Meeting Mrs Garret Read online

  Meeting Mrs. Garret

  Raquel De Leon

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  © 2018 Raquel De Leon. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  The road was sparsely populated in the early evening, the sun dipping in the sky and painting the passing evergreens with the barest hints of golden orange.

  In the front passenger seat of the sedan, Natalie was scowling down at her hands. There was dark grease stubbornly tucked under her nails, a distinct contrast from the pleasant scenery. Her coworker-slash-roommate Steven had used the last of the nitrile gloves and failed to let her know. She hadn’t had enough time to go pick up some more before her shift at the garage, especially since she’d been starting early.

  She hated the thought of meeting Brittney’s parents with them looking so unusually dirty. With a sigh, she shifted her weight and spared a glance to the driver’s seat. Brittney was resolutely staring at the road, hands firmly set at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.

  “Brittney, it’s gonna be fine.” Natalie injected her voice with a confidence she didn’t really feel, earning the barest smile from Brittney.

  Brittney nibbled her lower lip, pulling her attention from the road to send Natalie a nervous look. Her back straightened imperceptibly and she cleared her throat. “About that,” she hesitated and blew out a breath. “I know the whole point of you coming was for moral support… but I don’t think I can do it.”

  Natalie leaned back in her seat and schooled her expression; Brittney would be sensitive to any type of negative reaction. Natalie was determined not to give her one. Natalie’s own coming out hadn’t been much of a deal—but Brittney’s situation was different.

  Unlike Natalie, Brittney had two loving parents. Natalie had never had to worry about upsetting anyone with any sort of coming out, and she didn’t bother with anyone that had problems with the way she lived her life.

  Obviously, that wouldn’t be an option for Brittney.

  Natalie ran her thumb over her fingertips as she considered her words, eyeing Brittney’s white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel with sympathy. “Brittney, coming out is a personal choice,” she started carefully, “and you should absolutely do it in your own time.”

  The relief on Brittney’s face was instantaneous, the lines that had wrinkled her forehead and just around her mouth smoothing out. Her lips twitched and then she was smiling. “Thanks, Nat.” She chanced another affectionate look at Natalie. “You’re an amazing friend.”

  There was still the slightest tension in Brittney’s shoulders. Natalie squinted and resolved to change that. “I think you mean the hottest, awesomest, absolute bestest friend, ever.” She remained facing forward, though she was aware the moment Brittney’s blue eyes dramatically rolled.

  “And humblest,” Brittney muttered as she struggled not to smile.

  “Oh, but of course,” Natalie agreed. She rolled her lips together and glanced out the window. The scenery was zooming past at what seemed an alarming rate—but Natalie knew without looking that Brittney was going exactly the speed limit.

  Natalie reached out to gently squeeze Brittney’s shoulder. Brittney jerked at the contact, her loose blonde hair swishing almost violently away. Natalie shook her head. “Relax. It’ll be fine, princess.”

  Brittney made a strangled noise in her throat. “Please don’t call me that around my parents. You know I just barely got my dad to stop with that.”

  It took every ounce of Natalie’s willpower to quell a laugh. She breathed carefully and then relaxed into her seat, her head lolling to the side so she could fully enjoy Brittney’s reaction. “Ya know, hearing that does not want to make me stop at all. Pretty much the opposite, in fact.”

  Brittney groaned. “Oh my god, why am I taking you to meet my parents again? I can already picture you and my dad ganging up on me.”

  “I’m pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that you talk about me way too much and your dad got curious.” She raised a jaunty eyebrow and swiped her nose with a thumb, opting not to bring up the coming out issue. “It’s understandable, I’m really awesome. You couldn’t help yourself.”

  “You’re really something, you know that?” Brittney sounded both exasperated and amused.

  “I do know that.” Natalie leaned over to flutter her eyelashes. “And so do you, since you have the privilege of calling me your friend.”

  Brittney sobered, the small smile dropping from her face. “About that. I’m not saying how or when you should come out,” she swallowed, “but if you wanted to act gay around my parents that would be okay.” Her hands clutched nervously at the steering wheel.

  Natalie felt her mirth evaporate. “Act gay? Do you hear yourself?”

  The interior of the Audi suddenly seemed confining, its luxury off-putting.

  Natalie hated when she consciously became aware of her friend’s different socio-economic status; unlike nearly all of Natalie’s other friends, Brittney was certainly not financially-strained. Besides school, there was only one real thing they had in common.

  “I, no, I didn’t… you know what I mean, Nat!” Brittney’s cheeks flushed and her eyes darted back and forth from the road to her passenger.

  The unsettled feeling lingered in Natalie’s gut. “No, I don’t, Brittney. What do you want me to do? Hit on your mom? Check out chicks with your dad? Wave around a rainbow flag?”

  “I didn’t mean anything,” Brittney’s head shook, “I mean,” she cut herself off with an alarming choking sound.

  Natalie blinked when Brittney’s already pale face blanched more. She leaned toward the driver’s seat. “Hey, whoa. Breathe.”

