Theo

Lily whistles as I feel a bead of sweat fall onto my back. I stand up higher to reach the light as she watches from the sofa.

"I'm enjoying my view very much." She says. I turn around and glare at her in response and she giggles.

She points to the light I am trying to fix. "Maybe you should take your tank top off, sugar." Her face reddens a little. "You know, so it'll be easier for you." She says and bites her lip.

I face her again. "So it'll be easier for me, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

I laugh and shake my head. Wiping the sweat from my forehead with the bottom of the tank top, I exhale a breath. When I glance at Lily again, she is staring at me intently.

"Goodness gracious." She whispers. "How can you make a simple action look so hot, Muffin?"

I get down from the chair and walk into the kitchen. "Lily." I say as I begin looking through the drawer for my drill.

"Hmm?"

"Let's go to the bedroom so I can fuck you nice and slow just the way you like it."

She gasps. "Muffin, your parents are coming over soon!"

I find the drill and walk back to the chair. "Then stop with the compliments and biting your lip, unless you want to get fucked. Understood?"

When I turn to her, her face is red, and she is staring at me with the same intense stare. "Yes." She whispers.

I return to fixing the light as Lily stands up from the sofa and kneels down to Vivo in his cage on the table. The chair wobbles, and I stumble a little when I try to grab something. Lily points her finger at me.

"Muffin, I'm warning you. I will not try to save you if you fall off of that chair."

"What? Why not?"

"I'm going to break my back trying to save you!" She turns back to Vivo and takes him out of the cage. "Of course I'd throw a pillow underneath you and I'd help afterwards. But if I tried to save you from a fall by myself, we'd both be goners, honey."

"I'd save you." I grumble, stepping down from the chair and taking a seat next to her.

She sits on the sofa with Vivo on her lap. I move away a little and she laughs. Lily moves closer to me and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in a hug. "You know I didn't mean it like that, Muffin." She says, rocking side to side.

I don't respond and her hold tightens on me. She kisses my cheek. "I love you." Lily whispers and looks up at me, waiting for a response.

I kiss her forehead. "I love you" I reply, getting out of her hold and standing up.

She smiles widely as I pick up my phone from the counter. I frown at the message I see, and my heart rate speeds up.

Mom: We're ten minutes away, Honey

"Shit." I mumble and run a hand over my face.

"What's wrong?"

"They're on their way." I respond, turning back around to Lily.

Her eyes grow wide. "Oh, goodness gracious!" She stands up quickly and places Vivo back in his cage. Lily and I rush into our bedroom and begin changing.

"Do we have dinner ready?" She asks, panic in her voice as she grabs a light pink flower dress and steps into the bathroom.

"Yeah. Have you seen that black button-down you got me a few weeks ago?"

"In the second drawer."

"Thank you, baby." I mumble and begin searching for the shirt in the drawer. When I find it, I remove the tank top and put the shirt on quickly.

By the time I have finished getting ready, Lily opens the bathroom door. I smile as she walks out. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her towards me. She smoothes out my shirt as I stare at her.

"You're beautiful." I say and kiss her softly.

"Thank you. You're beautiful too." She looks up at me with a frown. "What if they don't like me, Muffin?"

"They're going to love you, Lily."

A few weeks ago, I had finally contacted them after five years. The first phone call was awkward, and we barely said much. But after a while, it started to gradually get better. I told them about Lily and that's when they decided to have dinner.

She smiles and fixes my hair. "I'm proud of you, Theo. I know this is hard for you and all. And I want you to know, no matter what happens, I'll always stand by you, okay? I'm always on your team, sugar. Always."

I move a strand of hair behind her ear and take her head in my hands. I kiss her passionately, making sure she knows how much what she has just said means to me. When she stands up higher, I deepen the kiss. After a few more seconds, I pull away. Lily stares at me with swollen lips, her eyes wide and chest heaving.

There's a knock on the door as I am about to say something. Lily rushes away and I follow behind. I open the door as Lily takes the food out of the fridge.

