“Oh my God.” She pushed past us and hurried over to her husband and ex-husband. She tugged on Ethan’s sleeve, but he didn’t budge. Christopher looked down at her and flashed a gorgeous smile. By the way his lips move I knew he had just greeted her.
Seeing him from a distance I understood why she fell for him quickly when she was younger. He was very handsome, and exhumed confidence. A woman suddenly appeared next to him. I recognized her as Holly, the woman he had been having an affair with for years before marrying her in prison. They had a daughter together now. She had gotten pregnant while Cleo was still married to him.
Holly came up smiling, and then her face fell when she realized who he had been talking to. She glared at Cleo and grabbed Christopher possessively. Looking quite satisfied, she said something and that made Ethan step back and turn to leave. Christopher laughed as he came towards us and stormed out. Cleo ran after him, and we followed her.
He got into their car and slammed the door.
“Is it a good idea for him to drive right now? He’s got the kids in the car,” I mentioned.
“Good point. I’m gonna go say something,” Mark said and ran towards their car before they left. He knocked on Ethan’s window and after a long moment of him ignoring him he rolled it down and spoke to him. Ethan’s anger started to subside and finally nodded. He got out of the car and traded places with his wife.
We asked if we were still going to their house, and Cleo said to come over. Derek jumped in our car and we left the restaurant.
“Holy shit guys,” Derek leaned forward in the back to be eye level with the two of us in front. “What do you think he said to Ethan?” I looked out the window, afraid that I would give anything away.
“Who knows. I want to know why he’s here in Los Angeles. Shouldn’t he have a tether or something?” Mark said. I chose not to speak for the duration of the car ride while the guys discussed various theories to Chris’ sudden reappearance.
We arrived at their house and Derek jumped out and practically sprinted inside. Mark and I took our time getting inside. We went straight into Ethan’s den, where our parties almost always were. Cleo and Ethan were noticeably absent.
Chase was behind the bar pouring scotch into two tumblers.
“Tabatha took the kids to bed and they went straight into his office.”
Mark went over to the stereo system and turned it on. Having something other than silence surrounding us helped to relax us. I joined Chase at the bar and reached down into the cabinet for my bottle of rum. I mixed it with a can of ginger ale and went to the card table where Adrian was starting to shuffle a deck.
“I think we can all appreciate Ethan for letting us keep alcohol here now,” he chuckled. I nodded enthusiastically. For the first two years of Ethan’s recovery their house was kept dry. We were allowed to bring alcohol, but we had to take it home. Somewhere down the line Ethan must have decided he was in a good place with his addiction and agreed to let us keep a very small shelf in his bar. The only rule was that it was to be locked and only Mark, Derek, and Adrian have keys that they kept on their persons.
“I have no problem seeing the bottles anymore or watching you drink, but you never can be too safe,” he explained when he told us.
We started a game of poker, playing for pennies. After a long twenty minutes the couple of the house came out of the office and joined the party. No one said anything for a moment, we only stared at them. Ethan rolled his eyes and went to the fridge to grab some water. Cleo looked like she was in shock but chose to head to the table with us.
Ethan joined her a moment later with two lemon waters. Adrian dealt them in and we started a new game. “Can we ask questions now?” Derek asked excitedly. I groaned inwardly. Why was he so obnoxious? Ethan’s eyes shot up and glared at him, but Cleo put her hand on his, relaxing him.
“Apparently they are here to do some daytime talk show.”
“What did he say to piss you off?” Mark added, seeing as how Derek broke the seal of awkwardness.
“He asked how the twins were doing. He wanted to know if Jimmy missed her ‘Daddy’,” Cleo did air quotes at that last word.
“Even when I lived with him, he wasn’t ever there. She didn’t miss him then, she doesn’t miss him now. He was just trying to irritate him. That’s what Chris does.”
There was a small lull after that, so finally Ethan forced a smile and asked if we wanted to make the game a little more interesting.
“How so?”
“Are we stripping? Cause hell yeah. Wait, there’s only two girls…” Derek said. Everyone shot him down quickly.
“Nice try,” Mark told him.
“What, it’s not like we haven’t seen almost all of each other naked anyways. Granted most of the time it wasn’t by choice, but some of it is ingrained in my brain!” He groaned and pulled on his face dramatically. I looked over at Mark, who turned away quickly. Had he seen Cleo naked?
“Hold up, has everyone seen everyone in the buff?” I asked.
Everyone burst into laughter. Derek held up his hand and then lowered it.
“I have- wait no. Only my bandmates. Cleo you probably have.”
She shook her head and gave him a disgusted look.
