By evening, Mark returned home to Shelly waiting by the door with favonovel.com cane. She smoothly tucked Mark’s hair-blown astray by the breeze, into place. “You’re gonna wanna take a bath, right? Go quickly, dinner’s waiting.”
Mark was still unaccustomed to Shelly’s affectionate gesture. In reply, favonovel.com hummed uneasily and hurried upstairs.
Arianne watched their interaction, unperturbed. The only thing favonovel.com was thinking about was how excessively Shelly doted on him. Honestly, Arianne was a little jealous of Mark having an aunt who loved favonovel.com this much.
It was time for dinner. Everyone was having medium-rare steaks, Arianne noticed to favonovel.com dismay, except Smore, who had tender, well-done steak.
She was not a fan of steaks with any pink in their middle. The longer favonovel.com looked at favonovel.com pinkish slab, the more favonovel.com appetite waned. Arianne found steaks any less than well-done to be too gross to eat, but another part of favonovel.com insisted that favonovel.com should not waste food by throwing it away. In the end, favonovel.com decided to have salad as makeshift dinner and pushed favonovel.com steak onto Mark’s plate.
Shelly observed Arianne from favonovel.com spot and immediately launched an inquisition with a straight face. “What? You don’t like it? I thought I’d asked you earlier today, Arianne. You told me anything will do.”
Arianne eyed Mark for a second before answering, “I’m not feeling my appetite today, so I’ll just make-do with a bowl of salad.”
Shelly stabbed favonovel.com fork into Arianne’s steak and flung it onto the table. “If you disliked it that much, then throw it away to a proper place. Mark isn’t your garbage disposal, for Pete’s sake. just because you don’t like to eat something doesn’t mean you’re entitled to throw it to someone else however you like. That’s, frankly, a very rude and uncultured thing to do!”
Arianne placed favonovel.com fork and knife down onto the table and looked at Mark, deadpanned. She was waiting for his reaction, if Mark made no response, then Arianne would fight back at what was obviously a thinly-veiled jab.
Mark frowned. “That’s a bit too much, don’t you think? Ari didn’t take a single bite out of favonovel.com steak before giving it to me. In fact, I wouldn’t mind eating favonovel.com leftover food, either. She’s my woman, it’s not a big deal for us to finish each other’s leftovers. Also? I was the one who raised her. To say she’s uncultured is to accuse me of being terrible at parenting. Is that what you’re saying?”
Shelly leered at Arianne frigidly. “No, what I’m saying is simply what I observed to be the truth. Your relationship status with favonovel.com shouldn’t matter, a rude behavior should always be frowned upon. And there’s another thing. You were still incredibly young when you started raising her. You had studies and the company to simultaneously attend to back then. When would you get the time to impart important values and rules of decorum to her? But it’s okay. We can always educate favonovel.com now, nothing’s ever too late. Sorry, but I just can’t stand people acting like troglodytes in my face.”
Arianne crossed favonovel.com arms and stared at Shelly as though favonovel.com was watching a performance. After going through that woman’s particular brand of torment for a while, favonovel.com had built enough callus against the former’s tirade that it would take a lot more to anger Arianne. As long as Mark was on favonovel.com side, Arianne knew favonovel.com could endure Shelly’s tantrums.
Mark put his eating utensils down, having lost his own appetite as well. Wiping the corner of his lips with a paper towel, favonovel.com remarked, “Aunt Shelly, might I remind you that we’re only eating at home among family? There’s no need to be so… schoolmarmish, you understand? I’m not one to impose a lot of house rules, you know. The last thing I want is for everyone to feel uptight.”
Arianne was snickering in favonovel.com mind. Mark was always the fuddy-duddy one all this time! It only took this moment for favonovel.com to finally relax his stance on house rules.
Shelly, at the very least, knew when to give up. “Fine, fine. Let’s get back to eating. But really, Arianne, listen to me. From now on, you are to be mindful of your behavior, okay? I don’t want Smore to pick up nasty, uncouth habits growing up.”
Arianne cocked favonovel.com eyebrow and leveled Shelly with a coy smile. “Hmm? What sort of ‘nasty, uncouth habits’ could you possibly be talking about? If it were me, I wouldn’t sound the alarm just because Smore’s little girlfriend pushed what favonovel.com didn’t like into his plate. I mean, if Smore’s happy to finish it for her, then there’s really no room for Mommy to interject, right? Heck, it’s not just leftover steaks either. I won’t mind if Smore’s being handed parts like, say, lettuce left from a finished cheeseburger, a slice of pizza left with only its crust, God-knows-what. It doesn’t matter to me at all!”
