The drive to Sienna's house was somewhat tense. After what had been one of the most unexpected events of my life, it was generally understood that Sienna was crawling out of her skin to get out from under the oppressive environment her adoptive parents had created. She wanted to move in, immediately. Obviously, Amber and I were ecstatic. Sienna was an amazing young woman who we had grown extremely attached to and fallen in love with almost instantly. Add to that the fact that we had entered into a wild, debauched incestuous relationship and you had a lot of excitement about the prospects of our new living arrangements.
The problem, of course, was how this was going to be received by Sienna's parents. Sienna was due to head to college in September so it would technically be about a three month stopover between then and now that she would be living with us as opposed to them. It might not be as much of an issue if it weren't for the fact that two days ago Sienna had never met us and these next three months were likely a very important time for her adoptive parents to spend time with her before she went away. Sienna, however, was utterly determined.
Amber and I were no doubt as committed to her moving in as Sienna but for her it felt as though it was life or death. It was likely a glimpse of the things she'd been denied for so long had whet her appetite to a ravenous level, overwhelming her hormones and awakening a rebellious streak reminiscent of her mother at her age. When Amber had said 'like mother, like daughter' I could never have anticipated how accurate it would be.
Throughout the course of the three hour drive Sienna had been prepping us on what we could do to make the best impression on her adoptive parents. Avoid swearing, no smoking, take off our shoes upon entering the home, shake hands, smile, everything you could think of Sienna covered. Most of the things she suggested were obvious but it was still good to have her hammer it home as we were not going to get another opportunity to make a first impression.
I could sense Amber's nervousness and anxiety without even looking at her. To avoid smelling like smoke she'd abstained from smoking for the entire trip, a length of time that was simply incomprehensible in any other situation. Introduce the general stress of the moment and there was no question that she was feeling it worse than any of us. I reached out my hand and softly caressed her left cheek and ran my fingers through her hair, something I knew she loved. She leaned into my touch and closed her eyes, thankful for my attempts to calm her nerves but unable to shake the obvious strain that remain on her face.
We followed Sienna's directions until she pointed out the house at the end of the street, a large white two-story home with light brown accents, a two-car garage and an immaculately tended front yard. It was impressive, to be honest. It put my modest home to shame and I felt the familiar creep of inferiority start to become present in my mind. I fought it back and tried to focus on the task at handβwhich was to charm the pants off these people. Figuratively, of course.
We parked in the generous front driveway and collectively took a deep breath and each released an audible sigh, trying our best to expel some of the nervous energy that infected the car at that moment. With one last glance at each other we opened our doors and stepped out toward the giant oak front door. The door opened before we had even reached it and a petite blonde woman in a white sweater and a loose light blue ankle length skirt greeted our approach with a tentative smile. From behind her appeared a clean-shaven man with side parted brown hair and gold rimmed prescription glasses in a white button-up and brown slacks who didn't even attempt a grin.
"Hey mom, hey dad. This is Amber and Matt. Amber and Matt meet Julia and Ben, my parents," Sienna chirped enthusiastically, trying her best to infuse a sense of positivity into the air right from the start.
"Hello, hello. Nice to meet you both, I'm Julia," greeted the forty-something blonde woman, extending her hand to Amber.
"Nice to meet you too Julia, I'm Amber."
"So you must be Ben, good to finally meet you. This is a beautiful home you got here," I offered, trying to compliment my way into the stern looking man's good graces.
"It's good to meet you. I appreciate that," he replied, his face still unreadable.
We continued on, shaking hands and exchanging greetings until everyone was acquainted and we were invited in. So far no one was overtly hostile, but there was certainly a sense that these people really didn't want us to be interfering in their daughter's life and viewed us as intruders if nothing else. I understood why, they were the ones who raised Sienna for 18 years. I worried strongly about how Sienna moving in with us was going to be received.
We all filed in and followed Sienna's parents into a large open room with couches and a fireplace. Above the fireplace was a large cross and below that on the ledge were various religious books. Amber and I sat on the large brown sofa next to one another while Julia and Ben each took a lounge chair at either end of the sofa, essentially surrounding us. To our surprise Sienna joined us on the sofa, sitting right next to Amber. I'm sure Amber felt somewhat vindicated and at least supported, even if only in spirit.
"Would you like some tea?" Julia offered.
Both Amber and I politely declined, hoping to keep this encounter as brief as humanly possible.
"So, how was everything?" Julia followed-up to Sienna, ignoring us for the moment.
"Great, mo-Amber and Matt are really nice and it feels like I've known them forever even though I just met them," Sienna answered, catching herself before referring to Amber as 'mom,' although I saw a slight wince from Julia who no doubt noticed the slip.
"That's good, honey," Julia replied, seeming to bite her tongue a little.
"So, Matt. Do you have any children?" Ben asked, intentionally ignoring the fact that Sienna was my biological daughter.
"Actually no, it's just Amber and I. We love kids but we're unable to have them, unfortunately," I explained, refusing to be baited into Ben's challenge.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Julia offered with a tinge of genuine sympathy.
"Sienna is an amazing young lady, you both have done an incredible job raising her," Amber said, adopting my complimentary tactic of ingratiation.
"She is a wonderful girl and we love her dearly," Ben replied proudly.
We continued for another ten minutes, many questions being asked back and forth. Our jobs, our home, religion. It all came up and for the most part we kept up well enough to keep everything pleasant, even when Amber took the reigns for the religion part and used her backlog of knowledge to impressively paint us as devoutly religious despite it being exactly the opposite. This seemed to be the turning point of the discussion, as both Ben and Julia visibly softened their demeanor for the rest of the conversation. Everything had gone well up to this point, better than I could have expected, but I still feared having to tell them about Sienna moving in with us. Finally, Sienna decided it was time and took charge.
"So mom, dad, I have something to tell you. Please don't get mad, just listen and let me explain," she presented, trying to properly frame her question.
They both nodded in acceptance, being more agreeable than I anticipated, at least so far.
"I want to spend the time I have left before going to school with Matt and Amber. I know it's fast, because I just met them yesterday, but there is so much catching up to do. I'm probably never going to get another chance to spend a ton of time with them because I'll be at school and then moving to somewhere to get a job, blah blah blah. So, this is really a perfect time to try to catch up on everything we've missed and it means a lot to me," Sienna explained, rambling on a little long most likely because she feared what she might hear in return.
"How much of the summer are you talking about?" Julia asked a little bit shakily.
"Well, it's only three months so.. I wanted to go now," Sienna replied.