To Caress My Day

After Thanksgiving dinner, all the women gravitated towards the kitchen to assist in the clean up as soon as the last of the men was booted out on the back patio for being in the way. The men were content to be ostracized from the task until they were reminded it was the wintry seasons of November in the night air.

“Jesus Christ, we're gonna freeze to death out here.” Spencer grumbled, cramming his hands in his pant pockets as he glared out at the ink night. “I knew one day your sister was gonna find a way to oust me out of her life, but hell, I didn't think this was gonna be the technique she'd choose.”

“I told you she'd get us both too when she did it!” Seth taunted him as he shivered in his black coat. He nudge his hands in it's pockets to try and keep warm. “It was only a matter of time.”

“Leave your sister alone, Seth.” Ronald warned with a strict look but eyes twinkling with laughter. “It's Thanksgivings. We should all be grateful to another year of putting up with each other.”

“Amen.” Seth saluted in accord, admiring the dark beauty of nature around him. “It feels like winter is making it's way here pretty soon.”

“Yipee.” Spencer sarcastically retorted with a grin, not looking forward to the snow.

The back door behind them slid open to unveil Rachael in a winter coat. “Greetings lesser beings.”

“Whoa, hey!” Spencer playfully chided, coming over to wrap his arms around her and give her a kiss on the head. “What did we do?”

“Yeah, be nice.” Seth berated her in feign offense. “It's Thanksgiving.”

Ronald promptly gave his son a look for taking his earlier response to him when he was griping about his sister who wasn't even there to defend herself.

“Whatever.” Rachael countered as she nestled against her husband's side.

“What are you even doing out here?” Seth grilled her. “This is the boys club, no girls allowed.”

Rachael ignored his naive response. “Your girlfriend and Xiang are cleaning up the place and left me nothing to do since Bella dozed off while eating a second helping of pumpkin pie. So I came out here to see what y'all are up to.”

“Nothing much, just commending the cold weather, babe.” Spencer replied, tilting his head down to rest his cheek on her chocolate silky hair. “Did you say Tahliah was helping with the cleaning?”

“Yeah, and they're bonding over Xiang's watercolors in the meantime.” Rachael elaborated. “She seems really interested in them.”

Spencer's eyes strayed to Seth who had a magnificent grin on his face the minute his girlfriend's name was brought up. “Isn't it delightful that your brother brought another girl over to meet your dad, the second out of the millions of women he's dated before?”

“My thoughts exactly.” Rachael conceded as she studied to her brother. “Tell me again what went wrong with you and that Avery Jenkins? She seemed like a really nice girl and, no offense, but she fell more into your category of attractive women than Tahliah does.”

“I observed that too.” Ronald nodded, also considering to his son now for an explanation.

Seth sighed, and turned to confront the three covertly, his voice deficient so Twigs couldn't hear them from within the house. “Okay, look, I'll admit that Avery was a really wonderful person when we first met, she absolutely was. There was a time I thought she was the one and was planning on marrying her one day.” Seth shrugged his shoulders, no longer feeling even a microscopic shred of grief correlated to his former lover's name. “But we evidently never got to that point because fate chose to reveal to us that we weren't meant to be. One morning I woke up to her suitcases packed and ready to go. In a nutshell, she left me to move on with her life.”

“But why though?” Rachael proceeded to dig, her voice too reduced because it was evident that Avery's existence was something Seth didn't want his girlfriend to know about. “After you told me of your split I tried to call her but she wouldn't pick up. To this day, no one will tell me what happened, not even you!”

“What do you think the reason for her leaving could be, Seth?” Spencer asked him. “You must have some idea.”

“There had to be a sign, son.” Ronald followed, also discovering himself just as inquisitive as his daughter. “Did you not fold the laundry, put your socks away, put the seat down after taking a piss? What kind of chaos are we talking about here to end a four year relationship?”

“Your longest relationship by the way considering all the other starlets you've dated never lasted all that long due to your workaholic tendencies.” Rachael threw out there.

“To be honest, in the beginning I tried figuring out what her reasons for leaving me could be, but that quickly became water under the bridge when I met Tahliah.” Seth disclosed in candor. “The moment she entered my life everything changed. My job had always been the most important thing to me up at that point with Avery being a far second. I constantly hated trying to make time for her by rearranging my schedule around, it always seemed much easier to just do what I got to do and I'll see you when I see you. But the moment I met Tahliah, nothing else mattered. My job was just that to me, my job. Avery became a nonexistent nightmare. Now that I'm with her I'm the happiest I've ever been and find myself preferring to rearrange my work schedule rather than following it just to squeeze in a moment with her even if it's only for 5 minutes.”

“I can't argue with you being the happiest you ever been.” Rachael conceded with a satisfied nod. “You're practically glowing with it every time I see you now.”

“You could virtually melt Antarctica with just a single smile alone if someone dared to say her name in front of you.” Spencer derided with a chuckle.

“It's honestly baffles me, son.” Ronald claimed, sharing his own sentiments of his son's rapid development since he last saw him for a visit. “You've barely been here for half a day and I can see as clear as day that that young lady has changed you entirely. You're like a walking Cupid oozing lovey dovey bullcrap all over my damn house. It's truly disgusting, Seth, but I'm elated for you.”

“Um, thanks dad.” Seth responded dubiously, not knowing whether to take his opinion as a good thing or not.

“I think our little Seth here is in love.” Spencer speculated, inspecting his brother-in-law. “If you don't mind me giving my opinion.”

Rachael's eye lit up. “Are you, brother?”

“What do you think?” Seth inquired rhetorically. “How about I give you this much? I am 100% besotted by Tahliah without a doubt, and as we clarified before the happiest I've ever been with her in my whole life. I feel like I have everything life could possibly offer a man right now and I wouldn't change it for anything.”

Everyone gawked at him briskly, trying to force an answer out of him but Seth remained silent. Ronald, who hasn't been around the couple as long as his daughter and son-in-law concurred to himself after a long recess of peering at his oldest with the rest of his family. “Yup, he's in love alright.”