Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Brooke
What the absolute fuck? Some chick just comes waltzing into Skyler’s house carrying a huge picnic basket and wearing the tiniest pair of red shorts I’ve ever seen. Sure, she’s cute and has great legs, but…come on! Obvious much? Okay, maybe this is judgmental and hypercritical of me after wearing a thong around Skyler, but why is she here, and why does she think she can barge in like this?
“Cherry!” Skyler exclaims as he jumps up off the couch like his ass is on fire. “What are you doing here?” He does not sound pleased.
“Silly, I told you yesterday that we should get together, and you agreed, so here I am.” She sets down her basket and strikes a “tah-dah!” pose—just in case anyone missed her.
“What, are you nuts? I didn’t agree to anything.”
“Sure you did, honey. You clearly said, ‘Uh huh!’”
I can’t help snorting and telling her, “When a guy says, ‘Uh huh,’ you ought to know by now it means he isn’t listening to you. Here’s a tip…look at where his eyes are focused. If he’s not looking at you and grunts, you’re just part of the background noise.”
This Cherry chick ignores me like I’m invisible, but her eyes go wide as she catches sight of Levi and exclaims, “Ooh! You’re the ‘Oh Say Can You See’ guy from last night! You were really good! What are you doing here?” She seems to have developed a severe butt shimmy as she wiggles and giggles.
Skyler says a little too loudly, “Levi is supposed to be here, unlike you!”
As if she hadn’t heard Skyler, she continues addressing Levi, “It was a really hard song, and it musta been extra, extra hard to sing it Acapulco!”
I start to laugh, but quickly cover it with a cough.
She pries her eyes off Levi long enough to glare at Skyler. “But honey, I told you I’d bring you a picnic. I thought we could have a romantic lunch out by the creek.”
“I don’t remember you saying anything of the sort. I never agreed to it, and I’m not your honey. I think you need to leave. We’re busy.”
Wow, she might be a tad—okay a lot—pushy, but that’s harsh. I didn’t know Skyler had it in him to be rude, especially when someone is delivering food—even though something in her basket smells burnt. I have to say my tummy is growling, even though I wasn’t hungry until she showed up. It dawns on me that I’ve only had coffee and one little scone all day. I have every right to be hungry. Maybe even hangry by now with this charade going on.
“But I brought all of this fried chicken, potato salad, and a banana cream pie.” I can’t help whimpering as she whines this, even if something is burnt. Why does she have to mention all of this food? “I have wine too! And there’s enough to feed an army! And you said…”
Skyler semi-bellows, “I didn’t say anything!”
“Why are you in such a bad mood?” she asks him in a little girl voice that makes my head begin to ache. Maybe it’s my advanced state of hangrytude.
That’s when Levi looks at her with narrowed eyes and says, “I vaguely remember you from last night. You came up to us to talk, but weren’t you with your husband? Or boyfriend? I remember now he wanted you to quit talking and go sit down with him.”
“Oh, uh, we’re not married.”
“But he is your boyfriend,” Levi persists.
“Uh…” she stalls. “Kinda, I guess.”
Levi scoffs as Skyler says, “Yeah, just like I was ‘kinda’ your boyfriend when you cheated on me?” He definitely looks steamed now. “I distinctly remember you agreeing to go steady with me, and the next thing I knew I saw you with Marty Brubacher making out in his car in the parking lot at the Sock Hop, and your blouse was on the dashboard.”
“Steady?” I ask Skyler with a tiny snort. “Who does that?”
He turns a grumpy face to me and says, “We were seventeen, Brooke.”
“All the more reason you should be over it by now!” she pouts at him in that same cringy tone and stamps her foot.
Skyler fumes at her, “Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
“Well, what were you doing at the Sock Hop without me then, huh?”
“We’ve been over and over this before, Cherry. Like I told you several years ago, I was picking up take-out for my family! We’d had a long day, and my mom didn’t feel like cooking.”
“Oh, yeah.” She looks down at her feet. Cute sandals. I wonder if she got them here in town. “Well, you should be over that by now, Skyler,” she repeats, only this time it’s in a grumpy voice.
“So, what’s your current boyfriend doing today?” he asks her.
“Oh, he’s…uh…working…” she trails off as Skyler advances on her. He walks past her and opens the door.
Skyler’s voice softens as he says, “Then take this picnic of yours to his workplace and surprise him . Be a decent human being to at least one man in your life. He seemed like a good guy.”
“You don’t want me?”
“Sorry, no. Not for years.”
She points her nose in the air. “Well, okay then. If you change your mind, I can leave you my number.”
“No thanks.”
Cherry gives him one last sad-puppy-dog-eyes look and licks her lips. She juts out her tits that aren’t nearly as impressive as her booty and switches her attention over to Levi. “What about you, handsome?”
Levi flinches and tells her, “Not now, not ever. I’m here with my wife, for one thing, and Skyler is my best friend for another. Catch a fucking clue, lady. It’s time for you to go. And it’s rude to walk into other people’s houses.”
“Well, at least my boyfriend isn’t scared of a bunch of stupid balloons! You big sissy!” With a nasty laugh, she turns and flounces out of the house. Skyler follows her out and stands at the open door, watching to see if Little Miss Hotpants is really driving away.
I turn my attention to Levi who’s gone a livid shade of red, and he’s shaking. This isn’t good. I wrap my arms around him and hold on tight.
There is the sound of tires spinning on the gravel drive, and Skyler finally comes back inside and locks the door. He looks furious.
I guess the mood has been ruined for now.
Skyler assures us, “Don’t believe Cherry went to a lot of trouble to fix a picnic. She can’t cook worth a damn. She’s the only person I knew who failed home ec. three times. My strong guess is she went through the frozen food section of the Piggly Wiggly and got the chicken and the pie. Their deli does make a good potato salad, at least.” He shrugs and shakes his head.
After some rather uninspired peanut butter sandwiches, apples, and potato chips for lunch, I get an idea that I hope will elevate the general atmosphere. “Hey, guys, I’ve never been fishing. Do you think you two could show me how it’s done?”
They readily smile and agree. We spend the next few hours out at the creek. It’s serene out there, so by the time we have enough fish for dinner, we’re all relaxed again and cheered up. Thank you, Mother Nature.
When we get back to the house, Skyler sets us up to show me how to clean the fish (gross), and Levi heads in to call Skyler’s therapist’s office for an appointment. He joins us a few minutes later to finish the cleaning and says, “Somehow, just knowing I have an online chat set up with him in a couple days makes me feel better. Thanks, Sky.”
The fish are delicious. I feel unusually accomplished by eating a dinner that I helped catch and clean. It’s so different from shopping at the Piggly Wiggly.
After dinner, I ask Levi if he’d like to join me in the shower, and his eyes light up. “Can Skyler come too?” he whispers to me.
A shiver goes through me as I look deep into my husband’s eyes. He’s so expectant and cheerful; I turn to Skyler, who’s bent over as he loads the dishwasher, and I try for a nonchalant tone. “Hey, Skyler, Levi and I are going to take a shower, but Levi wants to know if you’ll join us. What do you think?”
His head snaps up, and he stares at me a moment. Then he looks at Levi as he straightens his back.