Cassandra

When they finally pulled up to Zoe's parents' house, there was only one echoing thought in Cass' head. She was not ready.

Zoe turned the car off, and unbuckled her seatbelt, before checking the cardboard box of things in her back seat, then turned to face Cass. "Ready?"

Cass moved her hand to her own seatbelt to unbuckle it, and ignored the repeating track of 'nope, nope, nope' in her head. "Yep."

Zoe nodded. "I'll grab the food."

"Okay." Cass said as they both got out. She slid around the car to the drivers' side, which was along the curb, to wait while Zoe got the food from the back. With a nod, they walked up the fairly short concrete walk to the door.

The house was a nice simple suburb-y home. It was an older but well maintained split level house that looked welcoming, unlike her own parent's two story, generic looking house. The difference between them was good for her mental strength, apparently, because while she hadn't meant to compare them, she did so without thinking.

Zoe's parents had already opened the main door, and stood waiting inside the storm door. Once again, Cass' mind immediately compared them against her own family, unbidden.

Cassandra's mother had looked friendly and jolly, with a little extra weight on her, always cooking for the neighborhood. Even years later, Cass could see her mother's friendly smile in her head, despite the last expression she actually remembered being one of disgust and revulsion.

In direct contrast, Zoe's mother looked like what Cass would have imagined for the textbook image of 'severe'. She had darker hair like Zoe's, cut cleanly in a very professional look. She could see clear frown lines in the woman's face, too. However, the expression she wore now was warm and welcoming, with a smile that creased just as many smile lines as she had frown lines.

Next to her, Zoe's father stood with a similarly warm expression. The man had a similar vibe to her own father; he looked hard-working and sturdy, with a build that would have matched a construction worker, or at least a man that did that sort of hard work at home. The image of him and her father could have overlapped rather easily, if not for the genuine hateful expression that her father was locked into in her memories.

As they approached, they swung the storm door open and greeted their daughter happily with hugs that Zoe had to carefully maneuver around to avoid dropping or damaging the box of foodstuffs.

"Hey Mom. Dad." Zoe said, as each took their turn. Her father, as soon as he let go of the hug, took the box of food from her to look it over quickly and deposit it somewhere, but he waited for Zoe to continue. "This is my girlfriend, Cassandra." She motioned with both arms, as if showing off a magic trick, and stepped further inside to allow Cass to move further in behind her.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you both. I'm Cassandra Bailey." She spoke a little more stiffly than she would like, and very nearly bowed without thinking. She couldn't even figure out why she did it, other than just nerves. Thankfully, Zoe's father awkwardly sticking out a hand for a handshake while holding the box of food saved her from making the bow.

"It's nice to meet you, Cassandra. You can call me John. Do you prefer Cassandra or something else?"

"I usually just go by Cass," She said automatically, "but either is fine."

"Well, it's good to meet you, Cass. Let me go put this down, yeah?" He said, hoisting the box up briefly to show it off. With another nod and a smile, he spun around and walked toward what Cass had assumed was the kitchen.

"It's lovely to meet you, Cass." Zoe's mother said, taking her father's place. "You can call me Joy, if you'd like. Or Joyce."

Cass had to hold back a sudden urge to laugh. It wasn't so much that something funny had actually happened, but the juxtaposition of Cass' worries, the image of her own angry mother in her head, the image of the happy but severe looking woman in front of her, and the name Joy altogether threw her for a mental loop. Zoe's mother tilted her head confused when Cass failed to hold back and let out a small snort.

"Sorry." She said, fighting to remain normal. For the most part she succeeded, although Zoe was watching her just as curiously as her mother was. "Zoe never told me your names, and 'Joy' just caught me a little off guard. It's a nice name, though."

Zoe's mother nodded at that, her expression complicated. "It's…not that first time I've heard that, actually. For better or worse, I'm quite aware of how strict I look."

"I don't think I ever mentioned it - my mom is a principal for a nearby elementary school." Zoe said. She stepped a little closer to Cass and leaned in to stage whisper, "Dealing with kids all day long for so many years is why she has the frown lines. The laugh lines are our fault."

"Hey." Her mother said, her voice unmistakably that of a teacher or, Cass supposed, a principal. Zoe shot up ramrod straight, immediately on reflex, but her mother just chuckled afterward. "Good to see you still know what's good for you."

"Sorry, mom." Zoe said, her tone the expected faux-apology of a scolded child.

"Anyway, like I said, it's nice to meet you. Let's stop standing around the door and go sit down."

"When are Amy and Max coming? And for that matter, where's River at?" Zoe asked as they followed to the living room. Cass took the interior of the house in, and was pleasantly surprised to see it well decorated and lived-in. They may have cleaned up for company, but there were still blankets and things strewn about. The way things weren't perfect made Cass immediately feel more comfortable.

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"Amy said she'd come just before dinner." Joy said, taking a seat in one of the two arm chairs, while motioning for Cass and Zoe to sit on the loveseat. "I sent River out for a few errands. I'm hoping he won't be back for a while."

"I see…" Zoe muttered.

"So, Cassandra, tell us about yourself! Zoe hasn't told us much about you at all, so we were hoping you'd be able to do that instead." as Joy spoke, John returned to the room with a plate of crackers and cheese, placed it on the coffee table in the middle of everyone, and took up what Cass assumed was his spot in the second arm chair.

Zoe shot Cass an apologetic look, but Cass wasn't really bothered by any of this yet. Zoe had warned her extensively to expect something like this, and asking your daughter's significant other to talk about themself was pretty standard.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a lot to tell." Cass began. "I work with Zoe, and that's how we met around…three years ago, now? Wow." She said turning to Zoe, who nodded. "I'm originally from North Dakota. Moved to New York for college and never went back." Then she tacked on, "Oh, and obviously, I'm gay and dating your daughter."

