You groaned as you realised that you had to have lunch with your dad, Jack, and your stepmom, Helena. Though it would probably be more accurate to say that the lunch would be just with Helena though, since you doubted you’d get much conversation from your dad…
Helena did tell you that it would be a lunch with both of them, however. So it’s possible that you might actually be able to have a conversation with him.
You shook your disapproval of your dad’s recent “lifestyle choices” from your head and went to your bedroom to get ready. Helena would already find enough stuff to nitpick without you being late to lunch as well.
You, to put it lightly, were not looking forward to this lunch. No one could be expected to look forward to having every minuscule aspect of their life picked apart by someone as critical and overly judgemental as Helena.
Every time you were getting ready to meet with your stepmom, you always questioned why you even put up with her, but then you always remembered that if you didn’t meet up with her, there was a very high chance that no one would check in on your dad. Sarah and Katherine’s relationship with your father was rocky at best, with Katherine viewing him as beneath her, much like she did with you, and Sarah harbouring a not insignificant amount of hurt and resentment towards him for “abandoning” his family when he divorced your mom.
As much as your relationship with your father was estranged, you couldn’t in good conscience leave him completely isolated from his family. You just couldn’t find it in yourself to cut him off completely like Sarah seemed pretty happy to.
Sarah’s attitude towards your dad was always confusing to you, for such a kind and compassionate person to have such a distaste for someone was such an extreme shift in personality. Your parent’s divorce must have hit her incredibly hard for her to still bear this level of resentment.
With those thoughts on your mind, you barely realised you had finished getting ready, and also noticed that you had taken a little too long, and now would likely be late to lunch. You lamented your small size, if you were normal sized you’d most likely still have been able to arrive early, but it would just take you too long to make it at your current size to make it on time, despite the cafe only being around the corner.
Sighing at the thought of the comments Helena would likely throw your way, you decided you didn’t want to be any later than you already were and took off running towards the cafe you had selected.
You arrived at the cafe after thirty minutes of half running, sweating and wheezing as you entered through the tiny sized door. You liked this place because they had made a multitude of accommodating changes to make things easier for tiny patrons, the tiny sized door being the first of many.
Entering the premises, you looked around, and quickly spotted your stepmom seated at a table not too far from the entrance.
Helena’s angelic features and silky, platinum hair instantly made her stand out from the other patrons of the cafe. Your stepmom possessed an almost otherworldly beauty that contrasted greatly with her abrasive personality. Her looks were only accentuated by the fact that your father was very wealthy, and after she got control of his finances she could basically afford any beauty treatment money could buy.
Helena was wearing a tight grey dress that accentuated her mind boggling curves which left her arms bare and flowed down to just above her knees. A pair of heeled sandals added to her already imposing height while leaving her pale feet uncovered. Finishing off her outfit was a grey, brimmed sun hat and a pair of dark sunglasses.
She hadn’t noticed your entrance into the cafe, it would have been a miracle for anyone to spot you at this distance, so you figured it would be best to walk over to her. You stuck close to the wall, keeping yourself on the pathways marked for tinies to walk on, aiming to avoid being trampled.
As you approached the table, just before Helena’s face was obscured by the underside of the table, you watched her frown, sighing as she glanced at her phone. The fact that she began tapping her foot on the floor immediately afterwards told you she was checking the time, most likely growing impatient from waiting on you.
You quickly made your way to the tiny sized ladder that the cafe provided for tiny patrons to allow them to reach their tables with relative ease.
After a minute or two of climbing, you pulled yourself onto the top of the table. Standing up and dusting yourself off, your turned around to meet the gaze of your stepmom. You noted that your dad wasn’t present on the table, although the was likely close by, hidden under Helena’s outfit somewhere.
Helena stared down at you with a slightly upturned nose, her expression somewhere between boredom and annoyance.
“So glad you could finally join me,” she rolled her eyes. “I mean, you’d think that you’d at least try to show up on time, considering that you picked this place.”
“Sorry I’m late, but you know why I pick this place every time. All of the accessibility measures they take means that I can actually get around without help,” you protested, which only earned another eye roll from your judgemental stepmother.
“You wouldn’t have to worry about that nonsense if you were just doing what tinies were supposed to,” you knew exactly what she was implying, and it was confirmed when she pulled a tan bra strap from under the shoulder of her dress, just enough to make it visible to you. “You don’t see your father complaining about “Tiny Accessibility” do you?”
As she scoffed at the notion that tinies should even be independent enough to require accessibility measures in restaurants, she tucked your father’s strap back under her dress.
You internally questioned why she told you this would be a lunch with her and your father if she wasn’t going to allow your father to join as an actual person, but decided to keep that observation to yourself, knowing that Helena would very quickly shut that kind of conversation down.
Your thoughts were interrupted as Helena called over a waitress, who seemed to have been on her way to do something else, but was interrupted by Helena. She didn’t vocalise this, but you could see she had been interrupted by your stepmom by the annoyed grimace that she suppressed almost instantly as she approached your table, likely not wanting to miss out on a tip.
“Hi, my name is Alissa, can I take your orders?” The waitress asked as nicely as she could muster.
As Helena began placing her order, specifying in several ways how she wanted it done different to how it was on the menu, you had to hastily look over the tiny sized menu placed in front of you and decide what you wanted.
After the orders were placed, Helena excused herself to the bathroom, standing up and leaving you alone at the table.
As you watched her leave, you wondered what Helena wanted from this lunch. She didn’t usually go out of her way to see you, seemingly content with the hold she had over your father and his money.
It often came down to you to organise seeing her, and even then you only did it because you were the only one of your father’s children who seemed to have any sort of good will towards him.
So why has Helena arranged this lunch?
1) Helena knows your internship doesn’t start for another week, and has come to you with a proposition. She wants you to at least try serving a woman, her specifically, as an object before you “go stealing a job that should rightfully go to a woman”. If you agree to go through with it and decide after a week that you still want to become a lawyer, she will sign up as a client for M.A.R, which would be a great first impression for you.
2) Your dad’s usage license has a stipulation that he must be allowed to turn to his normal form at least once a year to spend the day with one of his kids. Sarah refused him the last two years, so he has decided to try spending it with you.
3) She has no particular motive for the lunch, she seems to just want to give herself an opportunity to criticise and pick at your life choices (or writer’s choice).