Page 136 of On My Side
“What kind of salad dressing is there?” Hunter wonders.
“Do you people ever communicate by not talking over each other?” Poppy asks, talking over everyone else.
“Emilia, is something wrong with the salad?” My mom asks over Izzy and Leo bickering over something asinine. The doorbell rings and Josh and Jo both jump to answer it.
“I… um, I’m not feeling great,” Millie stammers, wiping her hand across her forehead.
“Where thefuckis she?” The room falls silent again at the echoing voice. Steve stampedes into the room, eyes wild, and a piece of paper clenched in his hand.
“Steve’s here,” Josh says awkwardly from the doorway. “Also, this is Brandon.”
Brandon is a white man an inch or two shorter than my pretty-much-brother-in-law, with dark hair that’s graying at the temples. He smiles politely, and Hunter pretends to swoon while Jo sits back down. “I think I met most of you at the launch party…”
“Where is she?” Steve yells again, at a volume that makes Mom startle in her chair. Dad and I are both on our feet, Josh next to us.
“Let’s talk about this outside instead of yelling, okay?” I say in my best teacher voice, putting my hand on my brother-in-law’s back to guide him away from the dining room.
He violently pulls away from me, stumbling into Josh, who’s a little less gentle when he clasps Steve’s shoulders. “Outside. Now,” he says through clenched teeth, shoving Steve towards my dad, who’s holding open the front door.
Leo’s scrambling towards us. “Can I take a swing at him?” he asks excitedly, the argument with his twin forgotten.
“Wait. Millie?” Brandon is staring at my sister, who’s staring back, eyes wide and face sheet-white. “What are you—”
He doesn’t get to finish his question, as Millie promptly vomits on her untouched salad.
“Ew!”
“Millie!”
Instead of shoving Leo back towards the chaos like I’d initially planned, I grab him by the collar and pull him out the door with me.
“You need to calm down or leave,” Josh is telling Steve. My sister’s boyfriend is a big guy, but I’ve never seen him use his size to intimidate… until today. He’s towering over my brother-in-law, shoulders squared, and honestly, if Nic doesn’t marry the guy, I might.
“I’m nottalkingto you,” Steve spits, shouldering Josh. Except it doesn’t do anything, and Josh doesn’t budge.
“We don’t know where she is,” my dad says, voice calm. “Why don’t you and I take a walk and you can tell me what’s going…”
“Sean, Leo filmed him refusing to leave. He can be arrested for trespassing.” I turn, and sure enough, Will and Leo stand side by side, Leo’s phone capturing the interaction.
Steve points menacingly. I’m sure he thinks it’s menacing, at least. It looks like one of my students is tattling on another student, in my opinion. “I’ll find out where she is,” he tells Josh, like Josh might suddenly pull Kat out of his pocket. “She’s mywife.”
Josh shakes his head in disgust as Steve stomps towards his BMW, slamming the door shut as he starts it. “It’s way hotter when a grumpy guy stuck in a marriage of convenience says ‘my wife,’” Josh grumbles.
“Indeed,” I agree, remembering the scene from the contemporary marriage of convenience Audrey and I read the other night.
“If anyone knows where Kat is, I think it’s best you keep it to yourself.” Everyone’s eyes are on Dad’s, whose brow is furrowed as Steve runs the stop sign at the end of the street.
I pull my phone out of my pocket to call Kat and ask her what the fuck is going on when I notice I have almost a dozen missed calls, and four missed texts, all from Audrey.
Audrey
ren call me
its an emergency
please pick up your phone
ren please
