,” Annette announced and called for the food.

Paul and Jennifer brought out the dinner, it was an Italian dish dinner, we have Ziti, Lasagna, spaghetti and a few others things. It was going great until I flipped a meat ball that I was trying to cut with my fork across the table and into James’ lap. I stared at the trail of sauce with an open mouth, afraid to speak. “I think you lost something,” James held up the severed meatball with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t eat it…”

“I am so sorry,” I breathed out, gingerly taking the meatball out of his hand. “I’m a horrible eater when it comes to messy Italian foods, if that helps any…”

“It’s true, she used to have to wear an old shirt over her good clothes because of how messy she is,” Betty agreed, I glared at her and smiled nervously back at James.

“You know, I used to get the sauce in my eyes because I would try to slurp the noodles down faster than Colin,” James admitted and the whole table boomed with laughter.

“I got a piece of pepperoni stuck in my nose once,” Betty joined in, laughing at her own expense. “It was there for a whole day before I sneezed it out.”

“That’s still gross,” I pointed at her with my fork. “To this day and always will be.”

“Do I need to get a bib?” James asked, reaching over to wipe a little sauce from my shirt, he ended up playfully wiping it on my bare neck.

“No, I think I’m handling it well,” I smiled and used a little marinara to draw a smiley face on his cheek, he didn’t move but when he did, I screamed.

No one had been paying attention until James started a food fight; he threw a handful of spaghetti down my shirt. “No!” Betty screamed to prevent it going any further but it was too late, she had a handful of meatballs thrown at her face, sauce was dripping down her chin from the after effects. Dominick was laughing so hard at her expression, he wasn’t paying attention to the fact Betty picked up a handful of Ziti and smacked him with it and then rubbed it on his bald head.

“Stop it right this instant!” it took three shrieks before Annette held the attention of the room. I stood by James, covered in marinara sauce and cheese for the most part; I had a garlic bun in one hand and a fist full of salad in the other. James had ziti and lasagna in his hands and we were facing Red and Mikey, who were aimed to throw. I gasped softly when I spotted Annette, who had made the horrible decision to wear that white jumpsuit that evening, covered from head to toe in sauce, noodles and cheese. “You will all have this cleaned up; no one is having dinner tonight until it’s spotless!”

“Mother,” James tried to call his mother as she stormed out of the room. I couldn’t help it, I snickered when she disappeared and James mimicked me until we were in full blown cackles, dropping the door in our hands. Colin shook his head, chuckling as he chased after her. “I haven’t had that much fun in years; I think it was worth the mess.”

“I’ve never had a food fight before,” I smiled at everyone drenched in Italian food. “That was a lot of fun.”

“You have some salad in your cleavage,” Betty stepped over the bowl that held the ziti and picked a big piece of wilted lettuce out of the crease in my chest, she bent down and narrowed her eyes when something caught her attention in my shirt. I raised an eyebrow as she stood straight up with wide eyes, pointing with her finger at my breasts. “There’s a full four course meal in there, Gracie.”

“I could be a pervert right now and say I’m starving but I won’t,” Mikey commented, picking spaghetti noodles off his shoulders.

“You just did, wondertard,” Betty looked at Mikey dumbly before turning back to me. “Go pick the salad, spaghetti, ziti, garlic bread and lasagna from your boobies and then get me a trash can.”

“Yes mommy,” I chuckled, reaching into my shirt in attempt to shake the food out. “Ugh, cold noodles.”

“Grace, go take a shower and change, I’ll help get this cleaned up and I’ll be back there quickly,” James slid sideways as he walked over to me, the marble floor was super slippery from the sauce and I was truly afraid to move a muscle. I didn’t want to fall, being so pregnant and uncoordinated.

“I don’t want to move, I might fall. Plus, I have to help clean, I made the mess too,” I argued, turning slowly to grab him by the forearms.

“You don’t need to be bending and cleaning, I’ll clean it. Come on, we’ll slide to the door,” James grinned like a child, I giggled slightly when he slid his foot back, gliding almost backwards towards the door. I mimicked his movements and let out a laugh when I started skating through the food. “Almost there, see it wasn’t that bad-“

I burst out laughing when James fell backwards and landed on his butt. I would have fallen too had it not been for Dominick, who grabbed me on his way back in with the kitchen garbage can. “Are—are you okay?” I asked through strangled breaths, it wasn’t that funny but the look on James’ face when he hit and the irony of him falling made it down right hilarious.

“I’ll be feeling it in the morning, are you okay?” he asked, carefully pushing himself up. He nodded to Dominick who let me go very carefully.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I added to Dominick, who smiled in return. I grabbed James hand and we tip toed to the door. I took my sauce soaked shoes off and walked barefoot up to my bedroom. I quickly undressed, picked up the foot pieces and threw them away, showered and changed before heading back downstairs to check if they needed any help.

“Looks brand new,” I was actually shocked at how clean they had it in such a short time. “I think this calls for a surprise.”

While they all cleaned up and got dressed, I called a restaurant in town and asked if they could reserve a well secluded table for nine, luckily and partially because I announced who I was several different times, they had us a table almost immediately reserved. “Why are we meeting down here?” Colin asked, sliding on his leather jacket. I almost didn’t want to answer him because I was still peeved about him being an ass to Betty.