“Don’t call her sweetheart,” Dezzie hisses.
“She likes it,” he says in a much too loud voice.
The server gives us all a tight smile. “Coming right up. Can I get anyone else anything?”
The rest of us shake our heads.
Ryland leans back in his chair. “It’s so nice to be at a restaurant without three screaming children.”
He’s obviously trying to clear the air, but Dezzie’s glare doesn’t lift.
“Yeah, much more relaxing to be here with only one screaming child,” she says, her expression trained on her husband.
“Are the kids having fun with their cousins, Ry?” I ask.
“Who cares?” Ryland jokes. “I’m having fun. This is the first time we’ve been child-free in”—he gestures like he’s checking a watch—“seven years?”
Alyssa groans. “It certainly feels that way.”
“If you’re sick of your kids, why did you have a third?” Rob asks.
We are all silent for a moment, taken aback.
Dezzie has worried about Rob’s change in attitude for months, and Alyssa and I have been increasingly concerned about the two of them. But this is far worse than I imagined.
“I love my children more than anything, Rob,” Alyssa says evenly. “But the older kids are doing virtual school and need our constant supervision, and Jesse is still in diapers. We’re both working full-time from home with no childcare, in close quarters. It’s been very stressful.”
“She means it’s been like Dante’s ninth circle of hell,” Ryland says, putting an arm around her.
“Yeah well, at least no onedied,” Rob says.
Alyssa’s face goes ashen.
Ryland leans in. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“I said I’m sorry you’ve been inconvenienced by having to watch your own children when people are dying,” Rob says. “In my job—”
“I lost mymother,” Ryland interrupts. “We couldn’t even saygoodbyeto her because she was isolated in thehospital,okay? So shut the fuck up about my kidsdying.”
Alyssa takes his hand and stands up. “Come on, babe. Let’s take a walk.”
“Shit, my bad, my bad,” Rob says thickly. “Sorry, man. Sit down. I didn’t know.”
“Itoldyou,” Dezzie says.
“Well, I forgot!”
Ryland, who is among the most good-natured people I know, is visibly vibrating with rage. He lets Alyssa pull him up, and they wordlessly make their way through the crowded restaurant toward the doors.
“Really nice,” Dezzie says to Rob.
He doesn’t look at her.
“I have to take a piss,” he mutters, rising.
This leaves Dezzie and me alone at the table.
Of course, this is the exact moment the entrées arrive.
