Chapter Three
When we park in front of Brandy’s, Nicholas sees Zach on the porch and eyes me sideways.
“Great. That guy is here,” Nicholas mutters. He knows his name, but he’s pretending not to. Tonight he’ll pretend he doesn’t know any of their names, like they’re below his notice, as revenge for them not liking him.
Zach isn’t doing anything but petting a cat on the porch railing, but I’ve complained about him ten thousand times to Nicholas for sneaking food from my lunchbox at work and regularly bailing on his shifts without any notice, so as much as I want to argue with every word that comes out of his mouth, I look down at my cards and decide not to play my hand.
“How long do we have to stay?” he grumbles. “Will there be food? I didn’t eat before I left. And I don’t want to be out late. I have things to do tomorrow.” You’d think I forced him to come. I try to remember what falling in love felt like and can’t recall. It must have been over with very quickly.
I think he senses I’m losing my patience because when I slam my door, he doesn’t say a word, just stuffs his hands in his pockets and follows slowly like he’s on his way to the electric chair.
I have never behaved this way when roles are reversed and we’re spending time with Nicholas’s friends.
I have perpetual purple shadows under my eyes and every time they see me they ask me if I’m sick.
Every. Single. Time. One of these friends is an ex of Nicholas’s, so I know she’s doing it just to screw with me.
Zach’s eyes sharpen when they narrow on Nicholas, who’s stomping up the driveway with a scowl.
Zach stops petting the cat and takes a long swallow of beer, one finger crooking around the glass neck.
He never takes his eyes off Nicholas as he drains the whole bottle.
“Well, well, well,” he says with a smirk.
“Look who’s gracing us with his presence. ”
Nicholas tries not to break eye contact first because they’re doing some kind of male standoff thing, but he’s looking a little unnerved.
Zach holds the door open for me, which is the first chivalrous thing I’ve ever seen him do.
He slips in behind me before Nicholas can get up the last step and lets the door swing shut in his face.
I glare at Zach and open the door for my stricken fiancé, who has never been treated so rudely in his life. He will surely call his mother later and tell her all about it. Zach gives me his patented dead-eyed expression, shrugs, and walks into the kitchen without a backward glance.
Nicholas doesn’t belong in this part of my life, and we both know it. He’s here because he took my laugh as a dare, and he’s every bit as spiteful as I am. Game night has lost its joy for me, and I know down to the bottom of my soul that this is going to end badly.
–
GET OUT HERE NOW, I text Nicholas. It’s only been half an hour and he’s taken five trips to the bathroom to pet Brandy’s cat, which she’s stowed away since I’m allergic.
His excessive bathroom-lurking is stalling the flow of Cards Against Humanity and people are starting to get annoyed.
When he scuttles out of hiding, he’s so busy glowering at me that he accidentally steps on one of Brandy’s masks that’s fallen off the wall, and cracks it.
She has a row of beautiful carved wooden masks of animal faces in her hallway, celebrating her Yup’ik heritage.
Most are of animals you’d find in Alaska, like bears, seals, and wolves.
It’s been her lifelong dream to move to southwest Alaska, where her parents are from, and we routinely scroll through real estate websites hunting for the sort of house we want her to live in.
In the meantime, she’s tried to give her house an Alaskan feel with cedar furniture and a faux fireplace.
“Way to go,” says Zach.
Nicholas blushes, tugging a hand through his hair to cup the back of his neck. “I’m so sorry. What, uh, what is this thing? I’ll replace it for you.”
If Brandy’s upset, she hides it well. “No worries. With a little wood glue, it’ll be good as new!” She plucks up the mask and hurries away into the kitchen.
“I can pay for a replacement. How much did it cost?”
“Let him pay you,” Zach encourages. “It’s the least he could do. Wow, Doc, you really wanna leave, huh? Coming in here and breaking shit.”
“It was an accident,” I hiss, rubbing Nicholas’s shoulder. Nicholas tenses and shifts aside. I notice that Melissa witnessed this, so I step closer to Nicholas again.
“No worries!” Brandy sings again, looking a bit frantic.
“It’s all good. Let’s get back to the game.
” She takes her job as hostess very seriously, so she’s eager to smooth this over.
