Chapter Twenty-Two
WITH THE TABLE set and mounds of various colored curries on everyone’s plates, Cierra decided it was the moment to share the good news she’d just received.
“Guys, I have an announcement I’d like to make,” she said.
Everyone looked up and put their utensils down in anticipation; she wasn’t one to make a show unnecessarily.
“Remember how I applied to Plated?”
“How could we forget?” Lisa said teasingly. Her mom just looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes.
“Well, I got accepted. I’m going to the final round of casting!”
“Honey bean, that’s amazing news! Congratulations!” her mom said, leaning over to give her daughter a kiss on the cheek.
Lisa was less visibly excited but beamed with pride in her own way.
“Knew you’d land it. Good job, sis.” She gave Cierra a wink, the kind that conveyed I always believed in you.
Cierra felt as if she were five years old, and Lisa had just given her a 10/10 on a cartwheel.
She mouthed a silent Thanks, feeling nothing but gratitude for her big sister. For everything.
After her family had congratulated her on the audition and asked various questions about the process, the conversation organically began to flow to other topics: upcoming sweater weather, how delicious the food was, etc.
“Can’t get green curry like this in Connecticut, I’ll tell you that. I wonder if it’s the same kind they actually eat in Thailand,” Jess said.
“It’s not too far off,” Julian interjected.
“Have you been? What’s it like??” Cierra’s mom asked, interested in the globe trotter in front of her.
“I went for three months after graduating from college — please don’t ask me how long ago it was — but I had the time of my life.
” Julian regaled her family with tales of motorcycle rides and run-ins with various exotic creatures.
Like Cierra, her mom was captivated by his exploits.
Lisa asked a question or two, but they were mainly of the sarcastic variety.
“So, Lisa,” Julian started, taking notice of her lack of participation, “Cierra tells me you’re a lawyer?”
“Yep,” she said, taking a drink from her wine glass. “Divorce. It’s a barrel of laughs.”
“Whew,” he said. “I bet you’ve seen it all.”
“You’re not wrong about that. It’s a polarizing job, naturally.”
Julian laughed. “No kidding. I probably could have used someone with your talents, but hey, I made it out all right.”
At that comment, the table got slightly quiet, as Cierra hadn’t mentioned the fact he was divorced to her family.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you’d been married before,” Lisa said, perking up, now very interested. “How long ago—”
“Lisa!” Cierra exclaimed, “Maybe a little personal for a first meet?”
“What? We’re all getting to know each other, aren’t we?” Lisa said. “Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, Julian. I’ll behave.”
Cierra’s mom took it upon herself to redirect the conversation. “So, Julian, what is it that you do for work again? Renovations or something like that?”
“I think you’re confusing him with Erik, Mom. That guy from Cierra’s job?” Lisa said.
Julian looked at Cierra questioningly, and suddenly her curry was doing backflips in her stomach.
“Oh, right, from Mexico City. Julian, did Cierra show you any photos from that trip? I just love the one of her and Erik at the event.”
He tapped his fork against his plate, each tap grating against Cierra’s ear more than the last. “Yeah, I saw some photos online, but not sure if I saw the one you’re talking about.”
Cierra’s mom whipped out the picture from their family group chat. “Isn’t Cierra just adorable?”
It was damning. There was nothing explicitly untoward; Cierra was adjusting platters of vegetables and dips and was mid-laugh, looking at Erik, who appeared just as joyful and had his body contorted, probably in an effort to make her laugh, being his usual affable self.
All the same, it was carefree and effortless. Warmly intimate.
“Nadine, Erik’s girlfriend — well, at the time — took a picture of us setting up the event,” Cierra explained hastily.
No wonder she was pissed that night, Cierra thought. It seemed obvious now.
“Ah, I see,” Julian replied, before pivoting the conversation back to work.
While he didn’t appear to be upset, Cierra’s stomach did somersaults for the next twenty minutes, her indiscretion feeling increasingly impossible to keep from him.
Her family left before nine; her mom hated being on the road at night, especially in the city.
And since they’d ordered in, Cierra had the plates and forks washed in no time, while Julian took out the trash.
They were going about the nightly chores quietly when Cierra noticed Julian looking deep in thought.
“Spending the night?” she asked, assuming he would say yes.
“I’m not sure. I have an early morning tomorrow, and I’ve been a little off my workout routine.”
“Oh, alright.”
Cierra dried her hands with a dish towel and joined Julian on the couch. He leaned over with his hands clasped.
