@emilypierces
He couldn’t lie and say he hadn’t considered calling the whole engagement off for this exact reason. Perhaps it’d been some massive oversight on his part, but he hadn’t really registered that getting engaged meant telling his family. To him, it’d just been him and Jade, deciding to make it official - the next logical step. But then Jade started talking about her family. And then she started talking about his family. And every day she asked him if he’d told them yet. And every day when he told her not yet, her brow would furrow, her lip would pout, and he could tell there was a whole world of things she wanted to tell him but was holding back.
He wasn’t ashamed - as much as he was sure that was what she was thinking. Honestly, he’d gladly tell the whole goddamn town and just let it trickle back to his family organically. But his mother would cry, and his father would deign to look at his for once, but only to tell him how much he had hurt Emily by it. And Precious Emily... He decided her insufferable, optimistic happiness would be better than her oppressive, melancholy tears.
So he was taking her out to fucking lunch. Because that’s what big brothers do when they have big news to share with their little sisters. She could break the new to their parents - she’d probably get more joy out of the experience than he would...
“So, Em, what will it be?” he asked tightly, looking up from his menu to watch her peruse the selection.