Nicholas could step on every mask she owns and she’d smile and apologize for leaving them out on the walls where anybody could step on them.
“Is everyone having fun? Yeah? This is fun!”
Nicholas’s eyes dart between Zach and Melissa, who trade whispers and grins. I’m not close enough to hear what they’re saying, but Nicholas is. His jaw clenches.
Melissa giggles. Her eyes fall to Nicholas’s polished loafers and she makes a low comment to Zach. I don’t hear his entire reply, but he makes sure the last three words are audible. Trying too hard.
“How’s that tooth?” Nicholas asks him in a tone that is not at all nice.
Zach once went to Nicholas for a toothache, and when he said a root canal would be necessary it blew up into this whole ordeal with “Dentists just want people’s money!
” and “Dentists exaggerate minor problems to defraud insurance companies!” Someone in the waiting room recorded six minutes of the tirade and put it on the Internet, then linked it to Rise and Smile’s Yelp page.
My fiancé and coworker are now low-grade nemeses.
Zach gives him a disingenuous smile. “All better.” Not true. Zach has refused to go back to the dentist and can no longer chew on the right side of his mouth. “I went to Turpin, which is where I recommend everyone go.”
“Hey, I have an idea,” I say. “Let’s get back to the game.”
Melissa ignores me. “The people at Turpin are more professional,” she says.
Zach nods. “And not self-important quacks.”
Brandy’s starting to sweat. “Let’s . . . ah . . . let’s all get along. No problems, okay? Whose turn is it?” She sounds like a harried preschool teacher.
“I don’t have a problem,” Melissa says sweetly. Her stare cuts to Nicholas. “Do you have a problem?”
Zach looks elated. He loves drama and definitely wants someone to have a problem.
Nicholas’s face darkens as he grows quiet.
A storm cloud above my head begins to rotate, sucking all of my energy.
When I want him around, he’s never there.
When I don’t want him around, he’s the devil on my shoulder.
If he gets into a fight with my friends, my work life is going to suck. Will he care? No.
We’re playing Clue at the kitchen table when Nicholas makes his next move. His ego is all bruised and battered now, so it was only a matter of time before he struck back.
He turns to Melissa. Cocks his head. “Didn’t you use to go out with Seth Walsh?”
He knows damn well that Melissa used to date Seth. He also knows that Seth cheated on her with a married dental hygienist who works with him. Rise and Smile is a hotbed of scandal.
Melissa glares at him, then me. “Yeah.”
“Hmm. Why’d you break up, again?”
Cyclops from X-Men has nothing on the burning fury in Melissa’s stare.
“We broke up,” she says venomously, “because I was walking out of the West Towne Mall one day and I saw Seth’s car in the parking lot.
When I went over there, he was in the back seat screwing another woman.
” She doesn’t add it, but we all think of the rest: On top of Melissa’s Lawrence University sweater.
I vividly remember the day she discovered them.
At that point, I’d been working at the Junk Yard, a shop of eclectic finds, for roughly three months and Melissa and I were friendly.
We bonded over our mutual loathing of Zach’s playlist, which he subjects us to on Wednesdays when it’s his turn to control the music, as well as owning the same checkered shirt and red jeans, which we used to purposefully wear on the same day.
I haven’t worn my checkered shirt together with my red jeans since our falling out, because I don’t want her to think I pine for the good old days when she didn’t vibrate with fury at the sight of me.
How could you not have known? Nicholas’s BFF getting it on with Nicholas’s own coworker!
He had to have known, and he would’ve told you about it.
You let me make a fool of myself over that guy and didn’t say anything.
I truly didn’t know Seth was cheating and still feel guilty for introducing them.
Nicholas says he didn’t know, either, but I can’t make any promises on that front.
“Seth’s an asshole,” Zach says, rolling the die and moving one space short of the kitchen door.
The murder weapon has got to be the rope, which is the only clue I’ve worked out.
Zach’s going to guess everything correctly.
He has a superhuman knack for this game and won the previous two rounds as soon as he edged his little Colonel Mustard game piece into a room.
Nicholas, who wouldn’t play unless he got to be Professor Plum, cuts Zach a dirty look. “You don’t even know Seth, so don’t talk about him. He’s my friend.”