Page 40 of Wintering with George

“I’m not going anywhere, so just—can we not?”

She nodded but ruined it by rushing forward and hugging both me and Kurt. He started crying, and then she started crying, and it was a mess. Thank God Brad took that moment to remind Thomasin that she was supposed to be making sandwiches.

“I’ll make them,” he offered, “if you’re in the middle of some kind of emotional catharsis over there.”

“I’ll do it since you make the world’s worst sandwiches,” she snarled at him.

“Do I make bad sandwiches?” he asked the boys.

“Oh yeah,” Toby agreed. “Really, really bad. I didn’t know you could mess up peanut butter and jelly, but you do, Dad.”

“They’re either slimy with too much jelly or super dry with the peanut butter,” Dennis let him know. “Please don’t make anything. Uncle Kurt says George can’t boil water, but I bet even he makes better stuff.”

“I’m sorry?” I said to Kurt. “I can cook.”

He shook his head. “No. Not at all. And reheating and using the microwave don’t count.”

“I think that counts,” I assured him.

“It doesn’t,” Thomasin seconded. “Now, who wants a sandwich?”

We all did.

It was strange.

After lunch, everyone sat down and looked uncomfortable. Even Kurt.

“What’s happening?” I asked the guy I was going to marry.

“I’m sorry?”

I gestured at Brad, who was staring out the window, and at Thomasin, who was fiddling with ornaments on the tree, and at Dennis and Toby, who were sitting on the couch, Dennis pulling on a thread on his sweater and Toby drawing on his sneaker with a Sharpie.

“What are you all doing?”

“Well, at home on Christmas Eve, we drop off gifts and go to a party,” Kurt reminded me.

“Yeah. So?”

He shrugged. “There’s nothing to do here.”

I glanced at Thomasin. “And you?”

“We carol, like I told you earlier, and then when we get back, there’s a party to host where I normally have everyone make cookies, and then we go to church.”

“Okay.”

“It just feels strange.”

I turned to Brad.

“It’s normally just planned chaos,” he said, “and it’s exhausting, but these are the things we do every year, so it’s weird not to have to go anywhere.”

I looked to the boys last.

“Is this normal?” Toby asked me. “People sit around and do nothing?”

“Holy shit,” I said to all of them. “You see the dogs and the cat?”