“So, you’re really close to the family you work for, huh?”
“Yeah, you could say that. I mean, it’s hard to know how close you can ever really be with your employers, but I like them. They’re good people, and they’ve been supportive of me. Plus, I practically live in their house, go on vacations with them and stuff.”
“That makes sense. Seems like it’d be weirder if you weren’t close. I guess I never really thought about it like that.” He paused. There was obviously something picking at him and, unfortunately, Cierra had a good idea where this was coming from.
“Have they met your family, too? The Lawsons?”
“No. Well, Lisa and Jess did. Not the whole family, just—”
“Erik?”
Cierra’s heart began to race. “Uh, yeah.”
“It kinda threw me when your mom confused me with Erik earlier, I didn’t realize how close you two were.” Then he paused, recalling something. “He was at Mia’s party, right? The guy coming off the elevator?”
“Uh, yeah. I think so.”
“You think? That’s kind of weird to just walk past someone you’re apparently friends with. Is there something else going on here?”
The cozy apartment suddenly felt claustrophobic.
How could she explain the situation to him?
She hadn’t technically been unfaithful, but she hadn’t been upfront either, so she knew this was going to be tough.
Especially given he’d told her his ex-wife had cheated on him.
Julian looked calm but determined to find out the truth.
Cierra was backed into a corner, and it was obvious the only way out was going to be through. She took a deep breath.
“Remember when we were arguing during the Catskills trip? You told me you didn’t want to be exclusive, and I didn’t take it so well?”
Julian nodded slowly, his eyes cast down. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Right, so, one night during the Catskills, Erik and I were talking — just how we normally would — but we drank a lot of wine and . . . uh . . .”
“Did you guys sleep together?” he asked, quietly. Knowingly.
“Yeah.”
Julian pursed his lips and stared at his hands, which were still iron-clasped in his lap. It felt like a full minute passed before he lifted his head to meet Cierra’s eyes.
“Listen, I promise we’re just friends. We’re just . . . around each other a lot. It was always platonic, I swear.”
“Okay,” he said. He bit the inside of his cheek at her mention that it was platonic; the past tense obviously not escaping him.
“That was right before we went to Oceans, right?” he asked. Cierra nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”
The answer to that question was obvious.
But Cierra could tell he wasn’t really looking for that answer.
And while she felt guilty about hiding this from him, she also knew she hadn’t done anything wrong by sleeping with Erik.
The whole reason she was feeling vulnerable in the Catskills in the first place was because Julian had told her he wanted to keep things casual.
“Damn. This is, um . . . this sucks,” he said, before letting out a nervous chuckle. “So, do you have feelings for him? Since our re-start?”
“No. No, no. It was a one-time thing, seriously. It was a drunken hook-up. That’s it. It didn’t change at all how I felt about you.”
“Do you guys still hang out?”
“No. I mean, well, we do still see each other sometimes, but not—”
Julian put his head in his hands. “Listen, I know it’s not fair for me to get angry or upset at you sleeping with another guy.
I mean, it’s mostly my fault. I get that.
But the fact you’ve essentially said nothing about this person .
. . it just doesn’t sit right. And to know that it’s not just your boss’s brother .
. . but that he’s friends with Mia, has met your family .
. . I don’t know, Cierra. I need time to process this. ”
With her eyes lowered, she understood where he was coming from.
“I think I’m gonna go home tonight. Thanks for hosting, you have a beautiful family.”
“Maybe we can talk about it later this week?”
“Yeah, sure. Maybe. I have that family vacation coming up, remember?”
“Oh, right.” This was probably going to be the last time she’d see him before Sincha Summit, and she really didn’t want to wait that long to resolve this. “I just think we should deal with this sooner rather than later.”
“Maybe we can find a time to talk on Wednesday . . . I don’t know. I have a lot to think about.”
“Okay. I understand.” Without a hug or kissing her goodbye, Julian let himself out and closed the door.
Alone with leftover red massaman curry, she poured herself a glass of wine and curled up next to her bookshelf in her living room.
The lack of definitive guilt or injustice was making the entire situation a lot more difficult to process on her end.
Erik had become a good friend; he was important to her.
There was no getting around that, but she was also wary of what that could mean for her and Julian from now on.
The age-old question — can men and women be friends? The answer was something like, of course, context permitting. How would she feel if she found out Julian was secretly spending time with a close friend he had recently slept with, even if he swore up and down it was platonic?
She knew the answer to that, and it made her even more conflicted.