Dinner with Matt's family

You walk behind Matt, into the kitchen. Smells so good in here! The dining table has been set and you take your seat next to Matt. Paul and Lydia are still busy making the final preparations.

You look at the table in front of you. Why do I have two sets of cutlery? I feel like I'm in some kind of fancy restaurant. You also notice a beautifuly decorated glass decanter in the middle of the table, full of red wine. Matt sees you eyeing it quizically. "It's so that the wine has time to breath" he says to you quietly, "It... improves the taste if you leave it out for an hour before dinner." You don't really know what to say to that, so you settle on just saying "....oh.... OK." I better tell my mum she's been doing it wrong all her life. She thinks she is being posh if she uses a wine glass! You try not to laugh.

"I hope you're hungry." Paul starts to set out huge plates of food on the table. There's an overflowing bowl of spaghetti with some kind of red sauce on it. Then there's anoher bowl of what looks like little peices of beef, again in a kind of red sauce. Then there comes many different kinds of mediterranean vegetables, some on seperate plates, and also some hot Italian or Frence style of bread, you're not really sure. Lydia has turned on a speaker that sits on a shelf in the corner and classical music begins to gently fill the room. She then comes to the table with even more cutlery.

Paul picks up the decanter and walks round the table to you. "Would you take wine with your meal madam?" he asks you with a rediculous Itallian accent. Matt laughs "Jesus dad" he mutters affectionately. You smile up at Paul "Yes please, Paul." He starts to pour and he can sense your discomfort at being served, as you seem to stiffen up, awkwardly, as you lean aside a litle to give him access to your glass. Oh my god I feel so out of place. You try to arrange your face in an easy smile and you just hold still while you wait for him to be done. Where do I even put my hands? At last your glass is completly full to the brim and he moves on to Lydia next and begins to poor. Lydia nods and says "thank you" when her glas is half full. Matt then does the same. You look at your glass, practically overflowing. Oh my god I'm such an idiot! you think as it dawns on you that Paul had been waiting for you to tell him when to stop pouring. But instead I had just sat there with a great big idiotic smile on my face and let him give me half a bottle of wine!

After he has poured the wine Paul sits down at his seat too. "As you can probably guess, I love Itallian food. So here we have a nice selection of my favorite things that I like to cook. Don't feel like you have to eat everyting because we always do too much. Before we start, I just want to say welcome Emily. Matt has had a lot to say about you lately and I must say that I am really happy that you have come to dinner today so that we can finally get to know you a bit better." He raises his glass up slightly. "Right then, Buon appetito!"

"That means get stuck in" Matt says to you with a wink. You laugh, "I know what it means you oaf! Just because I don't go to fancy Itallian restaurants" or any restaurants actuallty "...I still see them in movies, don't I?" you joke with him. Matt and his dad both chuckle. Lydia had already begun to fill her plate with food. You looked around the table, not knowing really where to start, so you wait for Matt to begin to put things onto his plate and you just copy what he is having. Oh wow, olives! I've not had olives for sooooo long! You can't help but give yourself an extra helping.

You begin to eat and the food really is as good as it smells. You finish a few mouthfulls then take a sip of wine. Mmmm I think this is what heaven would be like. The mediterranean flavours match the wine so well. The smell of the food, the warmth in the room, the gentle music, the happy company. So this is what it's like to have a comfortable life? The contrast between this and what you live in your damp flat, with your alcoholic mum and her various abusive partners. How can two families, from the same city, be so different?