Sudden Response

by R. L. Mathewson

  roll.

  Chapter 5

  "Eric, why don't you sit over here?" Alice asked, gesturing towards the empty seat next to Camie.

  Eric kept his smile pleasant. "I'm fine where I am. Besides, I wouldn't want to interfere with your time with your friend."

  His mother scowled in his direction. He didn't care. He came here to spend with his family and meet his brother's new girlfriend, not be set up with an ice bitch, who was now sending glares at Joe every time she thought no one was looking.

  Seriously where the hell did his mother find these women? The last one she brought over had just separated from her husband and wouldn't stop bawling throughout the entire meal. Did she really think he was desperate?

  "But-" Alice started to argue their seating arrangements.

  "I'm already settled, mom. Everyone is. Let's just eat, shall we? This smells too good to let get cold," he said, gesturing to the platter of pot roast and large serving bowls of side dishes.

  Camie smiled coyly as she stood up. "I can just move over there if you want. I'm sure your mother just wants to have a chance to sit next to Joe," she said, starting around the table to his side.

  His smile became tight as he reached out and snagged Joe's arm just as she set down the large pitchers of water and ice tea on the table.

  "Hey!" she said, slightly stumbling under his grip.

  Eric ignored her squeaks of protest and yanked her ass down in the seat next to him. Camie paused mid-step, throwing Joe a glare that by all rights should have killed her on the spot.

  Joe took one look at his expression and smiled sweetly, too damn sweetly. "You know what, if you want this seat I don't mind. I'd love to catch up with Nathan and Caitlyn," she said, starting to get up.

  He put his arm around her and hauled her back down, keeping her firmly in place. Keeping his tone and expression light he said, "But you and I really need to talk."

  "No we don't," she said, trying to get up again. She really was enjoying screwing with him too much, but after what he tried to pull with Greg last night she didn't feel too bad.

  "Sure we do," he said, holding her firmly in place with one arm while he started spooning food onto their plates. "We really should discuss our trip tomorrow."

  Caitlyn smiled. "You're going on a trip tomorrow?"

  Eric said, "Yes," the same time Joe said, "No."

  "I'm going on a trip tomorrow. Eric's inviting himself along," Joe clarified.

  Nathan snorted. "Since when does he need an invite? You guys go everywhere and do everything together. I think it's pretty much assumed at this point that where one of you goes the other will follow."

  Camie looked murderous. Joe seriously wondered where Alice found these women and thanked god that she never tried to set her up. The prospects were truly frightening.

  Joe scoffed as Eric ladled gravy on her potatoes the way she liked it, perfectly in the middle with none of it spilling over. "That's not even remotely true. We have lives outside of our friendship."

  Nathan scooped mashed potatoes onto his plate as he said, "Name one major thing either one of you did without the other present or a vacation or even a small trip you took without the other."

  Eric chuckled lightly. "I've done plenty of things without Joe there and I can assure you I haven't been with her for everything she did either."

  "Name one thing and I will give you each a hundred dollars," Nathan said smugly.

  Joe and Eric shared a look as they both thought it over. Joe started with the big events in life, the simple things to remember. There was the time she lost her virginity, but Eric had been in the car several spots over doing the same thing so that didn't technically count. First kiss was out too since Eric was the one to give it to her on a dare. Driver's license? Graduation? EMT training? First job?

  Shit!

  "Oh, I got one!" Eric announced. "The night I got engaged," he said, looking at Nathan with his hand out.

  Joe winced.

  Nathan laughed.

  Alice sighed.

  Camie looked pissed at the mention of Eric being engaged to another woman, which was seriously getting creepy since she'd only met him less than an hour ago.

  Caitlyn smiled sweetly.

  "Pay up, sucker."

  "Ah, Eric?" Joe said.

  "What? We won," he said, looking victorious.

  Nathan chuckled. "Oh, no you didn't."

  "What the hell are you talking about? Of course I did," Eric said, looking and sounding confused.

  "Ah, Eric, he's right. I was there. Remember?"

  He didn't look like he did.

  She sighed. "Remember the three of us were at the club over on Wilmington and you and I were dancing and Beth kind of had a meltdown about that and you jokingly offered to marry her to shut her up. Remember?"

  Alice gasped. "You proposed as a joke?"

  He shrugged. "I would have gone through with it I guess. She was a good cook."

  "You guess?" Alice repeated in shock. "I thought you loved her?"

  He winced.

  "Eric Parish, do not tell me you were going to marry some poor girl because she was a good cook."

  "Why else?" he said with a cocky grin. Joe rolled her eyes. The man really enjoyed teasing his mother too much. Not that it wasn't the truth. Eric didn't believe in romantic love, lust? Yes, but not the kind of love that lasted forever.

  Joe thought of something. "Oh wait, when their engagement ended I wasn't there, so we win."

  His wince deepened. "Ah, Joe? You kind of were."

  She frowned as she thought it over. "No, I wasn't. Yeah, you guys were fighting while we were up at the ski resort, but you broke up after you dropped me off at my house. So there, that's one major event at least, even though I'm sure there are more that I just don't remember right now."

