by Raquel Belle
“Yes, I did, and you won’t find anyone slow under this roof, Anthony,” she said, but it felt like a warning. Beth rubbed my back again. I got the sense that she was soothing herself more than me, so I laced my fingers with hers and rubbed my thumb across her knuckles.
“Where’s Dad?” Beth asked.
“He should be close now,” Oscar said. “Mom sent him on an errand, but he spent the night here.” He tried to hide his laugh, but he definitely couldn’t hide his smile.
Eliza rolled her eyes at him. “Speaking of, how did you guys get here? A cab?”
“No, Anthony drove us,” Beth said. Eliza didn’t respond, but she seemed impressed.
“Is there anything I can help with, Miss Eliza?” I asked.
She put Oscar and I to work, setting up the Sternos outside and turning on the heaters. Oscar was cool, just a regular college kid, though he was protective of his sister. He asked me a lot of questions about my dating life before Beth. By the time we were done finishing the set up outside, Beth’s dad had come home. He was a tall guy, like Oscar, had a strong build, and had hazel eyes like Beth’s. He wore a plain, long sleeved shirt, jeans, and a hat. He looked like he was going to a baseball game or something.
“Anthony, nice to meet you. I’m Jerry.” Jerry shook my hand firmly and clapped my shoulder. “Did you get a drink? Beer?”
“Ah, no not yet, I was waiting on the crowd before getting too comfortable. I still want to be able to help Miss Eliza out,” I said.
Jerry nodded, his expression said that he was impressed somewhat. I tried to have manners most of the time. Jerry smiled. “I’ll grab you something, then we can head out back and relax a bit. There’s nothing else to do now but put the food out. The ladies usually monopolize that. Eliza is pedantic about her displays.” He laughed and stepped into the kitchen, opening the freezer door.
“Hey, man, come on. You look stiff,” Oscar joked, as he passed me. I followed him outside, and Jerry joined us at the deck railing.
“When is everyone supposed to get here?” I said and thanked Jerry for the beer.
“In like a half an hour, people will start trickling in. Every year Eliza tells them to get here an hour before dinner, and every year people still show up a half-hour late,” Jerry said, laughing.
“Beth told us not to interrogate you, but I can’t help it, I have to ask,” Oscar said, suddenly. I looked at him with an open expression and waited for him to finish. On my left, I heard Jerry sigh and was pretty sure he was shaking his head. Oscar cleared his throat. “It’s just that she’s dated a lot of assholes and gotten hurt a bunch, so what’s your deal? Do you really have feelings for her?”
“I love her,” I said. Oscar blinked at me, surprised I’d said that, and then his eyes shifted past me to look at his dad. I glanced at Jerry who tilted his head to the side, his impressed expression had returned.
“I can live with that,” Oscar said.
I laughed. “Yeah, you and Beth are a lot alike,” I said.
He smirked, and a dimple popped out on his cheek. He shrugged nonchalantly. “Nothin’ but the best over here.”
“Anyway, what are you into when you’re not writing for the paper?” Jerry asked.
The conversation was normal from there. I just got to know the guys, and they got to know me until the other guests started to arrive. Casually, I met Beth’s aunts and uncles and a couple of her cousins. She didn’t come and find me until the backyard was filled with people.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you for so long. I had to help my mom find something to wear because now she’s trying to impress my dad again, and it’s so sweet but also tiring because she couldn’t make up her freaking mind,” she said. “Did you meet my tías?”
I smiled. “That’s the first time you’ve ever spoken Spanish around me.”
“Why? Are you bothered by it?”
“I’m not bothered, at all. I want you to speak it all the time if that’s what you’re used to. Also, it’s sexy.” She cracked up. “And, yeah, I met all your aunts…pretty much everyone here, I think.”
“Okay, well one of my best friends just got here, so I want you to meet her.” Beth pulled me inside, and I immediately felt the stare of a slender, blonde woman with curious blue eyes and a deceptively pleasant smile.
