SF Chapter 42: Coal Digger II
After hearing what Gloria had said, Claire spoke. "I am sorry if you feel that way. I really am, because from the moment I met you, I have tried to make you feel comfortable with us."
Daniel made a 'yeah, right' face, but this time he didn't voice his irony.
"You think it's all in my head?" Gloria asked, still with her hand on her hip.
"No. Kind of-" Claire paused. "I don't know. I mean, we really love having you and Manny in our family."
"Really?"
"Really. So you don't have to be so defensive."
Gloria relaxed a little. "I do that, don't I?"
"Well, a bit," Claire agreed.
Phil proposed, stepping closer to the two of them. "I'm feeling a hug."
Claire and Gloria hugged, leaving him out.
"I was thinking group hug," he muttered, "but this is nice."
Daniel joined the hug without any shame.
After that, he went to talk to Leonard and Sheldon, who were standing around looking a bit out of place in the house. Even Alex wasn't keeping them company.
[Alex and Daniel commentary]
Alex commented while sitting at the kitchen table. "I am avoiding an old habit of mine - correcting people…" she confessed, "…after meeting and talking with Sheldon."
She scoffed. "He is insufferable!"
Daniel turned to her. "Whoa. The spell turning against the sorceress."
She ignored her uncle's comment and remarked ironically, crossing her arms. "And for someone who graduated at thirteen, he seems like an idiot."
"I don't know how our cousin puts up with him…"
[Commentary ends]
"Huh," Daniel raised an eyebrow after hearing what his cousin revealed. "So Alexandra moved into the apartment below Penny's?"
"Yes, we helped her yesterday…" Leonard commented. "She even invited us to go to a bar. But we declined."
He added, a bit awkwardly, "She's very, very beautiful, but kind of too young for me."
"Besides, too attractive and way taller than you," Sheldon pointed out. "She's totally out of your league."
"Thank you, Sheldon!" his roommate snapped.
"You're welcome!"
"She sure is a beauty," Daniel agreed. "You know, she slept at my brother's place yesterday."
"What?" Leonard yelled, making a few heads turn toward them. He lowered his voice but said agitatedly, "Did you already sleep with her? What about Penny?"
Daniel clarified, "No. She just slept there. Alone. I was with Penny yesterday."
He smirked. "Although she did see me naked. I even invited her to a threesome." He chuckled.
"What??" his cousin screamed again. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized, lowering his head as the family started looking at them again.
"It didn't happen… yet! A man can always dream!" Daniel spoke hopefully.
Then Luke and Manny ran past them, and the rest of the family gathered in the kitchen as well, since dinner was getting close.
"Hey, there are the little roustabouts," Phil laughed, placing a hand on both boys' heads. "You look like you patched things up pretty well, huh?"
"Yeah," they said in unison.
"Oh, we can learn so much from children," Phil continued. "Bet it seems kind of silly now what you were even fighting about, huh?"
Luke was the first to speak. "I made fun of his accent."
"What accent?" Gloria exaggerated hers even more, jokingly.
"I made fun of him for wearing the same clothes every day," Manny continued.
"Eegh!"
"I made fun of him because his mom used to dig coal," Luke laughed, probably not even understanding what it meant.
"What?" Gloria exclaimed.
"He said you were a coal digger," Manny clarified, also thinking it was strange the idea.
Phil tried to end the subject. "Okay, I think we can move on," he said with a slightly nervous laugh.
But Gloria urged, "Who said I was a coal digger?"
"That's what my mom told me."
Alex looked confused and asked, "What's a coal digger?"
"Sweetheart, he heard it wrong. It's 'gold digger,'" Phil blurted out, making the situation really awkward.
"I really do not think I remember ever saying that," Claire spoke with a strained smile.
But her son kept spilling everything. "Well, you said it in the car. You said it at Christmas. You said it in the Mexican restaurant-"
His mother cut him off, her face hardening. "Okay, Mr. 'Leaves His Sweatshirts at School Every Day… Suddenly Remembers Everything,' thank you."
Gloria pointed at her own head while looking at Claire. "And it was all in my head, huh?" Then she stormed upstairs, towards her bedroom.
"Oh, listen. Gloria, it was… like, a year ago, before I knew you," Claire tried to explain, but the Latina was already gone.
"Nice going. Now my mom and my sister are fighting," Manny scolded Luke.
[Claire commentary]
"If I say something that everybody else is thinking, does that make me a mean person?" Claire asked. "Or does it make me a brave person?"
"One who is courageous enough to stand up and say something…" she made a guilty and ashamed face, "behind someone's back to… a ten-year-old."
[Commentary ends]
"Well, she's pissed," Jay commented after coming back downstairs with Claire.
"Yeah. She wouldn't even come out of her room." His daughter murmured.
He scoffed, "Oh. Did you really have to call her that - a gold digger?"
"Well, you know what, Dad? It was a year ago. And it was a natural question to ask."
"It is a natural question, Isn't it?" Sheldon asked to Leonard and Daniel, but drawing everyone's attention to himself.
"She is far more attractive than your father, significantly younger, and judging by the accent, I presume she required a green card. Your father, on the other hand, is a wealthy old man."
"Therefore, the probability that financial motivation is a factor is non-zero."
He frowned, "I fail to see why this is offensive."
"Sheldon," Leonard scolded angrily, "just shut up!"
"See? I was not the only one!" Claire used Sheldon's lack of common sense to defend herself. "Tell him too, Dani." She threw her brother under the bus as well.
Daniel patted his dad. "Dad, I would support you even if part of her motivation was the money!"
"What?!" Mitchell and Claire glared at their youngest brother.
He justified himself. "Oh, come on! Our mothers also took half of his money…" he shrugged, "at least this time he is really happy… and satisfied."
"Urgh, gross, Daniel!" Claire promptly admonished her brother.
Jay made that tired dad face, grabbed a beer, and went back to watching the game.
[Daniel and Claire commentary]
"When I was a kid, there was this beautiful older girl who used to stand in the corner during recess," Daniel told a story from his middle school.
"I approached her once, and she snatched the chocolate I was eating, but in return she kissed me."
"Gosh, I ended up getting 'robbed' for five weeks straight." He laughed. "I even 'borrowed' some from my niece."
Claire, who was sitting beside him, looked at her brother with a judgmental expression. "So it was you who stole Haley's chocolates? I scolded Phil!"
Daniel nodded. "Of course. Supply had to come from somewhere."
[Commentary ends]
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