Chapter Fifteen

 It was time to pull dinner out of the oven.  I had made my mother’s marinade and left the tenderized lamb chops sitting in it for two days.  I kept a tray of water on the bottom oven rack to keep them moist as they cooked.  It was something I only made on the anniversary of the death of my parents, up until now.  I told myself I was doing it to give the best meal I could to my guests, but I knew deep down I really just wanted to impress Jay.

 Sara and Beth were talking rapidly back and forth about a brand of handbag that was new, expensive, and ugly.  “So it’s not just me, then?” Beth asked.

 “I guess not, but I was thinking the same.  It seems like every girl at the office has one.  I don’t get it!”

 “Dinner’s ready, folks,” I said.  The two of them kept going.  “Ready to eat?”

 Jay looked back and forth between them.  “I can hear you,” he said humorously to me, challenging them.  They didn’t hear him, either.  “You two get the poisoned ones, alright?”  He looked at me and gave a shrug, which I returned, but I knew how to get their attention.

 I turned the oven off and opened the door.  The smell that had only been creeping out of the oven and tickling the back of their minds now hit them full force.  “Oh, wow,” Beth said.

 Sara inhaled deeply.  “Mmm.  That’s Mom’s, isn’t it?” she asked.

 I nodded.  “My mother’s marinade,” I explained to Jay and Beth.

 “She must be in love with you, Jay.  She never makes this, ever.”  Sara didn’t know about my yearly tradition.  She grinned at me out of the corner of her eye, not looking at me fully enough to see the dirty look I had just for her.

 “It smells amazing!” Beth said.

 “That it does,” Jay agreed.

 Mariah was suddenly in the kitchen, with Madison following close behind.  “Is dinner ready?” she asked.  Suddenly her eyes lit up.  “Hi, Aunt Sara!”  She ran to my sister and threw herself into a hug.

 “Maddie!”  Sara kissed her.  “Why didn’t you come say hi?”

 “I thought you were another stranger...”  She looked at Beth, and quickly looked away.

 “Oh, Beth’s not a stranger,” Sara whispered.  “She’s really nice, why don’t you go say hi?”

 “Okay...” she said meekly.  She slid out of Sara’s lap and walked around the table.  “Hi,” she said to Beth.  “I’m Madison.”

 Beth smiled and stuck out her hand.  “I’m Beth.  It’s very nice to meet you.”  They shook.

 “Alright, Maddie, have a seat,” I said.  I passed out plates and utensils.  “Wine, anybody?”

 “It’s about time!” Sara said with a laugh.  “I took tomorrow off for this, you know.”

 “Okay, settle down, alkie.  Jay?  Beth?”

 “You know it,” Jay said.

 “Driving,” Beth said.  “Plus I work tomorrow, so he doesn’t have to.”

 “Not even a little?” I asked her, one hand still in the cabinet with the glasses.

 “Beth, the cool kids are doing it,” Jay said.

 “No thanks, really.”

 I poured for the three of us cool kids, got the food on the table, and sat at last.  The meat got passed around, and the bowl of buttered and mashed sweet potatoes.  I started cutting Madison’s meat as everyone else began eating.

 “Damn,” Jay whispered to himself after his first bite.

 “You can’t say that at the table,” Madison informed him.

 “Sorry, Madison.  Your mom just surprised me.”

 She looked at me picking apart her lamb chop.  “No, she didn’t.  She’s just cutting up my food.”

 The table burst into laughter.  “She surprised me with the food,” Jay explained.  To me, he said, “It’s delicious, Laura.”

 “Really?” I asked, flattered.

 “Are you kidding?” Beth asked after swallowing a mouthful.  “I’m thinking really hard, and I can’t remember eating anything half this good!”

 “I never could get it quite right,” Sara said.  “Laura’s the talented one in the family when it comes to this.”

 “I like to cook,” I shrugged.