  Brittney nodded, her cheeks puffing out as she attempted to do just that. Natalie recognized that she’d probably overreacted. Brittney wasn’t a mean person—and was still new to navigating what it meant not to be heterosexual.

  Even if they didn’t have a lot in common, they’d grown close over the course of the semester. Natalie couldn’t explain her urge to look out for the younger girl, but she had never fought it, either.

  “I get that you’re scared. I get that maybe you want me to help you feel out your parents’ feelings on the gay thing. The best thing is to just act natural, okay? There are ways we can kind of test them with no pressure.” Natalie tugged her seatbelt.

  Brittney nodded. Her breathing slowly eased back to something like normal. “Sorry.”

  “Me too. I know how keyed up you’ve been about this. I overreacted.”

  “Maybe.” Brittney pursed her lips into a tense smile.

  The car wa
s silent for several miles.

  “So, how close are we to your town now?” Natalie asked.

  Her calm tone had an immediate effect on Brittney, who looked far more relaxed than before. “Close. They live just far enough that commuting to school isn’t really an ideal option. I hope you’re not bored there. Sage Falls isn’t really that big.”

  “I might be a city girl, but I think I’ll be fine in your podunk town. How many people did you say live there? Fifteen?” Natalie blinked innocently.

  Brittney pulled a hand from the steering wheel to lightly backhand her in the chest. “More like fifteen hundred. It’s not that small.”

  “That’s pretty small.” When Brittney glared at her, she raised her hands defensively. “Hey, I’m just saying. King Tech has more people living on campus than you have people living in your entire town.”

  Brittney childishly stuck her tongue out, only to frown after a few moments. “You might have a point,” she conceded.

  “Of course I do,” Natalie offered benevolently. She returned to watching the trees fly by and undoubtedly missed Brittney rolling her eyes again.

  She smirked when the radio was turned on shortly after, but just hummed along with the song and let her mind wander.

  It wasn’t until they’d driven past the ‘Welcome to Sage Falls’ sign that Natalie realized that she knew next to nothing about Brittney’s mom. Most of Brittney’s conversations about home revolved around her father, and Natalie hadn’t really thought about it since he seemed like a pretty cool guy.

  She was straining to remember what Brittney might have said about her mother, not paying attention to their surroundings. There wasn’t much… maybe Brittney had mentioned her working at the town clinic?

  “Hey, Brittney—”

  “We’re here!” Brittney declared brightly as she shifted gears and pulled the brake into place. The car was swiftly turned off, and Natalie blinked as Brittney hurriedly removed her keys from the ignition and exited the car.

  Natalie’s surprise eased when she realized Brittney had run straight into the arms of a well-built older man—Mr. Garret, she’d bet. She sighed and shook her head.

  “She’s definitely a Daddy’s girl,” she muttered as she wiped her clammy hands on her jeans and gathered her courage.

  The colonial style house had two stories with light grey slats, the front face displaying several sets of windows in charcoal frames. There was a covered wrap-around porch, the roof of which was supported with pristine white pillars. White wicker furniture took up a portion of the porch, a few lounge chairs and some small end tables in between.

  They’d apparently pulled up a long paved driveway to a matching detached double garage, and she knew she couldn’t stay in the car forever—even if the house made her more intimidated than she’d ever felt before.

  The passenger side door opened too easily for Natalie’s liking. She only had the barest of moments to nervously tug at her red jacket before Brittney turned and gestured for her to come forward.

  “Here we go,” she muttered under her breath. She forced a smile onto her face and walked toward Brittney. The porch steps were firm under her feet.

  “Dad, this is Natalie. You know, basically my new best friend,” Brittney uttered with only a hint of nerves, her hand still clasped on her father’s broad shoulder.

  Natalie stepped forward, polite smile in place as she hesitantly extended her hand. The sun was almost completely set, maybe Mr. Garret wouldn’t notice her nails. She swallowed; Brittney’s dad was huge, nearly a foot taller than her and very thickly muscled. She knew that he was an engineer for a company that designed for and inspected oil rigs, but he actually looked like he worked on an oil rig.

  She wasn't sure how she’d expected him to dress, but the worn, comfortable jeans and simple blue cotton v-neck hadn’t been it. His light brown hair was streaked with silver at his forehead and temples, his rugged face a few shades darker than Brittney’s. He spent more time in the sun than Brittney, then.

  “Mr. Garret, hi. I’m Natalie Navarro,” she stated with as much confidence as she could muster. His large callused hand engulfed hers.

  The deep lines around his blue eyes crinkled as he smiled. His handshake was firm but not painful. “I’m Adam Garret, but you can just call me Adam. I already feel old enough without you throwing around Mr. Garrets.”

  Natalie’s polite smile widened into a grin. She tucked her hands into her jacket pockets once the handshake ended. “Adam,” she tried out, carefully observing his reaction. He nodded in encouragement. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise, Natalie. I’m happy to finally meet the friend that has made Brittney’s first semester at KTU so painless. She’s told me a lot about you.” He glanced back at the still open front door. “Her mom is somewhere around here.”