"Theo!" Mom shouts and hugs me before I respond. I glance at Lily and she signals for me to hug her back. I put my arms around her slowly as she squeezes me tighter.

"Hey." I say when she finally lets me go.

Dad holds my hand out for a handshake and I accept it. Mom pinches my cheeks. "Oh, look at you! You've gotten so handsome!"

"Yeah, you used to be a very ugly child." Dad says, and walks away from the entrance.

Mom smiles. "Yep. We were worried about you for a while because of it."

"Wow." I mumble to myself. I take mom's hand and lead her to the dining room. "How've you been?" I ask as she sits down.

Dad takes a seat next to her and I sit across from them. She smiles. "Nothing much. Your father retired, I'm a therapist now, your aunt passed away sadly, but I think that's about it." She holds her finger up. "Oh, and do you remember your tenth grade principal?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She's got cancer now."

My eyes widen. "You're kidding right?"

She shakes her head. "When I tell you, the woman can't even get out of bed. Devastating truly."

"It wasn't like she didn't have it coming. The woman was eighty years old, for Christ's sake."

Mom hits his arm. "Oh, don't be such a Bitter Bob, honey."

He frowns. "My name is John th-"

Mom leans forward and smiles. "So, tell me about this girl, Theo. Lily, right?"

I smile. "Yeah, Lily's my girl. I love her a lot, mom. Hoping to marry her one d-"

She reaches forward and pinches my cheeks again. I swat her hand away. "Look at that smile! I've never seen your eyes light up like this! You really are in love, aren't you?"

"The boys completely whipped, Evelyn. Since when does our son like flowers? Hamsters? He hates them. The boy is wrapped around her finger like a goddamn chameleon."

"I've always liked hamsters." I lie defensively.

"Bullshit. Your mom bought you one when you were ten and you tried to kill it."

My jaw tightens and I run a hand through my hair. "I'm not wrapped about her fuckin' finger, all right. Leave me alone."

"Pussy. Can't even fuckin' admit it. You've always been a wimp." He replies and Mom hits his arm again.

I lean back in my seat, feeling like I am sixteen again, and back at the dinner table. "You can't even remember what you did yesterday."

"Theo!"

"What? He can dish it out but can't take it back?"

Dad leans forward. "Cassidy wouldn't be too pr-"

"Keep her name out of your fuckin' mouth."

"She wouldn't be too proud of how her little brother treats is treating his d-"

I stand up. "Don't sit here and tell me what she would be proud of. You don't know her. You say another word about her and I'll break your fucking jaw and won't think twice about it."

His jaw tightens as rage pulses through my veins. "Sit your ass down, Theo." He warns.

"Or what?" I place my hands on the table and lean forward, a small smirk appears on my face. "Are you gonna disown me too?"

I laugh lowly and lean closer as he gulps. "Don't worry, pops, I never felt wanted in the first place." I say.

"Muffin, can you come help me please!" Lily shouts from the kitchen. The anger vanishes at the sound of her voice and I smile. 

I stand up and begin walking to the kitchen. When I walk in Lily is using the sink. Her back turned to me. I wrap my arms around her waist and rest my head on the crook of her neck. After I kiss her neck and I feel her smile as I hug her from behind.

"Can you ask your parents what they would like to drink for me, sugar?"

"Mom wants water. Dad can get shit in a cup."

My hand runs over her ass as she frowns. "What's wrong? What did he do?"

I press a kiss behind her ear and back up. I grab the wine for them and Dr. Pepper for us. "Nothing."

Lily scoffs and when I turn around, she huffs her chest at me and stands on her tippy toes. "Is there a problem, young fella?" She asks, speaking in a deep voice. She does this so much that if she goes a week without doing it, I think something is wrong.

"No."

"I think it is." She steps closer. "You walked in this kitchen and didn't give not one kiss to my lips. Are you trying to kill me?" She asks, making her voice even deeper.

I laugh. "You were busy."

She takes my hand and places it over her heart. "This is what a broken heart feels like." She says. "And you did t-"

I pull her forward and stop her talking with a kiss. I press her against me as I kiss her, running my hands over her ass as I do so. I bite her lip gently and she whimpers softly, making me return to kissing her. After a moment, I pull away.

