A Bride for a Merger
Chapter 16

We were greeted at the door by Christopher's mom Tania. She was a nice petite lady who was about 5 ft 5", with shoulder length light brown hair. I could hardly get over the fact that she looked surprisingly young--considering she was about in her fifties.

"Chris! Allison, dear you're here." she smiled as she hugged us both. "I almost thought you guys weren't going to bother to show up."

"Hi Mrs. Lee." I smiled back at her."We just ran a little late."

"Allison don't be so formal, call me Tania. Come on in." she chuckled as she ushered us inside the house. "You look great dear. Absolutely stunning. "

"Thank you, so do you Tania." I smiled back at her as I looked at her gorgeous dress.

"So Mom is everyone here already?" Christopher asked as he closed the door behind him.

"Yes Chris, you guys are actually the last ones here, but that is not a surprise. You're always the last one here for anything-- when you do bother to show up." Christopher's mom said as she rolled her eyes at him. Christopher turned to look at me with an expression as if he was saying 'this is all your fault'. In return, I gave him a look that says 'get over it'. If eyes could communicate, that would have been the conversation. "Alright, so where is everybody? I'm sure Alli here is really just as excited to meet the rest of the family. You know, just as they are eager to meet her?" Christopher smirked, obviously replaceing my discomfort a triumph.

I gasped looking at Christopher in disbelief. He knew that I was nervous about meeting and spending the evening with his family. I almost had a panic attack just thinking about spending the evening around everyone. Yet Christopher was taking pleasure in just throwing me right into the lion's den. This guy was really an ass, I couldn't believe he was doing this right now.

"Well then come on dear. Everyone is in the dining room, I'm sure they're all going to be so happy to see you. They're going to love you." Tania said to me as she started heading towards what I assume was the dining room area. "Oh no," I whispered to myself as I stood behind instead of following.

"Allison, it's show time." Christopher smiled smugly.

"This was a bad idea. I should have let you come alone." I said as I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Then you'd have everyone wondering what I did with my wife. And that would have raised more questions don't you think?" Christopher said to me.

Obviously, he did have a point there.

"This is going to be such a nightmare." I sighed shaking my head.

"Come on Allison, let's just go and get this over with. I already told you that my family aren't monsters, so you don't need to be scared." Christopher said as he took my hand and started heading towards the dining room area. "No, let go. I can walk just fine by myself. I can walk without you holding my hand and pulling me with you." I protested, trying to pull my hand from him as he continued pulling me towards the dining room.

"We're already late Allison and the last ones here. You hesitating now is only taking up more time. And then now you'll have approximately 30 or more sets of eyes staring directly at us." Christopher said causing me to pause again as nerves took over once again.

"What!? Thirty!? That is it, I'm not going in there. I am going right back outside and I'm telling Nathan to take me straight back home." I said pulling my hand from him and turning back towards where the door was. "What the hell Allison!? You're doing no such thing." Christopher said grabbing my hands again and started pulling me back.

"No! Christopher, I am not going in there!" I protested as I tried to pull my hands from him again.

He was much stronger than I, and so I couldn't escape but that didn't stop me from trying. I planted my feet on the floor refusing to walk as I tried getting him to stop.

"Allison stop it! You're are seriously acting like a child right now!" Christopher huffed, struggling to keep his grip on me and get us towards the dining area. I started fighting him to get out of his grip.

"Allison, gosh! Will you stop fighting me?" Christopher said as he grabbed me from behind while I continued struggling to get away. "This is really immature of you."

"Hey! Let go off me." I said still trying to get him to leave me alone.

"Alright, you've given me no other choice Allison." Christopher announced before he put his arms beneath my legs before lifting me off the ground bridal style, then continued walking. "Christopher! No!" I yelled in surprise.

"Is everything alright?" I heard someone asked just asked Christopher entered the room.

"Yeah, Allison and I were just having a little moment. Sorry for being late guys." Christopher replied as he finally put me down.

I looked around sheepishly. It didn't take long to realize that when Christopher had said that there would be approximately 30 pairs of eyes staring at us, he wasn't kidding. There were probably like 20 or more people standing in the living room staring at us with amused expressions written on their faces. I blushed with embarrassment as I pull on the hem of my dress that had ridden up slightly when Christopher had lifted me up.

"I know what it is like to still be newly married. You know, how excited you can get and all, but I'm sure there is plenty of time for that later." Christopher's uncle --that I had met once at the wedding-- chuckled.

This caused me to become even more embarrassed by what his uncle was implying or insinuating. And even worst, because everyone in the room seemed to replace that funny.

"We just got a little uhm... caught up and carried away." Christopher chuckled before clearing his throat. "Hello everyone, for those of you who didn't make it to the wedding, this is my beautiful wife Allison."

I wanted to look at him and tell him how good he was at deceiving people, but instead I just went along with it.

"Hi." I smiled shyly giving a small wave.

In less than five seconds, I was then engulfed with hugs and introduction as well as reintroduction from his family members. I was introduced to uncles and wives, aunts and husbands, cousins and their kids, grandaunts and granduncles, grandmother and grandfather. I had met some of them before at the wedding but now I was meeting new cousins and spouses or boyfriends or girlfriends of the cousins, and you name it. I was meeting an entire extended family. After socializing a bit with his family members, in addition to a his Dad talking to me and asking how I was, they finally decided that we should sit down for dinner. We were all seated around a large family tablea and I was seated with Christopher on my left and his cousin Laura on my right. I couldn't help but feel really self-conscious at how everyone seemed to be watching us. And of course I had to play along with Christopher as he put on the front of being a loving husband for everyone. Christopher had offered to pour my champagne for me as well as share out my food. This guy was really a good actor, and if all of what he was acting was real, he wouldn't be that much of a jerk. "So Allison, how has married life to Chris been for you guys so far?" Christopher cousin Damien asked me from across the table as we ate.

