Magnolia Promenade – Sunday, January 7th, 2024
Miles away, the Satos also enjoyed their first family dinner. Of course, Mr. Sato was nowhere to be seen, a common occurrence in this family. Instead, two other people joined their meal.
⚠️ NSFW Warning – This post contains images with nudity. View at your own discretion ⚠️
After a troubling conversation with her husband, Ken, Marlene looked forward to spending this night with her family. She wasn’t ready to start this ‘intensive investigation’ into her family’s past but she understood it was necessary step to uncover who was stalking them. But before that fiasco, Marlene forged a smile and raised her glass.
“Tonight let’s celebrate my handsome nephew, Kion, and his return to Willow Creek. I understand that a redirection in life may be unsettling but Kion returns a new man with a new girlfriend and child. I think the growth of his family and subsequently, the growth of our own, is quite beautiful! Welcome home!” Marlene toasted.
“I can drink to that!” Kion said with glee while the family took a polite sip of the aged red wine.
“Where is that girlfriend of yours?” Ken Jr asked. Out of everyone here, KJ was the most excited to have his favorite (and only) cousin back.
“She’ll be here any moment. She got caught up at work.” Kion answered and chased his answer with another sip of wine. Marlene couldn’t help but to catch her sister’s eye. She heard a few things about the new girlfriend.
“You guys are gonna love her! Right mom?” Kion asked.
“Right,” Sabrina answered and then quickly washed her lie down with another sip of wine.
“I’m sure we will. Everyone was so accepting when I starting bringing Natalia around. No worries, champ.” KJ said in an attempt to comfort his cousin. Although that was true, Marlene shared a similar uneasiness about Natalia that Sabrina had for Kion’s new girlfriend.
To Marlene, Natalia was nothing special. Sure, she was cute but that was it. She wasn’t witty, charming, or intelligent. She was just …bland. Eventually, Marlene learned to accept that her son had settled for a dough faced girl who was nothing special. Just a girl.
At the far side of the table sat Emilene Sato. She was still taking in the presence of everyone gathered together. She had spent years away from her family so the reintroduction of “family dinners” was tough. In the last few weeks of being home, Emilene had mastered adding meaningless commentary to every conversation to mask her disinterest in whatever her family blabbed about. Weddings, grandchildren, business ideas, vacations… None of it interested her.
She twirled her nearly full glass of wine. Just one glass tonight should be alright, right?
“Ev,” it was Aunt Sabrina who broke Emilene out of her thoughts. “What’s it like working with your dad?”
Emilene released a deep exhale which only made Sabrina laugh. Sabrina was well aware that her brother-in-law was an uptight asshole in and out of the office, but she didn’t think it would only take a few days for the daddy-daughter duo to bump heads.
“If you’re looking for work, you’re always welcome at Fox and Associates.” Sabrina offered.
Being a lawyer was Emilene’s long lost dream. She always imagined herself in court fighting for innocent people like Aunty Brina did. It wasn’t until Emilene got to college that she got a taste of being an actual criminal defense lawyer. She definitely couldn’t imagine herself doing this for the rest of her life. But for a couple hours a day, just to get away from her father, she would definitely reconsider.
“Emilene wouldn’t hate it that much if she actually cared.” Ken interjected.
For the next few ten minutes, the siblings argued over how boring the makeup of a computer chip actually could be.
“Baby!” The voice silenced the siblings as a woman walked up to the table and kissed Kion’s cheek.
“Hi everyone, I’m Cheyenne,” the woman introduced herself as she sat down at the table.
The family warmly greeted her back. Well, mostly everyone.
Kion introduced everyone at the table to Cheyenne. Immediately, Cheyenne took a liking to the other outsider, Natalia.
“How did you two meet?” Cheyenne asked.
“Oh, the typical way. Social Bunny. He ‘accidentally’ sent me a friend request and then ‘accidentally’ liked all my pictures and posts. Then he sent me a message saying he thought he knew me and we just started talking all the time. How about you guys?” KJ snickered as Natalia retold the story.
“At a club.”
“He saw me first”
“but I approached him first”
“we danced together”
“and the rest is history”
“You kids and your modern dating!” Marlene exclaimed. “The social bunny and nightclubs. Who would ever have imagined?!”
The conversation during dinner time was filled with wedding talk. Natalia over saturated the conversation with talks about floral arrangements and her custom wedding gown. Cheyenne fed into it with offering to style Natalia’s makeup for her big day.
“I am still looking for a makeup artist…” Natalia contemplated.
“Makeup, hair, nails. I do it all.” Cheyenne offered.
As the girls talked about all things wedding, Emilene drifted from the conversation. She was sure that she was over talking about this wedding. Sure, she was happy for her brother but how many times did she have to hear about it? Emilene excused herself from the table to step away.
Emilene found herself in the women’s restroom splashing water against her face to help sober her up. She didn’t realize that she was now on her third drink even though she had made a promise to herself to stay sober. She threw another handful of water against her flushed cheeks hoping it would help with her dizziness.
“Are we really gonna do this?” Emilene jumped back at the sound of Cheyenne’s voice.
“Did you just ambush me?” Emilene asked, still startled that this girl followed her into the restroom.
“Girl, please. Why are you acting like you don’t know me?” Cheyenne questioned. Evelyn swallowed the large lump in her throat. They both knew why.
“So this is the life you really live, huh? Nice. Fancy dinners with your family and planning million dollar weddings. So do you just dance at strip clubs for fun?”
“Let’s get one thing straight: I never danced at a strip club!” Emilene corrected.
“Whatever you say, weirdo. But if this is any consolation, I won’t blow your cover. There’s nothing to gain in that, cousin.” Cheyenne said before going back to the family dinner. For the first time in a long time, Emilene felt her chest decompress as if she finally exhaled. Evelyn had been waiting for the day where her past would finally and come back to haunt her. It looks like it was just starting.
She needed fresh air. She needed to get away. She had to go.
As soon as Emilene got back to the table, Sabrina offered her niece another glass of wine. Apparently, while she was in the restroom the waiter had bought out another bottle.
But Emilene explained that she wasn’t here to throw another glass back. She was just grabbing her coat and leaving. “I’m not feeling well,” she’d explained. A partial truth, but a truth nonetheless. And with that, she went with the wind.
(stripclub lot by @florwal)
miss moodring musings 
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