Pumpkin pie.

The smell fills my nose, almost intoxicatingly so. A small space, outside is moving quickly, but inside it is calm, cool, and collected. Smooth Jazz is playing, but the sound of the road below is nearly louder. He sits there next to her with a large store-bought pumpkin pie on his lap. He looks out the window, the traffic on the other side of the freeway heading into the city is atrocious, but the lanes heading to the mountains are basically deserted. He has polished shoes, black slacks, a blue-collared button up, and his hair has been gelled back to give it a light sheen.

Next to him in the driver seat is a familiar woman. She has her short hair in a bun with a yellow bow, a yellow loose fitting top, and blue jeans. As the mountains grow closer she turns to him and asks, "Do you love me?"

He tightens his grip on the pie, crushing some of its precious crust through the box. After holding the response for slightly too long he replies, "I've loved you for a long time."

She turns her eyes from the road and asks, "How long?"

"Two years," he replies.

"Why did you never say anything? I've always waited for you to say something, even after those nights we had sex—you never said anything."

He sighs, obviously distraught the conversation was even brought up, "You always had so many other guys. I thought 'why would she want to settle for me when everyone else seems so much better?'"

"I guess..." she says as she takes the next exit. It's obvious with his facial expression he wants nothing to do with this conversation. "Well, I'm glad something finally happened, even if it was me. We're going to have a baby!" She smiles, her voice becoming more cheerful.

He looks down at the pie. "Wow, I'm hungry," he says as she pulls down a small side street.

They drive down a narrow valley with large hilltops on either side. Most houses are set away from the main road up long narrow driveways with perilous drops. The ride becomes quiet as they turn up one of those narrow driveways. They pass two other houses on the road up before getting to the highest house, one nearly at the top with a good view of the rolling mountains.

The house is pretty large with an oak door and a glass balcony above it. The two-story building has a red slate roof and brown stucco. A fake granite walkway leads up to the door with little palm trees lining the rock filled front yard. The house looks like a brand new model home fit with an outdoor grill and swimming pool with enough palm trees to fill a summer resort.

Both of them get out of the car, Rebecca wraps her arm around Neel's and marches him to the door with the pie in his hand, "Fire burned it down in 2007. Luckily, my mom had insurance, took four years to build it, though, so it's still got that new house smell."

She goes to turn the handle, but it swings inward on its own before she can open it. A skinny older lady with white hair and rosy cheeks appears in the doorway. She has a white outfit covered over by a yellow apron with splotches of flour on it.

"Welcome, welcome!" The lady speaks, gesturing with her hand for the guests to enter, "I'm Mrs. Sheller, Rebecca's mother. You must be Neel. It's so exciting for my daughter to bring a boy over!"

Neel nods in approval as Rebecca pulls him into the house. The door opens into a large room, to the right is a staircase and to the left is the kitchen, but right in front is a large open room with huge dome windows across the entire back wall. The windows overlook the grill, swimming pool, and valley. Above, is a balcony from the second floor looking down to the entrance with a chandelier hanging down so close someone from the second floor could probably reach out and touch it.

"Smells delicious," Rebecca says as they go into the kitchen. The kitchen is a square room with an opening right at the front door and half the wall missing on the other side. On the interior corner are two long counters with a stove, sink, and oven. The exterior side has a fridge and freezer followed by a smaller counter and window to the outside.

There are a few dishes on the counters and a couple cooking tools in the sink, but the best part of the meal was through the kitchen on the other side. On the carpet side of the kitchen is a large wooden table next to a long window. On the table is a twenty-pound turkey with large bowls of stuffing, yams, apple cobbler, green beans, and bread rolls surrounding it. There is an apple pie on the corner and an ambrosia salad on the other corner. The table has enough food to feed ten to twenty people; however there are only three spots set, two on one side and one on the other.

Mrs. Sheller gives Neel a quick hug in the kitchen and points him to one of the two seats on the close side of the table. He sits down while Mrs. Sheller and Rebecca snoop off to the kitchen. Neel sits there awkwardly until the hosts return. Rebecca comes back with a pair of beers and Mrs. Sheller is holding a large pot of gravy. Rebecca takes the seat next to Neel and her mother sets the gravy down next to the turkey.

"What a gorgeous boy!" the mother says as she takes her seat.

"Thank you," Neel says his cheeks turning a slight shade of red at the compliment. Neel crosses his fingers and admires the feast, waiting. Rebecca's mother starts plucking food off the table and putting it on her plate so Rebecca follows and he does after.

"So, how long have you known this handsome fellow?" Mrs. Sheller asks while adjusting a large pearl necklace to make it more visible on her neck.