"Uhm... it has been good I guess." I responded after swallowing the food in my mouth and taking a sip from my champagne.

I needed it to help me respond to the question.

"Really? And the honeymoon? I bet that has been the best part since huh?" Damien smirked, raising a brow suggestively.

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That insinuation caused me to choke on the champagne.

Christopher continued his part playing a good husband as he rubbed my back. I continued coughing as a result of choking and had to use the napkin to cover my mouth. "Damien! Just stop it." Damien's wife Caroline reprimanded as she slapped him on the arm.

"What? I'm only making conversation." Damien replied innocently. "Trying to get to know my new cousin further."

"Well could you make conversation using something else? Any other topic which is less uncomfortable?" Christopher glared at him.

"Maybe my question came out a bit wrong. What I truly meant was, where did you guys go for your honeymoon?" Damien covered. "Bet that was fun."

I looked to Christopher for help, as I was still a bit flushed and unsure what to say.

"Actually, Alli and I haven't been on our honeymoon as yet. Since we couldn't decide at once where to go, we decided to give it time to plan the perfect honeymoon get away but we will eventually. There is no rush right?" Christopher supplied. I looked at him surprised. This guy was really good at acting and lying. It was almost unbelievable, that his lie almost sounded realistic. He should have been an actor instead.

"So Allison, I heard you're an interior designer right?" One of Christopher's aunt asked.

I didn't quite remember her name, I only remember that she was his dad's sister though. "Yeah, I am." I smiled at her.

"That is really impressive. That would mean that you're pretty creative then I suppose?"

"I guess so. I mean I would like to think that I am creative. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be good at my job then." I responded to her honestly.

"That is quite true." she chuckled."You would have to be creative in order to design well."

For the remainder of the dinner, we all talked about different random stuff but the main thing was them all trying to get to know me. I was literally the one being out in the spotlight for the night.

After dinner, we all went to the living room and sat down to get to know each other more. Some of the elderly folks had left since they said it would be a long ride home. The guys had somehow disappeared to another room, and I was seated one area with Christopher's cousins Laura, Amoy and Shelly. Damien's wife Caroline and his other cousin's girlfriend Myra was there woth us too, while the rest of people were at another area.

All these women were older than me by mostly three or more years. Laura had an eight year old son and a four months old baby girl. Shelly was about six months pregnant and Caroline had a five year old daughter. Some of the kids were playing nearby while some had fallen asleep. I had surprisingly gotten quite comfortable around them. We were there talking about all kinds of things, until the conversation led towards the talk of their sex lives, pregnancy and kids. That was the conversation that made me uncomfortable.

"So Allison, do you and Chris want to have kids?" Shelly asked me.

I shrugged awkwardly as I wasn't that much comfortable with the turn of conversation right now at all.

"Well..." I started, rubbing the side of my neck. "We've never quite thought about that before. We've never discussed it."

"Are you saying you don't want kids then?" Caroline asked, looking at me weirdly as if it would be a crime if I didn't.

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"I don't think that Chris would not want to have children of his own. I mean he is really good with kids." Laura said.

"He is?" I asked surprised. I honestly don't know that much about him.

"Yeah he really is." Laura replied smiling. "You should see him with Keila and Josh at times. He is very good with them."

Keila was Laura's daughter and Josh was her son.

"Well I haven't seen him with kids before so I wouldn't know." I responded.

"You still haven't answered Caroline's question though, do you want kids?" Amoy asked again.

"Well uhm... I think so. Although I'm not sure how good of a mom I would be. I mean, I haven't had much practice with kids." I told them truthfully.

Growing up, I wasn't around small kids or baby much. I probably only ever held a baby only three times in my life. And that was when my cousin had her son and then my aunt had a daughter. And that was years ago.

"Is that so? Well now is a good time to get some practice. Here, hold Keila a bit." Laura said as she got up and came towards me with the little girl.

"Oh no, no, Laura I don't think that is a good idea." I tried to stop her but she placed the baby in my arms anyway.

I held the baby up a bit away from me as I looked at her awkwardly. The last time I held a baby was probably when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I was afraid that if I held her closer she'd become uncomfortable and start crying for her mom. So holding her out was to study her reaction so I could give her right back to her mom if she started making a face to cry. Also, I was slightly worried about her puking or pooping or urinating on me-- although she was wearing diapers. To my surprise, after a while of both me and the baby looking at each other, she just started smiling at me.

"Aww, see she likes you." Caroline said smiling.

"You'd definitely make a good mom Allison." Laura smiled.

"Oh, I don't know about that. Just because one baby smiles at me means that I'd be good at this mom thing." I replied as I slowly held the baby closer to me.

"I think you would." Laura responded.

"Hi Keila, I'm Allison. Do you think I'd be a good Mom?" I cooed at the baby, to which she smiled at me once more showing her gums.

"That is a definite yes." Laura said as the other women chuckled.

"Well Keila, you're one beautiful baby." I said to the smiling baby when I heard a throat being cleared.

I looked up to replace Christopher leaning on the doorframe across from us smiling slightly as he watched me with the baby.