“This is the best part of dinner.” I stab at a now wilted piece of arugula. “You know, when the salad has been sitting and marinating for a few hours, and it’s all soggy.”
“You’re weird.” But he peers into the salad bowl and grabs a fork.
“I missed you, little brother.”
“And I missed your cooking,” he teases. “Fine, fine. I missed you, too. Thanks for the gift, Blythe,” he says quietly. “It was very cool of you.”
I gave him an airline ticket to use, so he can go visit Estelle for spring break. When he opened the envelope, both of them lit up—and then made out for a little too long.
“Happy to do it. It’s good to see you two back together. Just keep it down at night.”
He blushes. “Oh God. Sorry, sorry. Although, I have suffered plenty over the years because of you and Chris.”
“Fine. Let’s call it even.”
We clink forks.
“Blythe! Get in here!” Sabin’s voice booms. “You didn’t open your present!”
I wipe my hands. “Dear God, I can only imagine what it might be.”
“Good luck,” James says. “Be strong.”
I laugh and go to meet my fate.
“Did you think I forgot about you?” Sabin makes an exaggerated frown. “Sit down, and receive the blessings of the day.”
I cautiously kneel on the floor next to him.
He pushes a rather large present my way. “You can never say that I don’t pay attention to everything you say.”
I take off the paper and lift the top off the box. Then, I smile and bust out laughing. “Estelle is right. You really are goddamn fucking brilliantly perfect.”
In the box are thousands of green mini swords.
Because they are the best and make everything taste better.
I kiss Sabin on the cheek. “These are the most awesome green mini swords a girl could ever ask for. And you’re the best Sabin a girl could ask for.” I scoop my hand through the cocktail swords. “I cannot believe you remembered this.”
“A raging drunk Blythe is hard to forget.”
“I think we all remember that day,” Chris says.
“Yep,” Sabin says a little too loudly. “Christopher’s non-wedding wedding day.Thatwas interesting.”
“Gee, thanks for bringing that up.” Chris shoots him an irritated glare.
“What? It’s true. Don’t kill the messenger. What was her name? Oh, yeah. Jennifer. Wonder whatever happened to her.”
Chris has a look of disbelief coupled with growing anger. “Nobody cares what happened to her.”
Sabin stands up. “Who’s up for a Christmas Day sunset swim?”
“Dude, I’m totally in!” Estelle says with more cheer than the moment warrants. James makes a face, but she widens her eyes and grabs his hand. “We’ll all run into the water, wearing our clothes!”
I cannot imagine that she has any real urge to dunk into the freezing water, but the room has grown tense enough that she’s probably as eager as the rest of us to defuse this conversation.
“Yeah, that’ll be fun,” Eric says halfheartedly.