 I thought I was going to finish eating last since I had to cut Madison’s food up first, but even after I finished Jay’s meal was only half gone.  “I’ve never seen you eat so slow before,” Beth said.  “I’ve never seen him eat slow, period,” she said to me.

 “Food this good,” Jay said, “Must be savored.”

 He said it with none of his usual humor, but more like he was reciting a forgotten fact.  His attention didn’t leave his food as he spoke.  “Oh, Jay...  Thank you,” I said, unable to hide that I was touched.  Sara mercifully didn’t pick on me for it, but I saw it wasn’t lost on her either.

 “Thank me?  Thank you, you’re the one that made it.”  Yes, and you have no idea what it’s like to be appreciated so much for it.

 “Are you going to finish that before your next shift?” Beth asked.

 “If I don’t, cover for me, willya?”

 “Yeah, right.”

 “C’mon.  You’ll be fine.”

 I saw my chance.  “Yes, just make sure you don’t let anyone forget their keys.”

 “What would...” Jay started to ask.  Beth and I burst into laughter as understanding came over his face.  “Oh...  Beth!” he said as dramatically as possible, making us laugh harder.

 “I’m guessing I’m on the outside of a joke, here?” Sara asked.

 “You and me both,” Jay said.  “Don’t worry.”

 “Go on Jay, fill her in,” Beth said, holding her breath just to get the words out.

 “Why?  You’re clearly the one who loves telling stories, here.”

 “I already told it.”

 “Laura?” he asked me.

 “It’s not my story,” I said with a smile.  I sipped my wine, noting I already had a pleasant buzz.

 “Is someone going to tell me the story, or what?”

 “Oh, jeez...” Jay said with resignation.  “It’s not even a story, really.”

 “It is when you tell it,” Beth said.

 Jay sighed, and started.  “Toward the end of a day shift, I went to get a guy for an x-ray.  An outpatient.  There’s one one guy in the waiting room, slouching with his head resting against his chest.  Oh, I have to make up a name...  ‘Roy?’ I call, and he doesn’t respond.  But I know it has to be him.  So I get closer and say real loud, ‘Roy?’  The guy literally jumps out of the chair with a ridiculously histrionic ‘Waah!’, and runs halfway across the waiting room.  Quite a performance.  With a hand on his chest he grabs my shoulder, laughs and breathlessly tells me not to startle him.

 “I walk him down the hall, and it’s like everything I say is this really funny joke that makes him laugh and grab my shoulder again as if for support, but really he’s just kind of...  Groping it.  So I do his x-ray and he’s on his way after invading my personal space some more.  I realize he left his keys on my counter, even though I told him he didn’t need them out of his pocket in the first place.  I barely caught him, and when I told him he laughed at me and slapped me right on the a*s!  Butt,” he corrected himself with a look at Madison, who wasn’t even paying attention.  His glance brought her from her thoughts, and she started listening.  “It was all I talked about for a week, I felt so weird after.  I don’t even care, it’s just that he surprised me, I guess.  After a day of people walking in and out, I get this guy jumping all over me, just about.  That was the note I ended my day on.”

 “Oh, who can blame him?  You have a cute butt.”  Beth looked right at me.  “Don’t you think, Laura?”

 My jaw dropped, and Sara wasted no time jumping in.  “What’s wrong, Laura?  You don’t agree?”  Jay and I looked at each other for ideas.  His face was turning a very lovely crimson, as I could feel my own doing.  “Come on, just say it,” Sara said.  “Jay, I think you have a cute butt,” she told him.  Beth laughed at his discomfort.  “See, Laura?  It’s easy.  You tell him.”

 “Don’t say it...” Jay said in exasperation.

 I knew who I could trust for help.  “Madison, they’re picking on Jay and Mommy.  Tell them to stop.”

 “How can anybody’s butt be cute?” she asked, making it clear how ridiculous we all looked to her.

