Page 5 of How the Other Half Lives

“Okay, so what’s the deal?” Elain asked the minute she walked in the door. Her husband was not far behind. He pushed a container of store-bought cookies at me.

“Really? This is your dessert you brought?” I turned my gaze to Elain, because I knew she was the one who would have waited until the last minute.

“Don’t come at me with that. Mom’s bringing cake. You know she’s going to bring cake and act like it’s a surprise for the special occasion.”

I rolled my eyes. Elain was a fantastic mother, but not a cook or baker by any means. Her husband wasn’t much better, but between the two of them they managed to keep their kids fed, so I assumed they figured out a few things in the kitchen.

“We barely had time to swing by the store. This was all they had,” he said with a shrug. “Unless you wanted a sheet cake that had ‘Happy Anniversary’ on it.”

“Who’s got the kids?” I asked. The three of us sat down in the living room.

“My parents,” he replied.

“You know, I do like to see my nieces and nephews.”

Elain waved a hand at me. “Enough of that, you can see the kids anytime. Marcus wants to come over and finish that game this week. What the heck happened with Alex?”

I groaned. We hadn’t spoken much since my disastrous date or non-date with Alex.

“Mom mentioned that your new young man couldn’t make it because he was working. But you told me he had this weekend off. If you’re going to lie to our parents, I need to know so I can hold it over your head and also not mess up your story.”

“He does have the weekend off,” I said. I ran a hand through my hair. “I misread the situation. He’s… We’re not dating.”

“So your date didn’t go well?” she asked, sadness clouding her features. She grabbed one of the throw pillows and wrapped her arms around it, leaning toward me like she was settling in for a juicy story.

Her husband sat next to her on the loveseat, his arm around her shoulders.

“Dinner started out fine. He was a bit grumbly about going out, but that’s just him. Everything was fine until we ran into a colleague of mine. I introduced Alex as my boyfriend, and he thought I was just making up a story to cover up the fact that I was out to dinner with the guy who does maintenance at my apartment.”

Elain’s eyes widened, and her husband flinched.

“What a jerk!”

“I kind of realized then that he doesn’t think we’re dating. So… we’re not.”

“Have you talked to him?” The sadness was back. I couldn’t take the pitied look she threw my way, though I appreciated the support.

I shook my head. “A few text messages. I’ve been busy with work.” Work that I made up out of nowhere. In reality, I was all caught up.

“But you usually talk to him every day.”

“Yeah, I know. And he’s getting suspicious, so probably this evening or tomorrow I’ll have to have a real conversation with him like an adult instead of a coward.” Being a grown-up sucked.

“What’s that going to look like?”

I groaned and rubbed my hands over my face. “I have no idea. Probably me telling him we can’t do this anymore. I don’t really want to admit that I thought we were dating because I’m a fucking idiot. I feel so freaking stupid. I—I really liked him.” I thought he really liked me. I was ready to pour my heart out and talk with him about the next steps in my career. I wanted his advice before I made some big decisions. Those decisions would affect my future so greatly, I wanted his input because I thought he was part of that future.

“Hey, don’t be like that.”

“It’s so humiliating.” I shook my head. My stomach twisted at the thought of me thinking I was dating a guy for two whole months, and he just thought it was hooking up.

“I’m sorry,” Elain said. “I know you really liked him.”

“I still really like him. He’s really great. We have a lot of fun just hanging out here. I was going to introduce him to Mom and Dad. Thank goodness I didn’t tell them a whole lot about him.”

“What did they say when you told them he couldn’t make it?”

“Not much. They’ll be here any minute. Can you just—”

“Of course. We won’t say a word.” Her husband mimicked zipping his lips closed.

“Thanks.”

“I’ll linger afterwards and we can talk, okay?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m just going to wallow in my self-pity for a month or so. Besides, I should call him tonight and clear the air. Then I can just lick my wounds on my own.” Even though the thought of doing that twisted my stomach even more. I was so stupid. “Maybe I’ll sell my apartment, move out of the city.”

“Now’s not the best time to make rash life-altering decisions, Vance.”

Didn’t I know it. Too bad I had a decision to make whether I liked it or not.

A few minutes later, my mom and dad arrived. Mom, of course, brought a dessert and a side dish, even though I had told her that I had plenty of food here. That was just what she did.

“It’s such a bummer that your young man can’t make it,” Mom said.

“Yeah, it’s no big deal. Work happens, right?”

“Well, maybe one of these nights we can come over or meet somewhere for dinner. If you’re serious about this guy, we’d like to meet him,” my dad said.

The two of them stood near the dining table, Dad’s arm around Mom’s shoulders. A united front, always and in all ways. Both of them were in their late sixties. Mom was a retired lawyer, though she still did consulting work and some pro-bono cases, while Dad continued to work at the high school library where he had worked for the past forty years.

“It’s not that serious,” I said, planting the seed for when I’d have to tell them that we broke up or that we never were. I did not make a habit out of lying to my parents, but there were only so many people I could tell about this whole fiasco.

A knock at the door had us all pausing.

“You expecting someone, honey?” Mom asked.

“No. Probably someone got the wrong apartment.” The oven timer beeped, and I pulled out the caprese chicken casserole I’d made. Next, I needed to work on preparing the salad.

“I’ll see what they need,” my dad said.

He opened the door, and I heard a mumbling of voices. I couldn’t tell exactly who it was, and I assumed my dad would send them off. Then the door clicked closed and footsteps sounded down the hallway.

“Wrong apartment?” I said and lifted my gaze. I nearly dropped the knife to the floor when I found Alex standing there.

“Vance, is this your young man? You said he had to work,” Mom asked.

My eyes widened, and I froze like a deer in headlights. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Alex looked at me and then looked back around the room at everybody there.

“I found someone to cover my shift,” he said. “I was hoping the invitation was still open to join you for Sunday dinner.” His voice took on a slightly higher pitch than normal, the only indication that he was nervous.

I had, of course, invited him to Sunday dinner last week. I hadn’t mentioned that my parents were going to be here. I was supposed to tell him on Thursday and give him a chance to back out.

“Sure,” I said.

“I’m so glad you could be here.” Thank goodness for Elain. She swooped in. She held out her hand to Alex. “I’m Elain, his super-protective, overbearing older sister. Be prepared to be grilled. If you need to escape, you better do so now.”

God bless Alex, he didn’t miss a beat. He smiled back at her and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you. I can stay.”

“I’m Charles, this is my wife Jean,” my dad said. Alex shook his hand as well.

Meanwhile I stood frozen in front of a head of lettuce I needed to chop up.

“Vance hasn’t told us a ton about you, so hopefully you’re prepared to tell us everything.” Mom’s attorney voice sent chills down my spine. She used that to make sure the witness had their story straight.

“Mom,” I protested.

“Jean,” my dad said.

I didn’t even have a chance to drag Alex off to a corner to explain that my parents thought we were together and that we had been dating for a few months. The man was going to have to fend for himself.

Before I knew it, we were all sitting down at the table, dishing up our plates.

Of course Mom wasn’t going to waste a moment. I crossed my fingers and my toes hoping that Alex could just play along for the evening. It would overcomplicate things later when I had to tell my parents that we broke up, but for now I needed this just not to blow up in my face and make me feel even more like an idiot.