  Brittney stepped through the open door first, Natalie following after and waiting patiently as Adam closed it behind them.

  The interior was well lit, the light stained woods of the walls and floor giving the house a comfortable, cheerful feel. It was also tastefully decorated, and she was relieved not to see any hint of extravagance.

  She blinked and hurriedly removed her coat when she saw Brittney doing the same, allowing her friend to hang it in the hall closet. Brittney offered her a smile and a shrug in response, lightly elbowing her in one smooth motion.

  “Maddie!” Adam called out as he looked down the main hallway and poked his head into a side room.

  “I’m over here, Adam. Just give me a minute, I’m almost done!” came the response from further down the hall.

  Natalie nearly did a double take at the voice. Surely it was Brittney’s mom, but it was rich and husky and made Natalie think of what a jazz singer’s speaking voice must be like.

  Adam frowned and turned to look at his daughter, his eyebrows raised. “Let’s go bug her or she’ll forget and be in there another fifteen minutes.” Brittney nodded and sighed. Adam glanced at Natalie and winked. “You’ll have to excuse Maddie, she’s a workaholic.”

  Brittney coughed forcefully into her fist, prompting him to sheepishly shrug. “Alright, so we’re both workaholics.” He focused on Natalie again. “Don’t I get points for meeting you on the porch?”

  “Of course Mr. G—Adam,” Natalie offered solemnly, the barest hint of warmth in her cheeks from the slip.

  When Brittney promptly smacked her on the shoulder, she frowned.

  Unfazed, Brittney only rolled her eyes. “Don’t encourage him.”

  Natalie stared at Brittney for a moment, a slow smirk growing on her face. “Whatever you say, princess.”

  “Princess!” Adam crowed as he turned and led the way down the hall. Brittney shook her head and smiled before turning to follow him. Natalie was unsure if she should also follow. After glancing uncomfortably around the entryway, she decided it would be more awkward to be left alone.

  The trip wasn’t very long as Adam passed a few closed doors and went on through one of the few open ones. She lost sight of him for a moment but smiled when she caught up. They ended up in a well-appointed, if understated, study. He was glaring off in one direction with his muscled arms crossed over his chest.

  Her eyes followed his and landed on who could only be Mrs. Garret. The older woman’s long wavy chestnut hair was down around her shoulders, an attractive set of rectangle black-rimmed glasses perched on her delicate nose.

  Mrs. Garret was frowning down at a notepad as she typed, glancing from it to the screen of her laptop and back again.

  Natalie licked her dry lips and mentally nodded in appreciation. It was clear that Brittney was gifted with her looks through the grace of good genes. She wondered if Brittney’s mom dyed her hair—with only fine, distinguished lines around her mouth and eyes, Mrs. Garret could have been in her early 30s. Even knowing Brittney was eighteen, Natalie was having a hard time believing differently.

  Adam cleared his throat and Natalie watched as Mrs. Garret’s—warm, brown—
eyes blinked up at him in surprise.

  Mrs. Garret glanced back down at her laptop screen and promptly turned to Brittney with an apologetic smile. “Oh, Brittney, sweetie I’m so sorry. I lost track of time.”

  Brittney’s mom scooted her chair back to stand, and Natalie was glad that no one was paying attention to her. Adam’s casual mode of dress hadn’t her prepared her for Mrs. Garret in a sapphire dress that clung to every dip and curve of her body.

  Natalie pulled her eyes away to focus on Brittney, feeling warm and uncomfortable. She was glad her hands were still in her jean pockets, and she took the opportunity to sharply pinch her thigh.

  Not cool, Navarro! Clearly, her choice not to date had made her overly sensitive to attractive women that… just happened to be her exact aesthetic type. Though, Natalie acknowledged as she bit the inside of her cheek, Mrs. Garret’s dress would have probably made her look twice even if she’d been in a relationship.

  Brittney scrunched her nose at Mrs. Garret. “I guess I can forgive you this time, Mom,” she said before opening her arms to accept a hug. She smiled over her mom’s shoulder.

  Natalie couldn’t help but smile, too. It was clear that Brittney was well-loved. Natalie had only just met the older couple, but her gut told her they were good people.

  The hug ended after a short while, and Brittney tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear as she stepped back. “Mom, this is my friend.”

  Her dark eyes focused on Natalie, and Natalie could see genuine delight light up Mrs. Garret’s face. “Hello, Brittney’s friend. I’m Madeline Garret. Or as most of her friends know me, Brittney’s Mom.”

  The words made Natalie laugh. She enthusiastically stepped forward to initiate a handshake. “Hello, Brittney’s Mom. I’m Natalie Navarro. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Mrs. Garret’s smile widened as she accepted the handshake and then stepped closer to squeeze Natalie into a quick half-hug. “I’ve heard so much about you, honey. I already feel like you’re family.” Natalie absently nodded, trying her best not to notice how soft and warm Mrs. Garret was. What kind of perfume was that? A subtle rose scent with hints of—her mind flashed to the day Victoria had gotten accepted to KTU and Reeve had brought home two bottles of it—champagne.