The piles of brown boxes kept growing in every room of the house and Nick wondered briefly just how much space Peggy had at her parent’s house because she seemed to have a copious amount of stuff. His boxes piled neatly against the wall since they were all similar in shape and size while hers were a random mishmash of boxes she’d picked up from cardboard recycling bins tossed haphazardly on every surface.

A pile of pizzas had been delivered shortly before the last of the boxes had been brought into the house and Nick fought to find a place in the kitchen to put them. The second he did though everyone started throwing open the lids on their free dinner, piling pizza onto paper plates.

“What the hell is this?” Peggy’s father asked and Nick walked over quickly, concerned that there was something wrong with what had been delivered.

He looked into the pizza box, seeing only the vegetarian thin crust he planned on diving in to at any moment, “Pizza?”

“Don’t tell me you eat that!”

A confused expression was planted on Nick’s face and he merely nodded at the larger man, not knowing how else to respond, “I’m a vegetarian.”

“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more useless...”

“Dad!” Peggy exclaimed loudly. “That was so rude! Apologize to Nick for that.”

Her father scoffed, piling another piece of pepperoni pizza onto his plate. “I’m not going to apologize for pointing out the obvious.”

“How am I useless?” Nick asked defensively, not able to bite his tongue any longer. He couldn’t understand what this guy had against him, he had never done anything to hurt Peggy and had been nothing but nice to her family. He couldn’t believe this guy was slagging him off while helping himself to a free dinner.

“There must be something wrong with your hands, right? Because I didn’t see you lift a finger all day to help. You just stood in here calling out orders.”

“I didn’t have to lift a finger, I hired movers! If Peggy wanted help with her stuff she would have asked me and I would have helped!”

“Let’s change the subject,” Peggy’s mother said loudly, acting every bit the traditional soccer mom as she spoke over all the other voices in the room.

“Yes, please,” Nick muttered. He had convinced himself a long time ago that his family was the most dysfunctional family in the world. Ever. His belief was starting to falter slightly the more time he spent with Peggy’s family. The majority of the hostility seemed to be directed towards him though, with the exception of Peggy’s brother Chad who seemed to be somewhat apathetic and void of an opinion on most topics.

“So Nickolas,” Peggy’s mother said as she sat down in front of a random box with her plate full of pizza. “Do you have any siblings?”

When she first said his name he had been terrified as to what she was about to ask but given the way the day had been going that question was on the tame end of the scale. If he acted like the asshole that he knew he was deep down he would have come back by asking if she had missed that section on his Wikipedia entry but his Backstreet brothers had raised him better than that.

“Yes, I do. I’m the oldest of five - three sisters, one brother. I also have an older half-sister, she lives upstate, a younger half-brother and a younger step-sister.” he rattled off, noticing the look of surprise on the faces of the others in the room by the number of siblings he had mentioned. “My dad has always wanted to start his own basketball team,” he joked.

“Hey,” Chad spoke up between bites of his pizza. “I noticed the movers bringing in some heavy bags with all your gym stuff. You box?”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded, smiling. “I just got into it a couple of years ago but I got a trainer and I fell in love with it.”

“Nick’s going to teach me some moves once he gets his gym all set up,” Peggy grinned, leaning up slightly to kiss his cheek.

“Gotta love a girl who knows how to take a punch!” Nick chuckled but the look on Peggy’s face made him think back to what he’d just said. “Oh! I didn’t mean it like that!” he tried to clarify but the awkward silence had returned only to be again broken by the matriarch of the family.

“What is it that your parents do?”

That was a tough question that Nick never really knew how to answer. In a strange role reversal his mother had been the one to end her dependency on the money that Nick and Aaron had brought into their household while his father still lived fairly comfortably without doing much of anything.

Nick ran his hands over his short hair as he took a moment to think of the best way to answer, “My mom owns a little diner just outside of Tampa, Florida where I grew up. My sister helps her out with it, she’s a cook. It’s kind of a little hole in the wall but they love it. My dad is... retired. He’s retired from...working.”

“His father seemed to be a pretty busy guy,” Peggy’s dad suddenly spoke and Nick wondered what was going to be thrown at him next. “He had just as many mugshots on the internet as your boy here. Big fan of beating his wife it seems.”

“That’s enough,” Peggy told her father firmly.

“That kind of thing is hereditary, that’s all I’m saying!”

Nick stared at the older man totally wide-eyed, his mind completely blown, “Is that why you seem to hate me so much? You think I’m going to hit your daughter? The whole taking a punch comment did not come out the way I had intended. Yes, my dad used to hit my mom. He used to hit me too so I know how much it sucks. I wouldn’t do that to anyone else and despite what you may have read on the internet I haven’t done that to anyone. The media, of course, is going to run with accusations like that because of who my dad is but it’s not true. I have too many sisters to ever lay a hand on a woman.”

“No, it’s because I didn’t know who the hell you were before suddenly my daughter was moving in with you. You come out of nowhere throwing your money around on million dollar houses, bringing my family into some kind of celebrity lifestyle where everything you do ends up online. Your reputation, which is not flattering, precedes you. Practically the first time we hear your name is when Margaret tells us you’re moving in together. I can’t help but wonder what your motives are!”

“We’ve been dating for a year,” Nick told the older man before turning to his girlfriend. “We’ve been dating for a year,” he repeated to her. “You just told your parents about me recently?”

“Just him,” Peggy rolled her eyes, “because I knew he would be like this. My mom knew.”

Nick just shook his head, “Well... I don’t know what you tell you, then. When we met I made it very clear who I was and what my intentions were. Peggy knew I was famous, she has a laptop so she could have Googled me then ran away but she didn’t. I didn’t think that I was throwing my money around, especially considering that I opted for the cheaper option when it came to buying this place. I’m sorry I am who I am but I’m in love with your daughter and I plan to live in sin with her for a long time to come.”

“Nick? Peggy?” a voice called from the front of the house and Nick had never in his life been as happy for a distraction as he was just then. He smiled at the sound of jingling fast approaching them and got ready for the excitement that was about to come barrelling through the door.

“It’s my boys,” he said happily as two dogs ran into the kitchen, tails wagging. The pair of canines were comical when standing side by side. The larger of the two, a jet black Doberman, was being circled by a black and white Boston Terrier, both dogs ecstatic to see their owner.

“Hi Charlene,” Peggy greeted the woman who had brought the dogs in since Nick was obviously distracted with doting on the animals. Turning to her family she introduced the woman as Nick’s personal assistant who had flown out from California with the dogs. “Charlene takes care of Nick’s schedule so she and I have had plenty of time to chat over the past year,” she quipped.

“Took care of, not take,” Charlene clarified. “I’m based out of Los Angeles so someone else from my company will be taking over for me as Nick’s PA. My final duty was bringing George and Ringo here out to New York.”

“George and Ringo?” Peggy’s mother wondered aloud. “Out of all of The Beatles why would you choose to name your dogs George and Ringo?”

“He lost Paul and John in the divorce,” Charlene said with a chuckle while everyone else looked on, confused. “His ex... she has the other two dogs.”

“Thanks Charlene, you’ve been awesome. I’ll be sure to give you a bonus for all your hard work,” Nick said firmly, sending her a look that clearly said ‘shut up’. He was going to have to write down this day so he would never forget it. That way should he ever assume that he was experiencing the worst day of his life all he would need to do is read about the events of that day to know that nothing could ever be worse.