#kenjr

Magnolia Promenade – Sunday, January 7th, 2024

Miles away, the Satos also enjoyed their first family dinner. Of course, Mr. Sato was nowhere to be seen, a common occurrence in this family. Instead, two other people joined their meal.

After a troubling conversation with her husband, Ken, Marlene looked forward to spending this night with her family. She wasn’t ready to start this ‘intensive investigation’ into her family’s past but she understood it was necessary step to uncover who was stalking them. But before that fiasco, Marlene forged a smile and raised her glass.

“Tonight let’s celebrate my handsome nephew, Kion, and his return to Willow Creek. I understand that a redirection in life may be unsettling but Kion returns a new man with a new girlfriend and child. I think the growth of his family and subsequently, the growth of our own, is quite beautiful! Welcome home!” Marlene toasted.

“I can drink to that!” Kion said with glee while the family took a polite sip of the aged red wine.

“Where is that girlfriend of yours?” Ken Jr asked. Out of everyone here, KJ was the most excited to have his favorite (and only) cousin back.

“She’ll be here any moment. She got caught up at work.” Kion answered and chased his answer with another sip of wine. Marlene couldn’t help but to catch her sister’s eye. She heard a few things about the new girlfriend.

“You guys are gonna love her! Right mom?” Kion asked.

“Right,” Sabrina answered and then quickly washed her lie down with another sip of wine.

“I’m sure we will. Everyone was so accepting when I starting bringing Natalia around. No worries, champ.” KJ said in an attempt to comfort his cousin. Although that was true, Marlene shared a similar uneasiness about Natalia that Sabrina had for Kion’s new girlfriend.

To Marlene, Natalia was nothing special. Sure, she was cute but that was it. She wasn’t witty, charming, or intelligent. She was just …bland. Eventually, Marlene learned to accept that her son had settled for a dough faced girl who was nothing special. Just a girl.

At the far side of the table sat Evelyn Sato. She was still taking in the presence of everyone gathered together. She had spent years away from her family so the reintroduction of “family dinners” was tough. In the last few weeks of being home, Evelyn had mastered adding meaningless commentary to every conversation to mask her disinterest in whatever her family blabbed about. Weddings, grandchildren, business ideas, vacations… None of it interested her.

She twirled her nearly full glass of wine. Just one glass tonight should be alright, right?

“Ev,” it was Aunt Sabrina who broke Evelyn out of her thoughts. “What’s it like working with your dad?”

Evelyn released a deep exhale which only made Sabrina laugh. Sabrina was well aware that her brother-in-law was an uptight asshole in and out of the office, but she didn’t think it would only take a few days for the daddy-daughter duo to bump heads.

“If you’re looking for work, you’re always welcome at Fox and Associates.” Sabrina offered.

Being a lawyer was Evelyn’s long lost dream. She always imagined herself in court fighting for innocent people like Aunty Brina did. It wasn’t until Evelyn got to college that she got a taste of being an actual criminal defense lawyer. She definitely couldn’t imagine herself doing this for the rest of her life. But for a couple hours a day, just to get away from her father, she would definitely reconsider.

“Evelyn wouldn’t hate it that much if she actually cared.” Ken interjected.

For the next few ten minutes, the siblings argued over how boring the makeup of a computer chip actually could be.

“Baby!” The voice silenced the siblings as a woman walked up to the table and kissed Kion’s cheek.

“Hi everyone, I’m Cheyenne,” the woman introduced herself as she sat down at the table.

The family warmly greeted her back. Well, mostly everyone.

Kion introduced everyone at the table to Cheyenne. Immediately, Cheyenne took a liking to the other outsider, Natalia.

“How did you two meet?” Cheyenne asked.

“Oh, the typical way. Social Bunny. He ‘accidentally’ sent me a friend request and then ‘accidentally’ liked all my pictures and posts. Then he sent me a message saying he thought he knew me and we just started talking all the time. How about you guys?” KJ snickered as Natalia retold the story.

“At a club.”

“He saw me first”

“but I approached him first”

“we danced together”

“and the rest is history”