Page 40 of Hardcore Vanilla
"Please, call me Wendy, all of you." Letting go of Sharon the woman stepped back, holding out her hand to take Andrew's coat, but she was still smiling at Sharon. "I know we haven't met before, but Lexie's told me so much about her friends that I feel like I know you already."
The front door shut behind them and Sharon could already hear the sounds of a party in process deeper in the house. It might just be her imagination, but she swore she could pick out Jake's voice even within all the noise. Wendy took their coats, directing them to head into the kitchen where the food and beverages were set up - and she particularly recommended the salted caramel hot chocolate, which could be easily spiked if they were so inclined.
Sounded good to Sharon.
She was a little weirded out by how friendly the woman was.
You're here as Lexie's friend, not Jake's girlfriend, that makes a difference.
It wasn't that mothers didn't like her, most of them did, but she always felt the weight of their opinions bearing down on her when she met them. She even felt it now, but that wasn't how the woman was looking at her, so it felt a little jarring.
"Super easy, not-at-all-complicated, casual fuck buddies, right?" Kate whispered in her ear, linking arms with her as they followed Andrew down the hall. Since she was wearing flats and Sharon was wearing her favorite heeled boots, Kate didn't have to lean down as far as normal to ensure no one could overhear.
Still.
"Shut it," Sharon whispered back. So what if she felt like a jittery girlfriend meeting her boyfriend's parents for the first time? That wasn't the actual situation and she needed to get her shit together.
"Just relax," Kate said, more sympathetically. "Just be Lexie's friend tonight and you'll be fine."
Kate was right. Sharon shook off her nerves. The first hurdle had been passed after all. She was here, it was obvious Wendy didn't know there was anything between her and Jake, and so she could just relax and be a friend tonight.
"All right," she said just before they followed Andrew through the doorway of what looked like the kitchen. "Let's rock and roll."
******
This was... weird. For lack of a better word.
Even weirder than being at Stronghold had been. All his friends knew what was going on between him and Sharon, but none of his family did (other than his sister, obviously). It meant he was putting up with both sly looks and complete obliviousness.
His mom, doing her usual hostess thing, was trying to get to know all of Lexie's friends that she hadn't met before. Right now, she had Ellie and Sharon cornered and was talking with them. Well, probably questioning, knowing his mom, and it was more like she was talking with Sharon than Ellie. Ellie tended to be quieter than Sharon anyway and Sharon was currently doing her usual 'center of attention' thing... Which irked him.
He just didn't understand why she felt the need to be so loud. Or to take over the conversation entirely. Poor Ellie had barely said a word, it had been all Sharon. She was apparently entertaining enough, because both Ellie and his mom were laughing. But why did she constantly feel the need to monopolize conversations? Why did she constantly feel the need to put a spotlight on herself? He just didn't get it.
The smart thing to do would be to move to a different room so that he didn't have to watch, because then he wouldn't be so annoyed by it. Easier said than done. It was like the woman had some kind of magnetic draw on him. They hadn't done more than say hello to each other, but he'd had her in view all night.
"Why are you glaring at Sharon? Or is it your mom that you're glaring at?"
Jake jumped at the question; he hadn't even noticed Michael moving up next to him. He didn't know Michael as well as a lot of the others, since he was a newer addition to the group of friends. While he'd been a member of Stronghold when it had first opened, he'd moved away for a while, and when he'd returned he'd started hanging out with Jake's friends because he was good friends with Angel.
While Patrick said that Michael was a bit of a 'shit-stirrer,' Jake hadn't really seen any of that. He liked the other man, although he wouldn't call them close, so the question surprised him. The fact that Michael had separated from Ellie for a bit surprised him even more because normally they were joined at the hip.
"She's just... She's so loud," he said, a bit plaintively, completely aware that he sounded like an ass. He groped for the words to explain his issue. "Doesn't it bother you that she just runs right over Ellie in conversations?"
Blinking in surprise, Michael's hazel eyes met his, studying him for a moment. Then he turned his head, his long hair swaying slightly with the movement, to study the three women's conversation. He kept his voice low, just between the two of them. "Let me ask you, what do you see when you look over there?"
"I see Sharon taking over the conversation, as usual," Jake said, some of his exasperation leaking into his voice. "I see her making herself the center of my mom's attention and Ellie barely able to get a word in edgewise. It's like she's trying to impress my mom or something."
A small smile curved Michael's lips as he tilted his head. "Let me tell you what I see. I see my very shy girlfriend has been cornered by someone she doesn't know well. Normally I would go and run interference and make sure she's comfortable, but I already knew I didn't have to, because Sharon is there. And Sharon will make sure that she takes all the focus until Ellie feels less anxious and more comfortable talking to your mom. It's something Sharon does a lot for Ellie."
Jake stared across the room as his entire perspective shifted, which was a little disorienting.
Watching, he realized that it didn't look like Ellie was trying to talk. She wasn't. In fact, she appeared to be perfectly happy letting the other two have the reins of conversation. His mom, on the other hand, was just as chatty as Sharon. He'd assumed that Ellie had just been drowned out by the two more forceful personalities, but...
Michael obviously knew her better than Jake did. Considering how protective he could be of her, it said a lot that he would deliberately leave Ellie in Sharon's care.
Huh.
It did make him feel better about how he now saw the interaction between the three women. The idea of being attracted to someone who was willing to squash everyone around her to get the attention she wanted didn’t sit well with him. Seeing that she was using it as an almost protective measure for her friend was different.
