Page 7 of Stone Promises

Ethan’s wife comes over to greet us. “I’m Charlie,” she says to Kendra. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. Chad has great things to say about you.”

Kendra shakes her hand. “The feeling is quite mutual, I assure you. Thank you so much for having me.” She studies Charlie, her eyes taking in her long red hair and tall stature. “Wow, it’s uncanny how much you resemble your mother. I was truly sorry to hear of her passing.”

“Thank you,” Charlie says politely, even though it’s become obvious to me that she didn’t have a good relationship with her famous mother. In fact, I think she hated her. But it’s not something she talks about.

The front door opens behind us and Kyle bounds through carrying a few bottles of Cristal. He puts them on the kitchen counter as Kendra trails behind to talk to him. “I’m sorry we didn’t get much of a chance to talk last night. You’re the doctor, right?”

“The almost-doctor,” he says. “I’m in my last year of med school.”

“Impressive,” she says. Then she turns to Jarod. “And you are a waiter at what I’ve been told is one of the best restaurants in the city. Thad promised he’d take me there this week.”

Jarod laughs. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over hearing people call you Thad, cuz.”

“And yet to me,Chadsounds strange,” Kendra says.

“Speaking of nicknames and childhood friends who created them, care to tell us any more about what happened outside the club last night with Mallory?” Ethan asks me.

I regret even mentioning to him that I saw her. In my defense, I’d had a drink and was a bit loose in the lips.

“Wait, what? You saw Mallory?” Charlie perks up, stepping away from the stove to corner me. She turns to scold Ethan with her eyes. “Ethan didn’t tell me anything about this. You saw her? The girl who started calling you Thad? Your childhood friend?”

I shoot a traitorous stare at my older brother but he blows me off, busying himself filling champagne glasses.

“Dude,” Kyle says. “You saw Mallory? Why didn’t you tell me?”

I look around at five sets of eyes, begging me for answers. I motion around to all of them. “This is why. I didn’t want to go dredging up shit from the past.”

Charlie looks guilty for making such a big deal about it. I know she’s been through a lot of crap in her life that she keeps under wraps. “I’m sorry, Chad,” she says. “I didn’t mean to open a can of worms.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and reassure her. “It’s okay, Charlie. You didn’t know. Anyway, it was Ethan who brought it up, not you. It’s fine. Really.”

She nods, shuffling back over to remove some casserole dishes from the oven.Shit. Now I feel bad because she feels bad. I take the champagne glass Ethan offers me and down a healthy sip. Then I notice all eyes are still on me. “Jesus, fine,” I say, walking over to the couch to take a seat while everyone grabs a glass and follows me.

I start telling the story mostly for Charlie and Kendra, as they are the only ones here who’ve never heard it. “The girl at the premiere was Mallory Schaffer. She was my best friend growing up. When I was seven, we moved into the house next door to hers. When we were introduced to her family, my mentally-challenged older brother here, was going through a phase where he put everyone’s name into that rhyming song, you know the one that goes ‘Chad, Thad, bo-bad, banana-fana, fo-fad . . .’?”

A few laughs go around the room at the recognition of the catchy tune.

“Yeah, well, Mallory started calling me Thad, and for some reason I didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t my name.”

“You mean the balls,” Kyle adds, earning him a swift slap on the back of the head.

“Awe, that is so sweet,” Kendra says. “How long was it before she figured it out?”

“It was a while. Months I think. I mean, Ethan called me ‘dip shit,’ and Kyle called me, uh” —I turn to him— “what was it you called me when you were six?”

“Buzz?” he says with scrunched brows. “I think that was my Toy Story phase.”

“Right, Buzz Lightyear. And my mother called me sweetheart or some shit like that. And Mallory wasn’t in my grade, she was a year behind me, so she pretty much never heard anyone else call my name.”

“So she was in Kyle’s grade?” Charlie asks, now seeming less guilty and more curious about the whole thing. She turns to my younger brother. “Were you her friend, too?”

“Kind of,” Kyle tells her. “Sometimes we would all play tag and stuff together, but Mallory and I never connected like she and Chad did. I’m pretty sure I thought all girls were yucky back then.” He turns to Chad. “It was your birthday party when she finally figured out your name, right?”

I nod, remembering the day fondly. It was the worst birthday party I’d ever had. But it was one of the best memories I have of Mal. “We were at my party and my mom brought out the cake right away. I loved cake and insisted we eat it even before presents and playing. Everyone sang to me, and when it came time to sing my name, Mallory sangThadwhen everyone else sangChad. She was the only girl there, so her voice was very discernable. Needless to say, some of the other kids in attendance starting teasing her about it, saying she was a stupid first-grader with a lisp. She looked at my cake with horror on her face, the bold icing confirming the correct spelling of my name. She was so embarrassed that she ran out of the house.”

“Oh, the poor thing,” Kendra says. “What happened after that? Did she ever come back?”

“No, she didn’t. And neither did I.”

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