I got more looks from the guys than I was expecting. I constantly would shuffle and adjust my dress to make sure it wouldn’t ride up so much. To say the least, I was regretting wearing something so revealing.
Then I saw someone that I really didn’t want to see in the slightest. Albert walked in the front door with another girl in tow. I didn’t recognize her at all, but I was flustered seeing my ex already in a new relationship.
I ducked behind a dividing wall in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice me.
“Who are we hiding from,” said a familiar voice.
I looked over, and Jeff was sidled up to the wall with a handful of cheese puffs. I didn’t know how to put things gently, so I just put them bluntly.
“I’m hiding from my ex,” I said.
“Which one is he?” he asked.
I pointed at him from around the corner. His new girl was about my height with short hair and a curvy body. I bet she was the one I caught him in bed with. I was furiously reliving the entire event when Jeff looked at me with a mouthful of those cheese puffs, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“He doesn’t look like much,” Jeff said.
“Yeah, but he has everything that I look for in a man,” I said.
Jeff cocked an eye while staring at Albert and appeared to be deep in thought before he turned back to me.
“Boring?” he asked.
I laughed again. He wasn’t completely wrong.
“Boring guys aren’t really boring; they’re just stable. You know what to expect,” I explained.
“Then why did you guys break up?” he asked while sipping on a beer.
“He cheated on me,” I said.
“With her?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good enough look when I caught them in his bed,” I said.
“Wow, sounds like there are a lot of girls interested in boring guys,” Jeff said, “I bet you didn’t see that coming.”
I smacked my head against the wall, perhaps a little too hard. I didn’t even think Albert went to parties like this.
“Funny that he’s out with Carol; she’s slept with half the starting lineup, not me, though, she’s a little too … err … open when it comes to relationships,” Jeff commented.
I giggled. While he wasn’t exactly the most cultured person I met, I found a special charm in his ability to just tell things as they are.
“Hey Carol,” Jeff shouted and walked toward the two of them.
I peeked around the corner since Jeff probably had the two of them distracted. Over the music, I could just barely make out their conversation.
“I was, but I met Albert here a couple of weeks ago, and I just can’t imagine being with anyone else,” Carol said, kissing Albert on the cheek.
Albert had a weird and disgusting smile on his face. I wanted to walk over and smack it off his face.
“You mean, forever? Or just this week,” Jeff asked.
I blurted with laughter which I immediately had to staunch with my hand. I hoped they hadn’t heard me, and it didn’t look like they had.
“No, Jeff. Albert is a good guy; he’s much better than all the other guys I dated,” she said.
“Well,” started Jeff, “you might want to speak a little quieter because just about all the other guys you dated are at this party.”
Carol had a frustrated look on her face, and she looked at Albert to defend her, but unfortunately for her, he remained tight-lipped.
“I didn’t come out tonight to get made fun of by a linebacker,” Carol said in a vain attempt to puff herself up.
“I didn’t know I was making fun of you. I just wanted Albert, here, to know what he was getting himself into,” Jeff said.
Carol, obviously flustered, stormed out the front door, followed closely by her date of the evening. I couldn’t stop laughing at how handily Jeff had dealt with the couple.
“You didn’t want them here, right,” Jeff asked as he walked back up, “cause if you want them back, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
I reached out and wrapped my arm in his.
“Jeff, you just made my night,” I said.
“Let’s get you a drink and pick up where we left off the other day,” Jeff said.
I nodded, and he poured me a glass from the keg. I wasn’t much of a beer drinker, nor was I much of a drinker in general, but Jeff had earned at least one drink from me.
We adjourned to the tiny backyard of the house. Christmas lights were wrapped neatly around the trunks of the sparse trees that provided cover in the backyard. A picnic table sat against the fence, and the tables that Matt and I had setup earlier were currently occupied by people trying their best at beer pong.