HAPPY FAMILIES
We were picking over the bones of our relationship when Elaine mentioned Christmas.“What about Christmas?” I replied in a distorted echo of her out-of-the-blue question.
“Well, it is only a week away and your parents are expecting us.”
I took a deep breath. It snagged on the way down. “I’ll call them.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Elaine said, "not at short notice.”
I looked at her blankly. “You still want to go to my parents for Christmas? Even though we’re not together?”
“Well, Tony… yes!” she replied.
“You want me NOT to go?”
She shook her head. “They’re expecting both of us, remember. So we both go.”
“As what?” I asked, angry and confused.
“As a couple, numbskull. You have to stop being so insular. You need to think of everyone else involved. Your sister is over for the first time in what? Six years?”
“Five,” I corrected, before doing the mental arithmetic and realising six was right.
“And you know how well I get on with Bob and Mary. They keep saying how much they’re looking forward to seeing us. So
