Paper Planes

Tucker grabbed my hand as we walked into the party.

"Tuckeeeeer!" I heard.

I looked over at Tucker who tried to hide his eye roll. "Peter, hey. How are you man?"

Peter came up and looked me up and down. "Well, I'm doing better now."

I smiled through a sneer and looked away. "Peter, this is my fiance, Padma. I'm sure you've seen her around the office?"

He mumbled yeah and walked away. "That man is a jerk!" I said.

Tucker just laughed. "Yeah. That man is the reason we won't be staying long."

Tucker kept his promise, I guess. We saw Seth, Dante and Nick and figured we could go without seeing everyone else since he sees them everyday anyways.

We left after only about half an hour and slowly made our way back home. "There are so many children around," I said on the back of his motorcycle.

"Yeah, it's a really big holiday here."

He parked in the garage and we went inside. Right when we got in the doorbell rang. Tucker went to the door and I heard a faint "trick-or-treat" as I took my shoes off. The door closed and Tucker came back.

He pulled up two chairs to the foyer and I followed him. There was a big bowl full of colorful wrappers sitting on a little table next to the door. I sat down on one of chairs just in time to have to get back up again.

I opened the door this time and Tucker came up behind me. "Trick-or-treat!" A small group of children yelled at us.

Tucker grabbed a bunch of candy and threw it into all of their bags. The mumbled a thanks and quickly ran off to the next house.

Kids came and went.

"Awe, Tucker, she was so cute!" I gushed as a little girl wearing a princess costume left our house.

"She thought you were, too," he laughed. She complimented my costume.

I couldn't take the smile from my face. "I like Halloween," I muttered a few hours later when we were climbing in to bed.

"I'm glad," he said. He got in next to me and leaned one arm over me. He kissed me softly on the lips. "Now I have an early day again tomorrow if I want to finish everything up in time."

I smiled at him and said "Good night," before we both drifted off to sleep.

"Knock knock!" a woman's voice came before the door opened. "Oh, dear. Um, I'll wait outside."

I groaned and looked over at the clock next to Tucker. Then I shot up.

"Tucker?"

"Yeah?" he asked, getting out of bed and getting dressed.

"Was that..."

"My mom? Yeah."

"Oh," I said and just sat there. "Why did she show up at seven in the morning?"

"Because she does that sort of thing," he said, pulling on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I sat on the bed feeling nervous and anxious. I sat and thought and Tucker then pulled out a pair of jeans and one of his baseball shirts for me.

"Will she like me?" I finally asked in a small voice.

He sat on the bed next to me. "Of course she will, sweetie. Here, I'll wait for you to get dressed so we can go down together."

I nodded and started pulling off my shirt. Tucker sat on the bed. "You just want to watch me change, don't you?" I asked.

He laughed. "Well that was a plus, of course."

I pulled my pajama pants off and crawled on the bed. I kissed him softly on the lips and straddled him. He reached his hands up and I crawled off of him.

"Not nice," he said. "Not nice at all."

"Your mother is here," I said pulling on my clothes and opening the door.

We hadn't hooked up again since that one night. I made my way downstairs and didn't see his mother, so I started making all of us breakfast. I made the sausage and bacon first to grease the pan. I popped some toast in and Tucker and his mother entered the room, looking like they were in serious conversation.

"Padma! I am so excited to meet you!" she yelled, coming over and hugging me.

"Mrs. Dean. Tucker has told me so much about you."

"Oh, please, dear, call me Betty," she said.

"Okay, Betty, well how would you like your eggs?" I asked.

"Oh, sit down, I'm sure Tucker has you cooking all day!"

"Oh, I really do not mind," I said.

"Nonsense!" she said, taking the spatula from me. "Over medium, I assume?" she asked. I nodded.

We shot chatter until she finished cooking and then we sat down to eat.

"I cannot believe Tucker never told me he had a girlfriend," she said, shooting a little glare at him. I giggled a little.

"Moooom," he started.

"And when he called me and said he was engaged!" she started tearing up a bit.

"Mom," Tucker said more timidly.

"I'm just so happy!" she cried out.

I bit my lip. She went on like that, talking about when Tucker was younger and then going back to the phone call until we finished breakfast.

"Now Tucker, clean up, I'm taking your girlfriend shopping."

"Everyone does that," he muttered before a small, "yes ma'am."

She drove a nice little black Lexus with tan leather interior. We went up to a small outlet shop not too far away.

She asked me questions about myself, which I answered honestly, and questions about Tucker and I which I answered as honestly as possible.

She was so much fun. Really, she is more wild than Vera.

We shopped the whole day and didn't buy a single thing. You would never guess I was hanging out with a woman in her fifties.

We met Tucker for dinner, and I was really glad that I'd met his mother.