Page 79 of Fierce-Jonah

“I’m going to get changed,” her father said.

“I’ll set the table,” she said. Might as well get this over with.

Five minutes later the table had all the food on it and they started to fill their plates and pass everything around.

“How is work going, Megan?”

“It’s good. Been busy. I’ve got a new project that I’ll be overseeing,” she said.

“That’s great,” her father said. “You really should look into getting your CPA.”

“I don’t need it where I am and I love my employers. I love my job.”

She started to eat. She needed to just tell them about Jonah and get this over with because otherwise she was going to get worked up for other reasons.

“It’s important to love your job,” her mother said. “That is why your father has stayed where he’s been for so long.”

“Thank you,” she said. “It is important. I enjoy the job, I love my employers, they pay me well and treat everyone great. Better than great. I can’t ask for anything more. I don’t feel overworked and get time off. I put my time in when needed but not to the point I’m burned out. I think life is about balance. Times are different now.”

“As I hear all the time,” her father said. “Your generation is all about having their time off.”

She ground her teeth again. She’d heard that too, but she wasn’t lazy and didn’t want to be lumped in that category.

Their conversation so far was just them talking, but they had no clue how much it hurt her.

“I’m dating someone,” she said. There. It was out. Now they would attack her on that topic.

“You are?” her mother asked. “For how long?”

“Dating about two months, but we met about four months ago.”

“How did you meet?” her father asked. “And what does he do?”

Funny how they didn’t ask his name yet. They’d put it together. “We met at a wedding. He owns a gym. It’s Raina’s brother, Jonah.”

“The barbarian guy?” her mother asked.

“He’s not a barbarian,” she said through her clenched teeth.

“I don’t mean he acts like one. He just makes you look like such a child,” her mother said. “And you could have told us this last month when we were together for Abby’s party. Why didn’t you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe because you guys are so critical of everything in my life.”

There was a silence that greeted that statement. Her parents were looking at each other. “We only want you to settle down and find a nice young man to ground you,” her father said.

“Did it ever occur to you that I’m pretty grounded? That I’ve spent all this time trying to find someone to make you guys happy and it’s made me miserable?”

“Now you’re exaggerating,” her mother said. “You have a bad habit of doing that when you’re defensive.”

She threw her hands up. “I have to be defensive around you guys because you’re judgmental of everything. Nothing I do is good enough. Did you once stop to think that every time you tell me I should get my CPA that maybe I’m making more than Emily and Sarah?”

She knew she was. Emily was a teacher and had made comments before on her income. Sarah too. She worked for the county. Megan was a lot younger than them and making more and had more potential to do it too in the private sector.

She wasn’t out to conquer the world or move up all that much. Yet her parents didn’t seem to understand that.

“I know you’re more successful than your sisters,” her father said. “You’ve had more potential than them which is why I push you.”

It was the first she’d heard it phrased that way. “I don’t need to be pushed. I like where I am in life. I can support myself just fine.”