I lean forward as she breathes rapidly. "What does your heart feel now?"

Lily blushes as she stares at me. "I won't dare say that aloud. Let's just say it's definitely not broken." She whispers, her voice back to normal.

I smile as she walks out of the kitchen. When we reach the table, mom and dad stop talking. I set the drinks down as Lily sets the lasagna in the middle of the table. I take a seat where I had sat before and Lily sits next to me. We say our grace and as we eat Lily tells us about Valentina's birthday tomorrow. They ask who Valentina is and Lily tells them all about her friends.

Once we are finished eating, mom and Lily go into the living room to talk, leaving us in the dining room. I sit back in my chair and tap my fingers against the table as we glare at each other.

"Fuck you." I say for absolutely no reason.

"You're a disappointment, kid." He replies and shakes his head.

A few years ago, that probably would have affected me. But right now I couldn't care less.

I smile. "When you die, I'll cremate you then flush it in the toilet. Consider it a late birthday gift, pops."

We go back and forth like this until they return. Mom hugs me tightly and cries on my shoulder until I finally take her off of me. Dad and I flip each other off and, after promising to call more, they leave. The first thing Lily and I do is flop on the bed.

When I am about to doze off, Like reminds me to change and after both of us have changed into our sleeping clothes, we get into bed. Shortly after, Lily falls asleep on my chest and it isn't long before I am out as well.

In the morning, Lily decides for us to have a picnic at the park. While she eats, I reunite with the duck I met on our second date. I only wanted one thing from it. Revenge.

I take a piece of bread we brought and act as if I'm going to toss it. The duck comes closer and every time it thinks I'm going to give the bread to it, I take a bite instead. I laugh as the duck suffers, my revenge plan going successfully. But by the time Lily comes to join me, I am running from the duck just as I did before. 

Once the duck finally stops chasing me, we leave the park and I take Lily to one of her favorite clothing's stores. She shops for hours, trying on clothes for me as I sit in a chair waiting for her to finish. I make some phone calls as she does so. After around two hours, we go home. Lily and I watch a movie until her friends come by and pick her up to celebrate Valentina's birthday.

After about three hours of her being gone, Dante, Micheal and his brother Seth come over against my will. Now they sit in my home office with me, tossing a football as I try to get some work done.

"I need a lady." Seth says and drops the ball dramatically.

"Yes, the fuck you do. I'm tired of babysitting your ass." Micheal replies, taking a sip of his beer.

"I need a fuckin' burrito." Dante grumbles, flopping on the small sofa. He faces Micheal. "I haven't had one in a while because, unlike some people, I keep my promises."

"You're still mad about that, man? It was almost three years ago! Let. It. Go."

Dante sits up. "I'm not going to goddamn let it go, motherfucker! You ate a burrito without me!"

"Y'all suck." Seth groans.

I look up from my desk. "What happened this time?"

"What's with all of you guys being whipped? What happened to your balls, man?"

"I'm not whipped." Michael and I reply in sync.

Dante shrugs. "Hell yeah I'm whipped."

"Dante, you with getting married after swearing you wouldn't? Theo, you have matching rings with Lily and I've seen you around her, you fucking pussy. And Mike, you just look like you're whipped."

Mike throws the football at Seth's head. "Kiss my ass."

"Why do people keep saying that shit to me? I'm not fucking whipped, all right? Stop it." I respond as my personal phone rings.

I glance at the contact name and smile. When I answer it, I hear Diana shouting in the background. "Hi, Muffin!" Lily says

"Hey, Lily."

"I just wanted to let you know I'm on my way home, okay?"

My smile grows wider. "All right, I'll order Chinese for you."

"You are such a peach! I'll see you in a few minutes!"

"Okay, I love you. I'll see you when you get home, baby." I reply and end the call.

I look up from my phone and my smile drops at the amused expression they all have. I stand up, shove my hands in my pants pocket and begin walking to the door as I stare at the floor.

"Get out."