Cass really hoped that the single line about never going back home would be enough to tip them off to avoid the subject. Zoe had said her parents were welcoming and understanding, but she wasn't sure exactly how far that went. Even people who were 'accepting' sometimes only did it because they felt forced, and Cass had learned that the hard way.

John shook his head. "Now, don't say it like that. Just because you're dating Zoe doesn't mean you're obviously gay, right?"

Thankfully for Cass, that response more or less set the tone for the interrogation that followed. She had only been questioned like this a few times in her life, and half of them were much less personal job interviews. A few times were friends in college. But the rest were by her parents, digging into her choices in high school when she was figuring things out. They had always dug into things in a way that made Cass monumentally uncomfortable, and made her feel like she had to hide everything about herself away until she was prepared to leave.

This was nothing like that. Zoe's parents were asking probing questions, but all clearly with the intent of getting to know her better - or at all. After being on the end of rounds of digging and leading questions, Cass intimately knew the difference. And Zoe's parents asked her obvious questions without any malice.

"Where do you live now?" "How's your apartment?" "Do you like the Bronx?" "Do you like NYC?" "Do you have any neat hobbies?" "What did you go to school for?" "Do you plan on keeping your Telecom job long-term?"

Compared to the questions Cass had been mentally preparing for, these were nothing. The digging into her job and future plans were the most uncomfortable it got, but she felt they were valid questions for someone dating their daughter as an adult.

Once the discussion got underway, it was Zoe's response that made Cass' mood notably improve. As her parents probed around, Zoe was clearly getting more and more embarrassed and bothered by how many direct questions they were asking. But if these were the questions that were going to make Zoe upset, Cass felt more and more comfortable.

They really weren't going to ask anything intrusive, rude, or too far.

Of course, that was when Joy threw out a question that was expected, but still poked right at that line.

"So, do you plan on getting married?"

"Mom!" Zoe panicked immediately, while Joy just sat serenely with a placid smile on her face.

Cass laughed. And it wasn't just a chuckle - it was a full-on laugh that seemed to catch everyone, including Zoe, off guard. It took Cass a moment to reign herself in, while she muttered apologies through the short bouts of laughter.

By the end of it, Zoe was looking at Cass like she had broken, and even her parents looked concerned.

"I'm sorry." Cass said, trying to regulate her breath. "I just…" She let out a long breath. "Zoe warned me that I would be getting grilled with questions and all that. But I never expected it to be so…normal." As she wiped at the corners of her eyes to wipe away the small tears from laughing, Zoe and her parents both made complicated expressions.

Cass let a bit of an awkward smile show on her face. "Sorry to say, I've only ever been asked awkward questions about my relationships, and they've never been…well, they've never had any staying power before." She turned to Joy and said, "To answer your question, though, I don't have a timeline but yes, I imagine marriage is the goal here," then she turned to Zoe, who had started to turn red, "assuming, of course, that Zoe will have me."

"Wow."

The sudden new voice made everyone in the room turn toward the hallway that had led them all into the living room where they had been talking for the last two hours. Another woman, who looked remarkably like Zoe without her normal darker color scheme, stood in the doorway with a man straggling in behind her. Cass assumed immediately it must be Amy, Zoe's older sister, and her husband Max.

"That's one hell of a thing to walk in on," she continued. "Hi, Mom. Dad. Sorry we're early, but Max got out of work early so we figured we'd just come over. We knocked, but no one heard it, so I just let us in with the extra key."

Amidst the stunned silence, Amy turned straight to Cass and grinned widely. "You must be Cassandra." She said, and strode right into the living room toward her. "I'm Zoe's older sister, Amy. It's a genuine pleasure to meet you, finally."

Cass stood and accepted Amy's hug, while Max brought a couple bags into the kitchen. Then something clicked.

"Finally?" Cass asked.

"Amy." Zoe said, her voice clearly a warning.

"Finally." Amy confirmed. "Zoe has talked about you for years. Not always in a girl-on-girl-crush sort of way, to be fair, but still. I actually know quite a bit about you, I think."

"Amy!" Zoe shouted.

"Zoe!" Joy said, sounding affronted. "You never talked to us about her before recently, did you?"

"I did, Mom. She mentioned it before, she's the gamer friend I've talked about, and Amy, you better shut that damn mouth before I shut it for you." Zoe growled.

"Oh, is that right?" Joy muttered, sounding suddenly conspiratorial, as if she was trying to recall details from those conversations.

Meanwhile, Amy just smirked at her sister, then slung an arm around Cass' shoulders. Which she struggled to do easily, because she was around Zoe's height. "You know, Cassandra, you probably have me to thank for Christmas. Just saying."

"So I've heard." Cass said, vaguely remembering Zoe having mentioned in passing that her sister had been the one that told her she was being a little blind to Cass.

"Oh, really?" Amy said, eyeing Zoe carefully. "She told you that already, did she?" Amy turned straight to her mother. "Mom, Zoe really likes this one, so be nice." Then she muttered for Cass' benefit, "Don't worry, she's not had a lot of girlfriends before. Only two I can think of, and she wasn't so…honest with them."

"Amy!" Zoe yelled, and leapt toward her sister, making grabby-twisty hands. Amy deftly bounced away out of reach, and the whole thing looked strangely practiced to Cass.

She couldn't help but think that if this was what Zoe's family was going to be like, she'd be fine here.

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