“I told her to be nice,” Beth said.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Beth
Cara looked like she was just waiting to have a talk with Anthony, and I hadn’t even formally introduced them yet. Jason stood behind her, tall, muscular and gigantic…handsome as ever with his mop of brown hair and friendly blue eyes. I smiled. They made a really cute couple. Cara looked like she was eager to interrogate Anthony, and a bit of challenge was already in her eyes.
“Anthony, this is Cara and her boyfriend, Jason,” I said.
“How are ya? Nice to meet you both,” Anthony said, as he shook their hands.
“It’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Cara said, making no effort to cover the fact that I’d told her all about Anthony and our rocky start.
“I’m sure. Seems like I’m kind of a celebrity around here,” Anthony said. I bit my lip to keep from smiling, and Cara didn’t seem impressed, but at least Jason laughed.
“That’s not always a good thing,” Cara said, with a wry smile.
“Um, so do you know when Jazz is coming? She’s not answering my texts,” I said, quickly. Grace wouldn’t make it this year because she was having Thanksgiving in Long Island with her dad and her brothers. Nick and his brother would also be joining them—and since it was just the two of them, Grace wanted to bring them in to the fold immediately, seeing as they would soon be family…and because they hadn’t had much of a family life growing up. She usually alternated years anyway, to spend with her family or mine. Jazz was the same way.
“I think she’s close. The yams are the only thing missing, right?” Cara peeked outside, almost all of the dishes were sitting on Sternos, waiting to be uncovered and eaten.
“Yeah,” I said. Jason—knowing full well what it was like to be the new guy—struck up a conversation with Anthony, so I looped my arm through Cara’s and pulled her outside with me.
“Don’t even start, Beth,” Cara said. “I told you the other night that I can’t just be nice to him. I’m impartial, and I still have my suspicions about him. He’s a journalist at heart, and a cutthroat one at that.” We walked down the steps of the deck towards the wine table.
“It’s different now, Cara. Last night he said that he loves me.” Cara paused halfway to the table and stared at me, her eyebrows high and her eyes wide. I shook my head. “Oh, come on, is it really that shocking?” I continued walking, and we picked up glasses. She did a double take at the table.
“Who picked out these bottles? My god, Beth, this bottle of wine is like a hundred dollars,” she said and picked up an unopened red. I pressed my lips together. Of course, he’d gotten super-expensive wine. Cara looked for something that was already opened and poured herself a glass.
“Anthony bought all the wine,” I said, “but that’s not the point. Hello, he said that he loves me.”
“Okay, wait, wait, wait… How did he say it?” She asked while she put one of the wine saver corks in the bottle and sipped from her glass.
“He asked me if I was tired of him, and I basically said no, and then he said I love you right after, like automatically, and he was serious. He didn’t even blink,” I told her as I looked through the bottles. I spotted a white Sauvignon that I’d had before and liked. I hoped all the bottles weren’t in the hundred-dollar range because so far two of them definitely were.
“Well, that’s promising,” Cara said. “I just wanted to check, because your track record of getting naked every time some douche bag says a few magical words to you is not inspiring,” she looked at me with a crooked smile. “Still, I want to ask him about the paper and the feature.”
“Fine, but just don�
�t interrogate him,” I said. She was right though, I had made some pretty stupid decisions in the past.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Oh, look, Jazz is here.” Cara pointed to the deck and sure enough our girl with the yams had made it.
“Great,” I said, finally. Everyone could start eating. I hurried up the steps to help Jazz with her tray.
“Hey, how are you?” I kissed her on the cheek, and she sighed as if she was flustered.
“Traffic is unbelievable out there. It took my Lyft forever to pick me up, and the streets…” She didn’t even finish, and I could imagine the mess it was. People were likely travelling back home from the parade madness earlier in the morning. Not to mention, travelling to get to their dinners.
“My god, I can imagine. Well there’s plenty of wine to help you decompress and even stronger booze inside.”
Jazz tilted her head to look past me, as she pointed to the wine table. “I’m gonna go for that wine.” She squeezed my arm before joining Cara. I put her yams on the last Sterno then found my dad inside.
