A Summer to Remember

me, and went into the kitchen. I pulled some biscuits out of the fridge and pre-heated the oven. I knew biscuits and gravy were his favorite breakfast, so I had picked up the ingredients when I went grocery shopping last week. I put the biscuits in the oven, pulled a frying pan out of the cabinet, and started cooking the sausage. It didn’t take long before the smell of sausage lured Adrian out of the bedroom.
    “Is that biscuits and gravy you’re making?” He yawned and stretched on his way over.
    “How did you know?” I grinned.
    “I would recognize that smell anywhere. And I may or may not have noticed we just so happened to have all the ingredients to make it.” He kissed me softly on the forehead.
    “I guess someone might notice that.” I laughed as I dumped the sausage bits into the gravy. “Breakfast is served!” We dished up and took our plates to the couch.
    “So what do you think about going to dinner with my parents tonight?” He stuffed a fork full of food into his mouth.
    “Tonight?” I almost choked on my food.
    “Yes, tonight.” He smirked at my reaction.
    “A little short notice, don’t you think?” I wiped the gravy from the corners of my mouth.
    “Well, I was going to tell you Friday night, but, yeah.” He paused to take another bite. “I already made plans with them, but I can cancel if you want me to.”
    “No, that’s fine.” I could feel my stomach turning with nervousness. I suddenly didn’t feel so hungry.
    “Don’t look so stressed out. They’ll love you.” He placed his hand on my knee. “I promise.”

    When dinnertime rolled around I wore a black knee-length dress with a scoop neck and quarter-length sleeves. It was the most conservative thing I had. I put my hair up in a neat bun on top of my head and slipped on a pair of heels just before we went out the door.
    We walked down the stairs of the apartment and through the small backyard. There wasn’t anything special about it. It had a chain-link fence and there weren’t any trees or bushes, just some small shrubs by the deck. We walked up the two steps on the deck and Adrian slid open the sliding glass door and gestured for me to go in before him. I walked into the dining room. The space was tight, so I took a few more steps in so Adrian could come in and close the door.
    I glanced around the room. We were standing in a small dining area. To the right was the kitchen, which had the same wood floor as the one we were standing on, and in front of us was the living room. There was a staircase that led to the second floor.
    “Mom! Dad! You guys ready?” Adrian yelled through the house.
    “We’ll be down in a second!” a lady’s voice responded from upstairs.
    “Let me show you around.” We walked around the downstairs of the house while we waited for his parents. The hallway was lined with all sorts of family pictures and it led to a bathroom and two bedrooms. He pointed out his brothers and sisters to me and with each photo he had a story to tell about when they were kids.
    “We’re ready,” a lady’s voice said from behind us.
    “Hey Mom, Dad, this is Ava.” I plastered on my best smile and I tried to hide the fact that I was extremely nervous. “This is my mom, Cheryl.” He gestured to the lady standing in front of me. I reached out and shook her hand. She was shorter than me with natural blonde shoulder-length hair and blue eyes. You’d never be able to tell she had five kids with her petite frame. She wore blue jeans and a nice purple top. “And this is my dad, Craig.”
    “Nice to meet you guys.” Craig was tall and had dark tanned skin. You could tell he’d spent a lot of years working out in the sun. He had a thick gray mustache and matching gray hair that stuck out from under his baseball cap. He wore blue jeans and a nice green and black button down collared shirt.
    “So you must be the owner of the mystery vehicle in the driveway,” Craig joked. I could feel my checks becoming warm.
    “Yes, that would be me.”
    “We’ve heard a lot about you.” Cheryl smiled at Adrian.
    “Good things, I hope.” I looked at Adrian.
    “Of course.” He smiled at me. “You guys ready to go?”
    “Yep. I just have to grab my purse,” his mom answered.
    It didn’t take long before we were at the restaurant. When we got inside, we sat at a tall table in the bar. I felt a little overdressed, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
    “So your parents don’t mind that you two are