Rebecca shoots daggers at her mother with her eyes and says in a flat tone, "We've known each other for four years."

"Four years and you just now bring him over?"

"Yes, well, it was from work. We didn't become friends until recently." She replies. Neel's eyes exchange between mother and daughter as he bites into a gravy-covered dinner roll.

"How long you've been friends?"

Rebecca stabs a piece of turkey with her fork. She looks at Neel, who's been silent since being welcomed in, then to her mother saying, "A couple months maybe. We didn't actually start meeting outside of work until last December." Rebecca puts the turkey in her mouth. Her mother takes a few bites of stuffing and meat too. The room becomes quiet.

Neel looks content with just eating. Rebecca keeps looking up at her mother as if trying to use her eyes to keep her mother silence. It doesn't work.

"So, you're fucking?" Neel drops his fork and those daggers Rebecca has been throwing turn into swords.

"Mom!" Rebecca shouts, making eye contact with her mother, "I told you not to do this before we came over."

Mrs. Sheller crosses her arms and looks between the couple with a triumphant smile, "So you are." Neel looks at Rebecca for some kind of life vest to pull him to safety.

She sends out her best, "Yes mom, we are. What about it?" as she slams the table. Rebecca looks like she's about to storm off with Neel when her mother stands up and casually walks out of the dining room.

Rebecca chugs her beer and slams the bottle into the table. Bubbles foam up to its nozzle, but don't spill out, "Can you believe that?" She snarls towards Neel.

With his body cramped up in shock, Neel pokes at his turkey and replies, "Yeah, wow."

Neel takes a bite as Rebecca pouts, saying, "And she wonders why I never bring friends over."

Neel finishes his mouthful and says, "She just asked like that."

Before Rebecca can respond her mom returns with a rectangular box in hand. She sits down across from the couple and hands the box to Rebecca. Wary of another stunt from her mother, Rebecca turns the box over in her hand. Neel leans over and they both read the headline, 'The magical box of wonders: For the romantic couple looking for something more.' Rebecca's eyebrows go up as they continue to read silently, 'A random assortment of condoms of all textures, shapes, sizes, smells and even tastes. No two rubbers alike! Get frisky today.'

The front of the box has pictures of several of the 'romantic experiences' inside, one is blue with ice coming off it another is red with fire. There is a green one that looks to be glowing and one with fuzzies on the outside.

Rebecca hides the box under the table and looks across the table, "Mom!" she growls.

With a smug smile her mother replies, "Those work wonderfully, I know. Just stay safe."

Defeated, Rebecca rolls her eyes and looks over to Neel, "More beer?" he asks.

"Sure," she says, getting up to fill his request.

The rest of dinner has a much lighter mood and consists mostly of Rebecca retelling old stories of things that happened at work. Neel smiles at the stories but looks to have heard each of them several times, while Mrs. Sheller is often bent over in tears. It's surprising that each story is a new punch line to make her crack up more than the previous one as if she's never heard them before.

The notorious customer stories go on for the next hour and Neel even pitches in, telling Mrs. Sheller about a time when he was transferring a four-gallon bucket of sticky strawberry lemonade from the counter to the bubbler when the handle broke. This sent a wave of the thick juice into the air, soaking a very unlucky forty-year-old business woman wearing a full pantsuit and holding a clipboard. He explained how the manager was on the floor begging her forgiveness and how the lady must have gotten a year supply of complementary dinners for that.

Rebecca told a story of when she was cleaning tables and a couple napkins fell to the floor. She decided to pick them up on her next rotation and wiped down the table, only to pick up the fully loaded tray and slip on the napkins, dumping the dirty dishes all over a senior couple sitting at the table over. She explained how awkward it was trying to sweep gravy out of the husband's lap while his wife kept telling her it was no big deal. He obviously thought it was a very big deal.

When everyone finishes eating Mrs. Sheller wraps the dishes and putting the food away while Rebecca and Neel remain at the table drinking through the beer stocked in the fridge. Mrs. Sheller respects the couple as she finishes putting away the food and brings out a vegetable platter and nuts. She takes a handful of peanuts and retreats to a small glass table in the living room, near the dome windows, as the couple continues to exchange work stories, some they were part of and some they heard of.

After finishing two six packs of beer Rebecca stands up and pulls Neel off into the living room. Mrs. Sheller looks up making eye contact with her daughter, making sure Rebecca has the box of condoms with her. Across from the kitchen and under the staircase is a small hall with two doors, one leads to the bathroom they've been using and the other Rebecca's room.

Sorry everyone for such a long wait, this chapter ended up being 4 parts (and 11k words long total)  That's a pretty beastly chapter and why it ended up being 4 parts.  Anyways, enjoy two updates in one for the wait!