Page 11 of The Fallen Man

They had reached the bar, and Jackson looked around to make sure they had left Olivia and Evan behind. “Although speaking of reeling one in, Evan’s proposing tonight,” said Jackson, lowering his voice.

“Yes!” exclaimed Max and then winced and lowered his voice. “Now Dominique will have to commit.”

“What does that mean?” asked Jackson. Max did his own look around.

“We’ve been discussing marriage or at least getting officially engaged for months. Most of a year. But every time I’m like,let’s get serious about this,she wanders off. Literally, a few weeks ago, she got out of bed, and I found her scrubbing the oven.”

“Dominique knows how to scrub an oven?” asked Jackson.

“No,” said Max. “Not very well anyway. I have finally found a ring, and I figured once I was in law school and things were settled down, we could, you know… move things along. Instead, she threw a Halloween party.”

“Because I have to say that she’s been giving the impression that law school is what’s slowing the show down and she’s upset by it.”

“Nuh-huh!” exclaimed Max, clearly so flummoxed that heresorted to childhood rejections.

“That’s what I’ve been getting out of her,” said Jackson.

“What. The. Hell?” demanded Max.

“I don’t know,” said Jackson. “Oh, my God!”

Max turned to see what had caused Jackson’s surprise.

Aiden advanced down the stairs in a blue jacket and white pants with a red stripe down the side, looking like Prince Charming straight out of a fairy tale cartoon. Behind him, Ella Zhao floated like Cinderella in an enormous blue poof of a gown that threatened to collect or dislodge the decorations on the stairs.

“God, I love this family,” said Max. Jackson began to laugh. “I’m serious. You never go halfway. It’s fantastic.”

“Well, that’s good,” said Jackson, laughing. “You’re going to end up stuck with us.”

“Great,” said Max. “I’ll never be bored.”

Jackson laughed harder than ever. “So true.”

“Yay!” exclaimed Dominique, bouncing across the dancefloor and clapping her hands as she caught sight of her brother’s costume.

“Occasionally confused, sometimes scared, and periodically enraged,” continued Max, watching Dominique, “but never, ever bored.”

Jackson looked around the room at his family and their partners. “That does about sum it up,” he agreed.

Caitlin

The Alley

Caitlin filled another gin and tonic and slid it across the bar. The accountant dutifully put a dollar in the tip jar and collected the drink. Caitlin watched the woman walk carefully back to her assigned seat and sit down next to a man who appeared to be unintentionally wearing everything oatmeal colored. Caitlin wracked her brain, trying to think of a party that had been comparably boring. Maybe it was intentional. No party had ever been as dull as this. Maybe oatmeal was their fashion statement. Perhaps they were trying to underline the mediocrity of existence. This event was the party equivalent of that outfit.

“Oh my God,” whispered Jessica, approaching the bar. “Please, Katie, please. I’m begging you. Please pour me a shot of something. I’m dying. I think I felt a portion of my brain drip out of my ear a minute ago.”

There was a burst of laughter from the Deveraux party across the hall, and Jessica let out a little whimper.

“I want to go to that party,” Jessica whined.

Caitlin poured a shot of Jägermeister under the bar and then slid the tiny glass out to Jessica, who palmed it and gulped it down in one go.

“Did you see the Deveraux party?” whispered Jessica. “They have a chocolate fountain. They have costumes. They have a DJ. They have Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”

“What? I thought it was an adult party.”

“It is. And I swear I’m doing it the next party I hold. Drunken Pin the Tail on the Donkey was hilarious. I was laughing so hard, and then Vince said I had to come back to this absolute graveyard. My soul is dyingright now.”