“He wasn’t feeling well,” he says.
“Ah, I’ll have to give him a call.”
I grimace a bit as I glance over at Liam and Layla, who both look extremely smug. A part of me questions if I even see a smidgen of smugness coming from my father. My mother has far too good of a poker face to give anything away while we eat.
When we’re finished, we shift right into presents. There I am, drowning in them while everyone else has one or two.
“Hon, I didn’t need this much,” I whisper to Liam.
“Wow, Gabriel, is it your bridal shower or something?” Layla asks.
“Ha. Ha. Funny,” I say as I realize her toddler Harper doesn’t even have as many presents as I do.
“Open this one last,” Liam says, setting his hand on something that hopefully isn’t a wedding ring. Although, I don’t see Liam proposing to me in front of a crowd.
“Okay,” I agree as I start with presents from my parents. My mom and dad got me some clothes and a pen holder in the shape of a cat for my desk at work, and Layla got me a pillow with Lucille’s face plastered all over it. “Look, Liam.”
“I’m looking,” he says.
“You’re not looking impressed!”
“No, no, I’m totally impressed. This is my impressed face. This is actually my ‘I’m jealous you got a pillow and I didn’t’ face.”
Layla’s expression tells me that Liam is about to get his wish. I grab the present Layla got for him and put it in his hands. He squeezes it and feels the give of the pillow beneath the wrapping paper before promptly putting it back under the tree.
“No! Liam, open it!”
Layla, who knows Liam’s attitude toward the cats, laughs. “We’re going to make you a cat dad somehow.”
Liam opens it and I chuckle as I see the huge photo of Butter looking absolutely disgusted about life, especially because Liam seems to be wearing the exact same expression.
“Layla, these are precious, I love them,” I say. “Liam does too, even if he pretends he doesn’t.”
Buddy walks onto the scene, curious what’s going on as he sniffs the wrapping paper getting tossed here and there.
“Buddy, come here,” Liam says, holding out his present to him. Buddy sniffs it, and when Liam opens a flap and aims it at Buddy’s mouth, the dog rips the edge off.
“What did you get him?” I ask while the dog shreds the remaining paper.
“I thought he needed another blanket since he liked the last one so much.”
“If you got him another Tiffany blanket, you’re taking it back.”
“I had it in my cart and then decided you’d probably yell at me, so I got him this instead,” he says. “It’s a heated pet pad.” And then he gets to work setting that up. The moment it’s heated up, he calls the dog over to it, and Buddy immediately lies down and begins rubbing his back on it as he flips this way and that with wrapping paper in his mouth.
He’s in bliss.
I tell Liam, “Stop playing with the dog and open your presents.”
“I don’t know how,” he teases.
“Yes, you do. Sit, sit.” I got him some mundane things like clothes, an electric blanket—which I know Butter will adore—and some books. And while he told me to use his credit card and buy whatever I wanted, I felt awkward doing so, which means everything I got him was within my price range.
Even though I’m sure his presents for me cost significantly more, he acts like he adores every single one, though I can’t tell whether it’s because he actually really likes them or because I got them for him.
“I got one more present for you, but I wanted to give it to you later,” I say.
“What the fuck is this?” Layla exclaims.
