The Pact(38)
When we’ve all settled in and put our stuff away, we gather around the large table beside the kitchen and crack open the beer and wine. It’s already dark outside – we had to leave the city right at five thirty p.m. since Stephanie had to close up her shop. The nearest grocery store is in Gualala, which is only about ten minutes away but no one wants to move out in that cold, thick fog.
Thankfully we all got take-out on the way up here, so we’re happy with just the jars of homemade salsa that Nadine prepared and bags of tortilla chips.
For some reason, maybe because all three couples rarely hang out together like this, but it’s sorta awkward just sitting around the table and drinking. Usually James and I can shoot the shit but he’s being weird and quiet too. Maybe he’s just tired and worried. He rarely leaves the bar for the whole weekend and I know he’s thinking about the staff he left in charge.
“How about strip poker?” I suggest brightly.
Nadine rolls her eyes. “No one wants to see you naked.”
“Excuse me?” I raise my brows. That’s a new one.
“I do,” says Penny eagerly.
I grin and tip my beer at her. “There’s a good girl, thank you Penny.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Stephanie says to Nadine with a wry smile. “Linden is the master of poker. He’ll be getting your clothes off if anything.”
Nadine seems rankled by that. I know it’s because she feels she should know me better than Steph does.
“I’m down,” James says and he heads over to the stack of games they have on one of the shelves by the fireplace. “Or we could try Monopoly?”
“Only if you want everyone to turn against each other,” says Penny and everyone murmurs in agreement. So many fights started and friendships tested over the movement of little metal hats and thimbles.
I look to Steph and waggle my brows. “Too bad there is no Happy Days game,” I say to her and she giggles. When we were twenty-three or twenty-four, she’d broken her ankle and had been more or less on bed rest. I’d come by with James a few nights a week and we would just binge watch the show Friends, going through all seasons even though we’d both watched the show religiously when we were teenagers. One of our favorite episodes (along with ‘Pivot’ and Ross’s leather pants) was the one where Joey suggested they play strip Happy Days game because they had no cards.
Alas, James does have cards but as he throws them down on the table, nearly knocking over a beer, he looks at all of us and says, “Actually, this is kind of like a Friends situation right now. Three girls, three guys. Most of us great friends.”
“Well, we all know James and Stephanie had a little affair when they were young and stupid,” Penny says but she’s not bothered by it. She smiles her big gap-toothed grin at them and then turns her bright eyes to me. “What about you, Linden? You tap that too?”
Normally when someone questions the platonic validity of my friendship with Stephanie, it’s easy to laugh it off. But here, tonight, it’s fucking awkward. I can feel Nadine’s eyes boring into me, Steph is actually blushing and looking away and James has that same murder face as he did when he caught me and Steph talking at her birthday party.
“You mean James, right?” I manage to joke. It’s a safe joke.
Penny isn’t impressed. “No. Though I do wonder about your late night talks sometimes,” she says and then wiggles her fingers in James’s direction before turning back to me. “You and Stephanie never hooked up?”
“No,” I tell her, then I scrunch up my face. “She’s gross.”
“Shut up,” Steph lobbies back. “You couldn’t get with this even if you tried.”
Okay, now I’m tempted to play a little ball here. “Is that so?”
Steph raises her chin and looks to Penny. “We’ve never hooked up. I do have some standards, you know.”
“Ouch.” I grab my chest dramatically. “Cuts like a knife.”
“I love Bryan Adams,” Aaron remarks, because of course he would.
“Maybe you’re just not his type, ever think of that?” Nadine says snidely. Steph’s mouth drops open briefly but to her credit she manages to shake it off. I’m all for my girlfriend sticking up for me but there was an undertone to her words that bordered on bitchiness.
“I am completely not his type,” Steph says smoothly before taking an everlasting gulp of her wine, as if she’s trying to bury whatever else she wants to say.
I catch her eye for a moment and something passes between us, something along the lines of an apology from me about Nadine. I also wish I could tell her that she is my type. My only type. But I focus on the deck of cards instead. “Well, that could have been potentially awkward.” James snorts but I ignore him. “So, why not make it more awkward and play strip poker?”