 Jay broke into a deep belly laugh at that, which spread to the rest of us.  When he got some of his breath back he said, “Oh, perfect!  That is so perfect.  Thank you, Madison.”

 “Will you call me Maddie?” she asked him.  I could tell that had been on her mind for awhile.  I had noticed myself that he never used her nickname.

 “Oh, I could, if you really want me to.  But I think Madison is such a pretty name, and I like saying the whole thing.”

 I saw a bit of pink creep into her cheeks to match Jay’s fading shade.  “You can call me Madison,” she said, looking at her plate and fighting back a smile.  We all chuckled, and I rubbed her back.

 “So Maddie, has Jay taught you lots of karate yet?” Beth asked.

 “What?”  Maddie didn’t know he used to teach.  Or what karate was, as far as I knew.

 “Beth, no,” Jay said seriously.

 “What?  You were always complaining about wanting to teach.”  She was being serious too.

 “I’d love for Maddie to learn,” I told Jay gently, wanting to diffuse the situation.

 He didn’t say anything.  He and Beth were looking at each other in a way that said this was a very old argument.  “Jay, quit having all this false modesty,” she said in a quiet, accusing tone.

 Jay’s face hardened, and he put his hand over his eyes, massaging his temples.  “You know it isn’t that.”  I could tell he was measuring his voice carefully to avoid raising it.

 I was relieved to see Beth relent.  “I know.  I’m sorry.”

 “Can I ask why you hate talking about it so much?” I asked him.  “I mean, you seemed pretty dismissive when you mentioned it to me before, too.”  He took a strong pull of his wine, and I worried that I was pestering him.  “Do you want to talk about something else?”

 “Pretty soon, I’d like to.  I might as well clear the air on this one, though.  Yes, I taught martial arts.  That was another life entirely.  That’s one reason I don’t talk about it much.  I also don’t like talking about it because I’ve had so many guys react so ridiculously to it.  They get defensive, when there’s really no call to.  I mean come on, how threatening do I look?  I’ve never weighed over one-fifty in my life.  Still, all it has to do is come up in conversation.  I won’t be talking about fighting, or anything like it.  It’ll come up and guys will ask me if I can block a bullet, or how they’d just take a tire iron to me.  You name it.”  I found it suddenly depressing that anyone would have threatened Jay with a tire iron, even as a joke or idle comment.

 “The worst was a guy I hung out with in college.  He’d tell people that I was a black belt as he was introducing me to them.  He’d tell them I could probably kick their a*s.  Sometimes they acted like I’d challenged them myself.  So they’d challenge me, and of course I’d back down.”  He took a more gentle sip of wine.  “I guess it’s really been ever since knowing that kid that I don’t like people mentioning it about me.”  He turned to Beth.  “Which is really nothing to do with you, so I’m sorry.”

 She smiled and stroked his arm.  “I know you don’t like it, but we’re all friends here.  I was really just trying to talk to Maddie.”

 “Why wouldn’t you want her to suggest you teach again?” Sara asked.

 “That has just gotten annoying over the years, I guess.  A lot of people have asked me to teach them, or their kids.  When it comes time, everyone’s too busy.  It’s never anything but a nice idea to people.  I got sick of hearing about it.”

 “So, you really do miss teaching?” I asked.

 “It was fulfilling...  But it was so long ago.”

 “How long ago could it have been?  You can’t be thirty yet,” Sara said.

 “Pretty close,” Jay said.  I knew he was younger than me...  “I suppose it’d be around eight years ago by now.  But trust me, it’s been a long eight years.”

 “Why did you leave, if it was fulfilling?” I asked.

 “A lot of boring reasons.  Mostly, my boss was a jerk and only wanted to make money, to the point where he even wanted me to push sales and special events during class.  I got to a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore.”  No one else asked him anything.  “Alright!  We get to move on.  Sara, you’re the only one here whose career is a mystery to me.”

 “I’m an accountant.”

 “Is that as boring as it sounds?” Beth asked.

