"You've been quiet."<br/><br/>Emily tightened her fingers around the steering wheel in a vice grip and releasing it slowly. The poor steering wheel didn't deserve that. The solemn look on her face faded away as she let out a breath that she didn't even know she'd been holding. "I'm sorry," she apologized, looking over to give Matthew an apologetic smile before returning her eyes to the road ahead of them. "It's just.. I always thought I'd meet your family before this. And preferably under better circumstances."<br/><br/>That made Matt chuckle, in spite of himself and everything else, though it had a taste of chagrin. "Yeah," he said. His voice was hollow but his touch held feeling as he reached over to put his hand on top of Emily's on the gearshift. "I know. I'm glad you still came with me, though. And if it's any consolation, this is the first time I'm seeing my family since we started dating, too. I wanted - I<span style="font-style: italic">want</span>you to meet them. It's just..." His voice trailed off helplessly and he threw both of his hands up in a lazy frustration.<br/><br/>Matthew Carmichael and his family had never gotten along. That wasn't to say that they were bad people, because to be honest he didn't know them well enough to decide that one way or the other. Matt and his father Aaron had become the family black sheep when Matt was still a kid, maybe 13, when his mother got herself hooked on heroin and Aaron still hadn't left her. His father had had words about with more than one relative about how a prestigious lawyer like himself shouldn't get himself wrapped up with someone like that, and after Aaron's refusal they kind of stopped associating. Especially when they did, in fact, divorce. If there was one thing Aaron Carmichael would not tolerate, it was admitting when he was wrong and should have listened to someone more reasonable.<br/><br/>Oh well, you live and you learn.<br/><br/>Emily looked over at her boyfriend of so many years with a look of concern that she quickly forced into one of teasing. "And here I always thought you were meeting up with them in secret or something and just not inviting me," she joked, laughing lightly to herself before realizing that she was the<span style="font-style: italic">only</span>one laughing. The voice of the GPS broke through what deteriorated into an awkward silence, filling the void with instructions to take her next right off of the interstate. The small white Cobalt lurched forward into a wide turn onto the exit ramp several seconds later and they descended into the city roads. Matt got a sick, empty feeling in his stomach with every minute that passed because that meant that they were almost there, and he was having second thoughts about whether or not he was prepared for this.