“Okay, megaphone, tell everyone dinner is ready,” I said. My dad snorted. He was usually soft spoken but had a booming voice when he needed to. He always announced dinner on Thanksgiving. I followed him to the deck, and he cleared his throat and said, “Everyone, dinner has been served!”
“Really? You had to do that fake accent, Dad?”
He grinned. “What, are you embarrassed? I can keep going. I can announce the entire menu.”
“Please, no, please don’t,” I said, making him laugh. Everyone started to line up by the food. I scanned outside for Anthony, then found him talking to Jazz, Cara, and my mom at the wine table. He kept gesturing to different bottles and every one of the women seemed impressed by whatever he was telling them. I walked over, and Anthony grinned at me as if he was enjoying himself.
“Did you want me to fix you a plate?” I said.
“Sure, thanks. I was just telling them about the wines I had picked out.”
“Beth, you didn’t tell me Anthony was some sort of sommelier,” Ma said.
“Yeah, well, that’s why I had him pick out the wines. He’s good at that sort of thing,” I said. I could see that my mom had another comment about the wine, and I was sure to hear about it later, like her asking how much all of it cost. Either way, I was glad that Anthony was smiling and not chafing at all of the attention. If the situation was reversed, I’d definitely have felt overwhelmed. Part of me was still worried that the sort of get-together we were at was too much, too fast. Then again, maybe it was just my own nerves projecting. I refilled my glass of wine and then fell in line to get food.
“You look stressed,” Oscar said, from behind me, his brows were drawn together in concern.
“I’m worried about Anthony, I guess.”
“For what? The guy is a hit, actually. He knows how to mingle and do small talk. Dad likes him, I think he’s okay. Mom likes him, and your friends aren’t climbing down his throat. He’s a big boy, and he’s holding up,” Oscar said.
“Wow,” I said. I never would have pegged Oscar to defend anyone I was dating, let alone any guy he had been skeptical of from the get-go. But, apparently, Anthony had changed his mind.
“Plus, he loves you, right?” Oscar said. We both moved up in line and grabbed plates and utensils.
I blushed, unaware Anthony had told my brother that. “Yeah, he says so.”
“Then he’s going to make sure everyone here leaves with a good impression of him and anyway, he’s not putting on a front. He seems like an honestly cool guy.” Oscar shrugged. “So, have fun, sis. I mean, it’s Thanksgiving, so give thanks.” He pecked me on the cheek and then skipped past me in line.
I laughed. “Butthead!”
“I’m a growing young man, and you’re holding up the line,” he said. I looked back at Anthony who’d finished giving wine lessons and was chatting with Jason again. He really was fine. He was used to talking to people, and he did it for a living as a journalist, and outside of that, he was charming. I really didn’t have to worry.
Chapter Thirty
Anthony
The party was warming up and the food being served shifted the mood. It made everyone more relaxed from what I could tell. Cara’s boyfriend, Jason, brought me a beer from the cooler inside.
“Thanks, man,” I said and he nodded. The guy was huge, bulky with muscle built up from his construction job and the button up shirt he wore did little to cover it. He was clean cut though, had his hair combed back, the beard trimmed and all. I didn’t mind his company, hell it seemed like we were kind of the odd ones out. Everyone else at the party knew each other.
“Don’t worry about Cara, I can tell that she respects what you’ve got going on with Beth,” he said. We stood by the wine table a few paces away from the food line. Beth was chatting with Oscar.
I had to chuckle at what Jason said, he eyed me with a smirk. “She respects what I have with Beth, not me?”
He shrugged. “Cara has to put you through the paces before she can respect you, take it from me. And…Cara, Jazz, Beth and Grace are four of the closest friends you’re likely to find in the state of New York, they’ve only got Beth’s best interests at heart.”
“I believe you. If she and Beth are anything alike, I’m sure it’ll take a lot.” Beth caught my eye from the line and pointed to the food. She mouthed, “Everything?” I nodded, flashing her a grin.
“They’ve all got a certain commonality…like sisters. You haven’t met Grace yet, have you?” Jason asked.