 “Not when you’re crazy like I am.”  I knew where Sara was going, and that she had to be drunk to be going there.

 “I’m crazy, and I still think it sounds boring,” Jay said.

 “Crazy like I am, I said.  Do numbers have personalities to you?”

 “Personalities?  No.”

 “For me, they do.  As weird as it sounds, ever since I was first learning addition it seemed like every number had its own.  When I’m in the middle of the day, plugging away at the columns, I really feel like I’m just having a conversation with friends.  Watching over them might be a better way to put it.”

 “That must make the day go quick,” Beth said.

 Sara shrugged.  “I don’t know about quick, but it’s not like I hate being there or anything either.  The day just goes.”

 “I wish all of our patients that had ‘personalities’ made us feel like we were talking with friends,” Jay said.  With a laugh he asked, “Are there any numbers who are kind of jerks?”

 Sara often got mocked for talking about this.  Even Brian picked on her for it.  Jay was honestly curious, and realizing that made her smile.  “Three.  Ruins any number it appears in, to a certain degree.”

 “So, would a number like, one-fifty-three have its own personality, or be a mix of the three numbers it’s made of?” Beth asked.

 Their interest made Sara laugh.  “A little of both.  Bigger numbers I’d say are a mix of what makes them up usually, but some that I keep running into get their ‘own’ eventually.  One thousand four hundred forty eight is its own little family, for instance.  It seems like I’ve been seeing that one frequently over the last couple of weeks.”

 “That is so neat,” Beth said.  “Human minds are so unique.  You hear a few stories about people with quirks like this, but you find out so many more have them and think nothing of it.”

 “Right...  It’s just how I lived my life.  I used to think everyone else was weird for hating math.”

 Madison tugged at my sleeve.  “May I be excused?” she whispered.

 “Yes.  Go ahead.”  I looked around the table.  “Actually, since Jay’s finally done with his savoring,” I smiled at him, “Would you all like to move into the living room?”

 “Sure,” Sara said.  “Dibs on the armchair.”

 Everyone filed into the living room, Madison went back up to her room.  I did a quick cleanup, and pulled the folding chair I was using into the living room to join everybody.

 Sara had indeed claimed the armchair, leaving the love seat for Jay and Beth.  When she saw me come in with my chair Beth said, “Oh Laura, I’ll sit there.  You should have your couch.”

 “That’s alright,” I said, even though I really did want to sit next to Jay.

 Beth stood up.  “I’ll just stand here then, I swear I will.”  I could tell she was reading my mind, and I wondered how transparent I was being.

 I smiled at her.  “Alright, you win.”

 “Nobody wants to sit next to me,” Jay pouted.

 “Of course I do,” I said to him quietly, and patted his leg as I sat.

 “Flirt...”  Sara teased.

Reviews

[Sarah]

There was one line in the beginning when Jay said, "I can hear you," and then you mentioned "challenging me," but I don't really see how he was challenging her. It made me go back and reread that, and I'm not sure that part was necessary.

When Sara said, "She must be in love with you," I expected more tension than just a dirty look. Maybe a strange look from Jay or an "I knew it" look from Beth. Something along those lines.

I find it odd when Laura calls her sister "alkie," even though she is the one with the one with the drinking problem. I would almost expect Sara to turn in down in hopes of Laura not having any wine herself.

I think the conversation about Jay's karate was handled very well. The way he managed his voice as to not raise it and the discomfort in the room as Beth tried to get him to open up. Although, I did expect more of an internal reaction from Laura when Beth touched Jay's arm.

Unsure of where the final comment of the chapter leaves us, but I'm excited to find out. Very nice dinner party, if I do say so myself. Felt like I was right there eating along with all of them!

[Christopher Miller]

He was challenging them (Beth and Sara) to respond. I might fix that up if it was unclear.
I'm glad you enjoyed the party. I wanted it to be a feel-good part. Not only to have them draw a bit closer, but contrast for later on.