I decided I was okay with that.
“And you’re good on appetizers?” she asked, looking at the only half-eaten plates of coconut shrimp and chips and guac.
“We’re good,” Elijah said. “Thank you.”
“Who thinks smashing cake in faces is a good wedding tradition?” Michael asked.
Tara rolled her eyes. “Do you know how much I’m spending on makeup? You will not smash cake in my face.”
“Yes,” I agreed, picking up a chip and holding it in the air. “I’m definitely team no-smash.”
Elijah chuckled beside me.
“What about you, Eli?” Michael asked, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck in a playful gesture.
“I can see both sides. People can get so uptight at weddings.”
“Exactly,” Michael said.
I looked at Elijah. “Seriously?”
“I mean, I get not wanting to ruin your makeup too. Especially after all that work.”
“So diplomatic,” I said, squeezing his side.
The waitress came back with our drinks, and Michael grabbed his shot right away and held it out for me to tap with my glass. I did and we both downed them. I cringed with the burn but then laughed.
Tara, still obviously hung up on our conversation, said, “You will not smash cake in my face. It’s humiliating.”
He raised his hands in the air. “Fine. Fine. I won’t. But speaking of humiliating…” He placed the speaker on the edge of the table and held out the microphone to me.
“What are my song choices?” I asked, hoping to stall for just a little bit longer. I took two more big mouthfuls of my drink.
“We just hook up a phone,” he said, “so you can really pick whatever.”
That almost made it harder. My phone was already on the table, face up. I’d been checking it regularly in case my momcalled or messaged. I picked it up and searched for popular karaoke songs.
“Just think of something you know well,” Elijah said. “Something you sing in the car or shower, maybe?”
“I do neither.”
“Really?” he asked. “Never?”
“Are you surprised?” Tara said with a laugh.
“It’s not a bad or good thing,” he said to Tara, most likely feeling the need to defend me. “Just a neutral.”
“That sounds like therapy talk,” she said. “Did you learn that in therapy?”
“Maybe I did,” he said.
“With the therapist who couldn’t even tell you were strangers?” Michael said. “Might not want to take anything you learned there too seriously.”
“It was good,” Elijah said.
“You’re a therapy convert now?” Michael asked.
“Possibly,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad. Helpful even.”
