P.B. Chang’s was the best Chinese food in the area. It was also something that she normally didn’t allow herself because she usually couldn’t afford it, which was why she only treated herself to it twice a year. It also didn’t hurt that the two days she allowed herself the treat were also the two days P.B. Chang’s automatically doubled the amount of food for free. While other people were going to be eating turkey for several days, she’d be eating Chinese food.
“Let’s get set up, guys,” she said cheerfully, earning several barks of approval.
After depositing her blanket and pillow on the couch, she took the dogs out for a quick walk and quickly changed into a Red Sox tee-shirt, baby pink flannel pajamas, and a pair of Trevor’s thick white socks. She was just sliding the first disc of her “X-Files” DVD collection into the DVD player for her Thanksgiving Day “X-File” marathon when a knock sounded at the door.
She grabbed her wallet and headed to the door, giving the dogs a stern look to stay put. With small groans, they did just that. As she opened the door, the aroma of fried chicken fingers, pork fried rice, and beef teriyaki hit her hard and made her mouth water. She couldn’t wait to tear into her food, which was a good thing considering how much food there was. Maybe she’d ordered too much, Zoe thought as she frowned down at the two large brown paper bags that were overflowing with food. She may have gone overboard ordering this year, forgetting that they’d double whatever she ordered, but that was okay because she was starving.
It was only after the delivery boy left that she’d realized that he didn’t bring her orange soda, not that she would complain. She paused the movie. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of Coke, knowing that she’d go through them, and returned to the living room to find her boys sniffing around the bags.
“Be good and I’ll give you something yummy,” Zoe said teasingly as she opened the bags and quickly found the beef and broccoli, she’d ordered for them. After she split the small carton between them, she sat on the couch, pulled the coffee table closer, hit the “Play” button, and got comfortable.
After Trevor’s announcement this morning, she really needed this. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Trevor, but she knew that she couldn’t go much further with him before she broke. She loved him so much that she was actually afraid to take any chances with him.
Not that it was much of a risk considering that he hadn’t offered his undying love or anything. The only thing he’d offered her was convenience, whatever that meant. She loved him and she was pretty sure that he cared about her, more than just for their arrangement, but he didn’t have anything else to offer her and she’d be stupid to sit here depressing herself over something that she had no control over.
At least she could drown her sorrows in extra duck sauce, Zoe thought, reaching over to start on the bag closest to her.
“Oh, look at that, Jason. She got us a little snack for the ride,” Trevor suddenly said, scaring the living hell out of her.
Gasping for breath after she’d stopped screaming hysterically, Zoe pressed a hand to her chest and wondered if her heart was ever going to be able to stop pounding. “Stop doing that to me!”
“Doing what?” Trevor asked, never taking his eyes away from her as he crouched down to greet the excited dogs.
“Scaring the hell out of me!” Zoe snapped.
Trevor shrugged as he continued petting the dogs.
Jason threw the dogs a curious look as he stepped further into the apartment only to come to an abrupt halt when he spotted the label on the brown paper bags.
“Is that,” he noticeably swallowed, “P.B. Chang’s?”
“Yes,” Zoe said, gesturing towards the bags, “would you like some?” The words were barely out of her mouth before she found herself moving quickly out of the way as Jason sat down next to her with a carton of chicken fingers in his hand and one already in his mouth.
Shaking her head in wonder, Zoe turned her attention back to Trevor to find the man glaring down at her, but that didn’t bother her since he seemed to glare at everyone.
“Aren’t the two of you supposed to be with your family?” Zoe asked, cautiously reaching out to grab a chicken finger only to pause halfway when Jason shifted the box away from her with a murderous glare. With a small groan, she let her hand drop. Even though she was starving and it was P.B. Chang’s, it wasn’t worth losing a finger over.
“We were, but we had to leave to come get you,” Trevor bit out, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before. Then again, he had left a Thanksgiving meal to come here and she could only imagine the insane amount of food served at a Bradford dinner.
“Why?” Zoe asked, reaching over to open the bag closest to her only to pause halfway there. She threw Jason a questioning look. “Did you just growl at me?”
He gave her a sheepish smile and a shrug. “Sorry, habit.”
With a few muttered words about Bradfords and their food obsession, Zoe pulled the bag closer to her, throwing Jason a cautious glance only to find the man leaning back on the couch, watching television as he devoured a large carton of beef teriyaki.
Wasn’t he just eating chicken fingers? With a mental shake, she forced herself to focus on the really pissed-off man in front of her.
“Well, since I didn’t ask you to come, the two of you can return to your Thanksgiving dinner and I can go back to...”
Her words trailed off as she looked at Jason.
Hadn’t he just been eating the carton of beef teriyaki? He ignored her questioning look as he dug into the large carton of noodles. Sighing, she went to grab her Coke only to find it, and the backup she’d brought out only minutes earlier, empty next to a large stack of empty food cartons.
“You call this Thanksgiving dinner?” Trevor demanded, grabbing her attention from trying to calculate how much food Jason went through in a day. It was actually frightening because it appeared that he ate more than Trevor.
“No,” she said, jabbing a thumb in Jason’s direction, “I call this Jason’s light snack.”
“Sorry,” Jason mumbled, not really sounding sorry at all, but that was all right, because unfortunately for her, the scents that she’d thought were enticing only a few minutes earlier were actually starting to turn her stomach.
