When Love’s In Fashion

*****

The Marcels arrived first, Filip and Isobel. Filip was dressed in a black Armani suit with a blue shirt and gray tie. Isobel had on a blush pink Chanel suit with pearls draped around her neck and actual white gloves on her fingers. Elmira’s heart sank as she shook her hand.

The housekeeper was serving drinks when the Olivettes arrived. Elmira had given them directions to Sven’s place. Her mother was surprisingly reticent about getting every single detail on their would be host. Which meant she intended to do her interrogating in person. The evening had barely begun and Elmira already needed a stiff drink.

Her mother was dressed in purple and black, with her dad acting as a matching accessory.

“Sven? I’d like you to meet my mom and dad, Dr. and Mr. Olivette,” she said to him as he stood next to her at the front door. He extended his hand first to her dad then her mom to be shaken, murmuring his ‘pleased to meet yous’ as he did it.

“My parents are in the living room, come meet them.” He said turning to walk away. Elmira’s dad, Luke, followed right away but Mama Olivette just stood first, looking at Elmira.

“I was going to tell you but…” she said and then shrugged. “Come on. We’ll talk later.”

If her mother wanted to scold her, she could wait until after dinner.

*****

“Dad? Mom? I’d like to introduce Elmira’s parents, Luke and Adara Olivette.” Sven said gesturing behind him where Elmira was leading her parents in.

Filip’s eyes widened in shock, “Nooo!” he said and Elmira froze. She was expecting outright protest from her mother but even she wouldn’t be so overt in her disapproval. Hearing Sven’s father protest was a surprise.

“Dad? What’s the problem.”

Filip stepped forward and took Adara’s hand in his. He smiled looking into her eyes, and then he glanced at Elmira.

“You might not remember me…heaven knows you were unconscious for most of our first meeting. And Elmira you said? Surely this cannot be the little tyke in the stroller?”

“What are you talking about Dad,” Sven said looking worried as he moved closer. Elmira was still frozen to the spot, as it seemed, so was her mom.

“Adara is not a name one forgets.” Filip said extending his hand slowly to trace the scar above her right eye, “You got this when your head hit the concrete of the pavement when you leapt forward to use your body as a shield..” Filip turned slowly to point at Elmira, “…to keep your daughter safe.”

It was Adara’s turn to say, “Nooooo!”

Filip was nodding and smiling, “Yes.”

*****

Sven and Elmira stared at each other wondering if they’re parents had completely lost the plot. Isobel seemed to know what they were talking about though and Luke was vigorously shaking Filip’s hand.

“Mama what is happening?” Elmira almost screamed.

“Oh honey…” her mother strode toward her, arm around her shoulder as she led her to the bar. She poured her daughter a cream liqueur and then sat her down.

“This is the most mind boggling situation ever,” her mother said sitting next to her and pulling Sven down on her other side, “Let me tell you a story.”

“You see when you were about six months old, I was walking down the street with you, heading toward med school for my anatomy class. They had a day care center there, where I used to leave you. Your dad was working all the hours of the day and we weren’t sleeping because you were teething.” Adara caressed Elmira’s cheek and smiled.

“Anyway, I was really worn out, not really paying attention to a well traveled path when I hear this squealing of tires. I sort of freeze you know?” She turned to look Elmira in the eye, nodding her head to see if Elmira knew exactly what she was saying.

“I know mama,” Elmira said taking hold of her mother’s hand.

“I’m turning around right? Kind of like it’s in slow motion and I can see this behemoth of a car in my peripheral vision. And I know it’s coming right for me. And there is nothing I can do about it.” Adara stopped talking, just breathing and staring at Filip like she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Then this body plowed into me, sent me flying. Right into the ditch.” Adara laughed. “I was scared out of my mind. Scared for you, Elmira. I didn’t know if you were okay; your stroller went flying…” her eyes were far away, back on that fateful day more than twenty years ago.

“What…happened next?” Elmira asked.

Adara shrugged and said with a small laugh, “I don’t know. I blacked out. When I woke up, we were in the hospital. What I do know is this man saved our lives.” She said eyes on Filip.

Filip smiled, “You got me my first big contract so I think we were mutually beneficial to each other.”

“Why didn’t we stay in touch?” Adara asked smiling back at him.

Filip shrugged, “You were in medical school with a small baby. I was making drapes for a large hotel chain. Not really a lot of time to socialize is there?”

“No there is not,” Adara agreed.

“And yet here we are, decades later, invited by our children to meet each other.” Filip said with a laugh.

“Who’d a thunk it?” Luke said grinning at everyone.

“That’s an amazing story,” Sven said.

“So…do the two of you have something you need to tell us?” Adara asked, glaring first at Elmira then at Sven.

Elmira burst out laughing, “No mama. We are not pregnant,” she said.

“Oh…okay. So…dinner?” Adara asked.

“Dinner,” Sven agreed.

*****

For the record, Adara didn’t attack him with questions as soon as she took the open seat adjacent to his on the dinner table.

“How old are you?” she asked as the appetizers were served.

“Thirty two.” Sven said eyes bright with interest and a slight smile on his face. He was ready for whatever.

“How did you two meet?”

Sven glanced away from her at that, winking at Elmira. “Well you know that Elmira has this phenomenal blog right? We hired her to cover fashion week for us and one thing led to another.” He shuffled closer to Elmira, nuzzling her cheek lovingly. She moved her face away from him, eyes widening as she flicked her glance first to her parents then his and narrowed her eyes pointedly at him. It was a very explicit order for him to cease and desist with the public displays of affection.

“Elmira said you’re in business; you’re a fashion designer?”

“No. I am in publicity. New York Fashion Week is one of our clients and we recommended Elly’s blog and a few others as an excellent way to organically penetrate social media.” Elmira winced at the answer; there was something a little…inappropriate about all the penetrations being mentioned. She sought frantically in her mind for some change of subject. Something to do with the fact that their parents already knew each other. And how trippy was that?

“How long have you two been together?” the question this time came from Isobel.

Sven perked up at the question; going far enough to show Adara his wicked grin, the fact that he covered it with a glass couldn’t diminish the sheer power behind his grin.

“Two months? Or close to that—Elmira likes to correct me with the proper months and days.” He batted those long black eyelashes at her, fluttering obnoxiously effeminate. “Don’t you my beloved moonshine?”

Elmira groaned pushing the man’s face away from her own. “You’re embarrassing.” Her hand covered the grinning half of Sven’s face, as she glared half-heartedly at him. His gray eyes twinkled, gleaming and shimmering with mischief. Mouth parting under Elmira’s palm, lathering it with a heavy coating of saliva—wonderful Sven germs straight from the source. “You’re disgusting,” she peeled up in disgust, violated hand dropping to Sven’s shirt and wiping the spit off on the material.