Page 49 of The Cadence
“It’s me!” she answered us cheerfully. I didn’t know her well, but in our limited interactions, I’d never seen her look quite so happy. In fact, the last time I’d seen her, she’d been cussing me out for not selling beer to her at the grocery store. But now she was smiling broadly and she yanked me into a tight hug. “How are you, girlie?”
I was surprised to see her but I remembered that lately, Cully had been walking around with a big grin on his face and staring at his phone a lot while we were at work. He’d refused to put it away like our manager wanted or to tell me what he was doing, but now I had a guess about what he’d been up to: messing with Kirsten. I pulled away from her hug and frowned at him, but no matter what, I was the host.
“Come on in,” I offered. Both Cully and his uninvited date were still beaming but Diouf was staring without saying a word. And then Will walked in, and he didn’t smile either. His gaze went to me and I explained.
“Will, this is my coworker Cully from the store, and he brought a date you might recognize. Kirsten.”
“Langston and I already know each other, too,” she informed us. She gave him a look that was definitely what my grandma would have called suggestive, but he only frowned.
Then it was silent.
“Ok!” I said, and my voice sounded loud. “I was thinking that we’d have cocktails but Langston and I already finished the dinner and it’s getting—”
“You and Langston?” Kirsten asked quickly. “He was over here with you?” She turned on him. “You’re spending time with other girls? What the fuck?”
“You and I are not together,” he informed her, and I added more information to that.
“Langston and I aren’t together, either. Let’s go to the dining room.”
The reason that we were able to hold this party was that Annie had already dropped off furniture—actually, two of her children and her daughter’s boyfriend had carried it in. There was now a table and plenty of large, sturdy chairs for all of us. “I do a lot of design for the Woodsmen,” Annie had explained. “I understand the need for hefty furniture.” Everyone sat in those chairs in the places where I directed them, but I hovered behind mine.
“We need more silverware,” I noted. “Will, can you help carry things from the kitchen?” He followed me and I turned to whisper to him. “I had no idea that she was coming! This is so awkward. Is Langston going to get in trouble with the team?”
“He’s an adult.” He looked back over his shoulder at the guests. “They can’t tell him that he can’t see her, but it probably isn’t a good idea. I wouldn’t have set it up.”
“We didn’t,” I said, and gathered another place setting. “Holy Moses, what was Cully thinking?”
“I remember you telling me that he let another part of his body make decisions when it came to women,” Will reminded me.
“Ok, I don’t need to have that in my head right now. I don’t need to ever have it,” I said, frowning. “Can you grab a big fork? We’ll need to spear the meat.”
“This looks delicious.” He breathed deeply as he leaned over the roast. “So you’re not thinking about your coworker.”
“What? I would never intentionally think about Cully’s penis!”
But now we had a different problem to deal with. Langston joined us in the kitchen and said that he was going to leave. “I didn’t know you’d be having another guest,” he stated flatly.
“We didn’t know that either,” Will told him. “She’s a shock to us, too. Make the best of it, Diouf. You put yourself into that situation with Kirsten, now act like a man.”
I watched Langston’s shoulders square up. “All right,” he said, and walked back into the dining room.
“I told you that you’d give him good advice,” I said, and we followed him.
Unfortunately, the dinner was terrible. The food was good, and I was glad to see everyone eating heartily, but in terms of social stuff? That was a disaster. Kirsten got upset because LangstonDiouf wasn’t interested in flirting when she made overtures to him, and he generally ignored her. Diouf was uncomfortable and I talked to him a lot to try to make him feel better, and that left Will to deflect Kirsten.
Gradually, her attention shifted entirely to him. She got louder in volume, redder in the face, and more suggestive in her conversation as the wine bottles emptied. Since her focus wasn’t on Cully, he just pouted. But this was all his fault so I ignored him, too.
“I need to get going. I have the trainer early in the morning,” Langston said as we were just finishing dessert. He’d scarfed it down as fast as he was able and really, so had I. I also wanted this to end.
“Bye, Langie,” Kirsten told him, the two words slurring together into one. She had been filling her own glass and had done so repeatedly, drinking several more rounds than the rest of us. “You should text me later because I might be free.”
“No,” he said briefly, and she got even redder. It was anger and not alcohol this time, and Cully flushed as well.
“We’re going to leave, too,” he announced, and he was mad enough to stand up to her and say no when she objected that she wanted to stay longer. It didn’t help her case that Will and I both ignored her ideas that we should open another bottle, go to a bar, skinny dip in the lake, or do anything that would have prolonged this evening. She made her exit with her date holding her firmly by the arm, and we were left with dirty dishes and disappointment.
“That was awful,” I stated. “Terrible. The worst party I’ve ever even heard of.”
“The food was good. The company was crap, though,” Will agreed. “Sully is an ass. I mean, Cully,” he corrected himself.
