Tuesday Trivia at Trick’s—holiday edition
“You fuckers.” Dunc’s grousing just makes us all laugh. He’s sour that Nick and I are in first place going into the trivia finals, while he and Bets failed to make the cut, again.
Nick stares in disbelief. “You get that this is your fault, right? If you would let your wife answer once in a while, you’d probably be in the running. Or at least not in last place.”
Bets just laughs. “Thanks for the show of support, Nicky, but I’m not like my brother. He’s quick. It takes me longer to process the info. Now, if trivia were a take-home test with an essay? I’d be the queen.”
“What a thrilling idea, Bets. You should totally mention that to Trick. He could just out pass out packets. People wouldn’t even have to hand over their hard-earned money for food and drink.”
She smacks him on the arm. “Don’t be a dick, Nicky.”
He has the grace to look sheepish. “I’m still in shock over the fact that Dunc thinks the Magi brought blankets to the baby Jesus in the manger.”
“What?! It’s a practical gift.”
Even Bets rolls her eyes at her husband’s words. “That one’s my fault. I took too long trying to figure out how to spell myrrh. I never know where to put the h. So while I was vacillating, Dunc grabbed the keyboard.”
Dunc makes his ridiculous claim, once again. “This is bullshit! Gavin would back me up. Where the hell is he? I thought he said he’d be in town through Christmas.”
“Nah. He’s back in Colorado. I guess Dax had a couple of last-minute trip requests, so Gav jumped at the chance to head out there a few weeks early.”
We all nod our heads, because this makes total sense, but Nick and I share a look. There’s something up with Gavin. He hasn’t been himself since he got back from that cruise last month. Last week, Gav was especially broody and quiet, and Nick joked that maybe he was pissy because he got his ass kicked playing Shuffleboard on the Lido Deck. We all laughed, and Gav flipped Nick off, but now I’m beginning to think something’s wrong. I screenshot the scoreboard and shoot off a quick text to him.
Dunc’s still bitching about all the questions he “almost had” tonight, but I ignore him in favor of watching my girlfriend as she saunters back to our table. She leans in for a kiss, and I pull her onto my lap. “You good? We can leave whenever you want.”
“I’m fine. Besides, this is way more fun than going home and falling asleep, as tempting as that sounds.”
“Who said anything about sleep?” I tease her, though I know she’s been exhausted lately. It’s been a busy few weeks. We finished the job for Daryl, and he was thrilled. He is now taking full credit for our reunion, which is ridiculous, but we love him, so we let him think he played matchmaker. We’ve had dinner with my family twice, which was chaotic, as expected, but also great. Unsurprisingly, my family adores Elaine. Nan is teaching her to cross-stitch, and my mom says Elaine is the fifth daughter she always wanted.
We also had dinner at Elaine’s parents’ house last week, and that was a trip. Twenty minutes in and I was ready to leave. Her mom is every bit as unhinged as I assumed when I heard that voicemail a few months back. But I weathered her questions and her digs, and I whisked Elaine away right before dessert. I’m a good boyfriend. And that dessert sounded pitiful. Patrice assured us that her cook was making a delicious, lo-cal version of tiramisu, using rice cakes and greek yogurt. Yea, that was a hard pass. So, I explained to her parents that, being a sweet, young thing, I still have a junior license, so we needed to get home before curfew. The expression on her mother’s face was priceless, and I’m pretty sure my joke earned me some points with her brother. But the best part of all was that we headed home and I ate her for dessert.
And yes, I moved in. It seemed pointless to keep my apartment when we both knew I’d be spending every minute at her house.
In fact, I plan on spending all of my minutes there. On Saturday, Elaine is going holiday shopping with my sisters, and I told her I’m heading over to watch the game with Nick and Duncan. And we will watch the game, after we go ring shopping. For a hot minute, I thought about waiting a few months, but then I realized that that’s not how Lainie and I do things. With her, I trust my gut. Being with her feels right, and I’m not wasting any more time.
FRIDAY AT LUNCH
MOLLY AND I SETTLEinto our regular booth for lunch, and she orders the pulled-pork nachos, like always. And it’s a good thing, too. I’m starving. I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week. It’s probably the hectic week catching up with me. I guess I’m burning more calories than usual.
“I just want to eat my weight in food and then sleep for twenty-four hours straight.”
“That actually sounds like paradise.”
“I guess so, but why the hell am I so exhausted? I mean, sure, it’s the holidays, and I’ve been running around like crazy these past few weeks, but still. Who knew that having any semblance of a social life could be so draining?”
Molly rolls her eyes at me. “Somehow, love, I don’t think it’s your social life that has you so spent. I’m pretty sure we can blame that on you and your boy toy tearing up the sheets at all hours.”
I blush, because she might be right. “Yes, well. We do enjoy our quality time together.”
“Uh-huh.” Molly laughs at my euphemism as our server delivers our food, and we dig in.
“So, what about you, Molls? Are you spending quality time with anyone lately?”
“Ugh. No. Not in weeks. When did dating get so hard and awful?”
“Um...always?” I look at her like she’s crazy, because dating is the actual worst, and grab an extra cheesy nacho.”
“Yeah, yeah. Says you. But I used to love it. The flirting, the thrill of the chase, the raunchy sex in a back hallway or a bathroom stall. Where have all my good times gone, E?”
