Leave it to that brother to get all moralistic about Sam’s age. She’s over eighteen and an adult. What more matters?
Since I don’t want to talk to him anymore, now seems like a good time to find out where Eden went since she hasn’t returned to the table. Turning to Sam, I whisper, “I’ll be right back. By the way, you’re twenty-one, right?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “I don’t turn twenty-one until next February, Marius.”
“Great. Well, if anyone asks, just say you’re already twenty-one, okay?”
Sam starts to say something, but I quickly get up and head in the direction of where I last saw Eden run off to. It doesn’t take me long to find her in the kitchen standing at the sink.
“You’re going to miss dinner if you don’t come back.”
When she turns around, I see tears in her eyes. I take a few steps toward her because I naturally want to make things better, but she stops me dead by holding her hand up.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she asks sharply.
I know this woman as well as I know myself. She can’t hide an emotion once she has it, and at this moment, she’s so angry she wants to kill me.
“Well, right now, I’m coming to find you because I saw you storm away in a huff from the table. I’m sure Rob from IT is worried too, but since he’s a clueless tool, he’s not coming to find you anytime soon, I bet.”
“You know what I mean.”
Best to come clean, at least on this issue.
“I figured turnabout was fair play. No?”
She wipes under her eyes and sniffles away her tears. “I told you I wanted to let the world know about us and that I want to have a baby soon, and this is how you respond?”
“Doesn’t feel so good seeing someone you love with another person, does it?”
Eden takes two steps toward me and stops, but I get the sense if she had anything big and sharp, like a pike, my head would be sitting atop it right now. Rage fills her expression, even as tears continue to fill her eyes.
“I pleaded with you to tell everyone about us. I pleaded, and you said just a little while longer. I could have handled that, Marius, but now you’ve gone and done this, and I can’t do it anymore. I’m done. Whatever you thought you’d accomplish with this little stunt of yours, you did a lot more that I don’t even think you realize.”
Before I can say anything more, she pushes past me and marches out to the dining room. I follow her, and as I pass where she’s sitting on the other end of the table, I hear her tell Rob from IT that she’s sick. A minute later, Ava walks the two of them out, leaving me miserable and angry at how things happened.
“I wonder what’s wrong with that woman,” Sam whispers to me.
“Probably sick. In fact, I might be coming down with something. I think I need to bow out of this party. Maybe another time.”
As I stand up from the table, Ava walks back in and gives me an odd look. “Are you going too?”
“I don’t feel well. Must be something I ate earlier today,” I say as I nudge Sam to get up also.
She looks at me strangely too, but as she stands up, she politely says to Ava, “You have a lovely home. Thank you.”
My brothers all stare at Sam and me as I hurry her out to her car. Can’t people get sick? It’s not like any of them are dependent on us to have a good time tonight.
By the time we reach her car, Sam is asking what’s going on, but I’m not in the mood to answer questions. I just want this night to be over and my life to go back to the way it was.
“Marius, is that it?” she asks when I open her car door for her. “I thought we were going to stay for the entire party.”
“Yeah, thanks. I promise to give you a nice bonus in your next paycheck for being so cool about things tonight. I guess something I ate for lunch is the problem.”
Looking up at me, she smiles and reaches out to rub my stomach. “I hope you feel better. I’d like to do something when you’re up to it.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s probably not very professional of me to date people I employ, though.”
That’s a pretty lame excuse now. Like hello, maybe shut the fucking barn door before you watch all the horses run out.
