“Oh.” I swallowed, feeling so awkward I wanted to crawl into a hole. “I put some chips and salsa on the table.”
I couldn’t tell if she’d actually heard me. She was already walking away to join her husband and the other guys in the living room.
“Awesome,” I muttered as I went to the kitchen. “Great to have you here.”
A few more couples arrived—guys Sean worked with and their girlfriends or wives. One of the women had at least brought a prepackaged veggie platter. All the men had brought beer.
Was I at a frat party? All beer and almost no food?
I stopped and watched Sean as he stood with his friends—talking and laughing. I could probably walk right out the front door and he wouldn’t notice. Until he wanted something.
When had he changed? Things hadn’t always been like this.
That was too much to grapple with while guests were descending on our house. With a little shake of my head to clear it, I opened the freezer to see if we had anything to feed almost a dozen people. There was an unopened bag of pizza rolls. That was something. I set them on the counter and was about to turn on the oven when Sean called from the other room.
“Hey, babe? Can you bring me a beer?”
My back stiffened. With a slow, deliberate motion, I pushed my glasses up my nose, then turned to look at him. The smile melted from his face.
One of his friends guffawed loudly and smacked him on the chest. “Oh dude, you’re in trouble.”
“Shut up,” Sean said with a glare and stalked into the kitchen. He stood close and lowered his voice. “What’s going on?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Are you kidding me?”
“What?”
All too often, I would have said nothing was wrong just to avoid conflict—especially in front of other people. But I was tired, and the noise of laughter in the other room crawled up my spine like a spider.
Still, I lowered my voice so I wouldn’t make a scene. “It’s Friday and I’m exhausted, but I was going to do my best to rally since you made plans with your friends. Without asking me if I wanted to go, I might add. And then, without telling me a thing, you changed the plans, inviting everyone over to our place. Now there’s a house full of people and no food and you want me to bring you a beer?”
He looked at me like he had no idea who I was—or why I was mad. “I thought you’d be happy about this. You never want to go out.”
“That’s not true.”
“You complain about it every time. Look, who cares about the food? No one in there gives a shit if there’s not a four-course meal. They’re our best friends. We don’t have to worry about that crap with them.”
Ourbest friends? More like his best friends.
I crossed my arms. “That’s not what I meant. There’s just a whole lotta beer and not much to eat. But if you don’t mind dealing with a bunch of drunk dudes after they finish all that beer on empty stomachs, be my guest.”
He opened his mouth, and for a second, I thought he was about to start yelling. But one of his buddies shouted, “Shots! Shots! Shots!”
Kind of made my point for me.
“What the fuck do you expect me to do?” Sean snapped.
With my arms still crossed, I glanced away.Kick them out and tell them to go home.“I don’t know. Home Slice will be busy, but we could probably still order pizza.”
“What time is it? They deliver, right?”
I was going to say yes, they do, when I got an idea.
“Why don’t I go pick it up? It’s a Friday. It could be hours for delivery. If I go down there, it’ll still take a while, but I bet it’ll be faster.”
“Probably.” He glanced over his shoulder at his friends all chatting and laughing, then turned back to me.
I grabbed the bag of pizza rolls and stuffed them back in the freezer. I didn’t want him to decide we could scrounge something at home. “I’ll take care of it.”