“No, Beth told me that she’s at least nicer than Cara,” I told him. He nodded.
“Still, they band together in a hurry if anything.”
“It’s cool that they’re all so close though, they’ve got strong bonds,” I said. I spotted Jazz walking towards us but with an already empty glass. She was really pretty, her tight curls were pinned to the side and framed her face. She seemed shy though, even though everyone at the party literally cheered when she came with her dish, she only spoke to a few people. She smiled when she stepped close and Jason moved aside for her to get to the bottles.
“I hope you don’t mind chilled wine, the weather isn’t offering any other option,” I said.
“Actually the wine, especially the white wine, is the perfect temperature. I don’t know what happened to what I just poured,” she chuckled. “You didn’t tell us how you got so knowledgeable about wines though,” she added. Jazz quirked her eyebrow at me curiously.
“My family is really into wine. When I was growing up, I just learned and kept an interest,” I said. Jazz nodded thoughtfully.
“Beth seems really head over heels for you,” she said knowingly. “Which, honestly compared to how much she hated you, is a surprise.” She poured herself another glass of wine and took a sip.
I chuckled. “Yeah, I know a lot of people are confused by the one-eighty,” I took a swig of my beer and Jason excused himself when Cara called him from the deck.
“I’ve always been curious about it. I get that you guys fell for each other and Beth is giving you a chance, she’s always been a romantic. But why’d you suddenly become attracted to her? After all this time?”
“I’ve always been attracted to Beth. It never occurred to me to act on it because in a weird, fifth-grader kind of way, I thought we were enemies and could never be anything more. But as our paths crossed more and more…the attraction only grew and I just couldn’t leave her alone. Not in any capacity,” I said with a chuckle. Jazz smiled widely.
“At some point then, you were driving her crazy just to be close to her?” She asked.
“Absolutely. You know, attraction is a weird thing. It gets into your brain and makes you do crazy things, anything so that you can be with your magnet,” I took another swig of my beer and spotted Beth on the deck fighting with her dad over a piece of ham with two plates in her hand.
“You look smitten, that’s great,” Jazz said. “I’m gonna go
get some food before it’s all gone. Every year we bring more and more food and every year it still all ends up gone.” She squeezed my shoulder and walked towards the deck. I couldn’t leave Beth hanging up there so I hurried to her side and took a plate off of her hands. She glanced behind her, surprised, then smiled when she saw me.
“Thanks, I was scared these would fall out of my hands. My dad is being stingy with the ham,” she said and stuck her tongue out at Jerry. He stood on the other side of the ham tray, carving it out for people.
I pressed my mouth to her ear and whispered, “Don’t worry, we can wait until he leaves and sneak more.” Beth smirked.
“What?” Jerry said, the knife and prongs held loosely in his hands.
“Nothing, keep your skimpy slices,” Beth said and moved on to the next tray. “By the way, we might be here a while tonight. Oscar wants to have drinking games after everyone eats.”
“He really is in college, huh?” I muttered. Beth snickered. “Sounds fun though, I’m down.” I flashed a grin at her and we continued through the line then sat at a table outside with Oscar, Cara, Jason, and Jazz.
“Don’t skimp on the carbs people, we’re doing the flip cup tournament later,” Oscar reminded.
“He thinks he’s good,” Beth said.
“I know I’m good,” Oscar corrected.
“That’s what you’re learning at UM?” Cara teased. “How to be good at flip cup?”
Oscar grinned, “I’m learning some other stuff too, there’s gotta be a balance.”
“You’re right, man. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders,” I quipped, making everyone else laugh. Oscar smirked as he chewed his food.
“Anthony, where’d you go to school?” Cara asked.
“Columbia,” I said. She seemed impressed.
“Did you want to get into journalism since you were a freshman?” She asked.
“Sort of. I started off in business but I’d always been a writer. In high school I was involved in the paper and I got onto the staff at Columbia but did it as a side thing. Then I realized business didn’t interest me as much as nosing into other people’s business.” Beth chuckled.