  Nathan kept chuckling.

  Bastard.

  "What?" she asked, looking at Eric as he bowed his head over his plate, shoveling food in his mouth like there was no tomorrow.

  "You were there alright," Nathan said.

  Okay, now she was seriously confused. She narrowed her eyes on Eric who was shoveling his food in faster, obviously trying to avoid the question.

  "What did you do?" she demanded as she narrowed her eyes on him. She was very sure that she wouldn't forget being in the room when her best friend broke off his engagement. Call her crazy, but that kind of thing should be memorable.

  No answer.

  "Maybe we should talk about something else," Alice said nervously.

  Joe turned her glare onto Nathan whose smile grew wider. "Well, it seemed good old Beth, whom I like to point out I never liked, tried to put her foot down where the two of you were concerned. Seems she didn't like all the touchy feely crap between the two of you that we all long ago accepted as normal, at least where you two are concerned. She wanted him to start treating her the way he treats you."

  She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know she had a problem with that and I understood it and apologized if it made her uncomfortable. Hell, I even spent the entire second day by myself, giving them time alone."

  "Well, you may have spent the entire day apart, however......" Nathan said leadingly.

  "What?" she demanded.

  "Oh, brother," Alice mumbled. She sighed softly as she grabbed another biscuit. Camie still glared, probably about the engagement news. That really was seriously freaky. Caitlyn smiled shyly as she ate small bites, obviously uncomfortable and Joe couldn't blame her since she was starting to feel little uncomfortable herself.

  "What the hell don't I know about?" Joe demanded, glancing between Eric and Nathan.

  Eric groaned loudly as he dropped his fork on his plate and sat up straight. "Fine! You want to know what happened? I'll tell you. She made demands on me all day, hung on me all day, talked all goddamn day, everywhere I went there she was. Every time I tried to shake her off she was there. Finally it was late at night and I wanted some sleep so I was going to go sleep on the couch since
there were only two rooms. She tried to demand that I sleep with her and I put my foot down."

  Joe nodded. She knew about that. Eric hated sharing a bed with anyone. The few times he tried to spend the entire night in bed with a woman he freaked out. He was very particular about his sleep. He hated snoring, bed hogs, people who shifted in their sleep or made any sounds. For some reason he didn't object to sharing her bed and doing all those things to her.

  "You had a problem sharing a bed with your fiancé?" Camie asked, looking unsure whether that news should please her or anger her.

  "I'm a light sleeper, damn it!" Eric said defensively. "Everyone knows that."

  "Uh huh," Nathan said absently, still smiling. Bastard. "Tell her the rest."

  "If you don't tell me what you did to cost me a hundred bucks I swear to god I am going to strap your ass to a backboard on Monday morning and let the guys shave your ass from head to toe." she threatened, knowing the guys would happily do it.

  "Fine, my little drama queen, if you must know. The couch was too damn lumpy so I went to your room to get some sleep."

  "Wait. If you wouldn't sleep in the same bed with your fiancé then why would you sleep with her?" Camie asked with a suspicious scowl.

  Nathan sighed dramatically. "Because she's his bitch. You really need to pay attention."

  "Nathan!" Alice gasped, smiling.

  Caitlyn chuckled softly. Joe was really going to like Caitlyn, she could tell.

  "Anyway," Eric said, stretching out the word. "I fell asleep and sometime after two, Beth woke up and decided to come looking for me. When she didn't find me on the couch she went straight to Joe's room and that's where she found me."

  Joe held up her hand. "Wait a minute. I seriously don't remember any of this and I'm pretty sure since she was incapable of talking without screeching that she would have woken me up."

  Eric cringed as he looked away.

  Nathan laughed long and loud.

  Alice sighed, taking a sip of the wine she somehow managed to get without Joe noticing during this weird little conversation.

  Camie put her fork down and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest while glaring at her and Eric. Was anyone else freaked out by this?

  Caitlyn smiled sweetly.

  "Well?" Joe said, sounding as irritated as she felt.

  Eric cleared his throat uncomfortably. "It's really no big deal."

  That sent Nathan into a fresh round of laughter.

  Oh, she had a strong feeling that she wasn't going to like this. Not one bit.

  "Care to explain how I was in the room with the two of you while you broke off your engagement without getting woken up by a woman who never said anything below a shriek?"

  Nathan grabbed his chest as tears rolled down his cheeks. He started laughing so hard that he actually fell out of his chair and hit the floor with a loud thud.

  "Oh, brother," Alice sighed, taking another large sip of wine.

  "How?" she demanded.

  Eric gave her his best charming smile. "I made sure you wouldn't wake up."

  "How?"

  He picked up his fork and started pushing around his food, keeping his gaze off of her. "I, uh,....I may have," he cleared his throat, "had to um, place a pillow over your head just for a little bit there."

  She gasped. "You smothered me?"

  "Yes!" Nathan somehow managed to say through his uncontrollable laughter.

  "You bastard," she breathed.

  "Oh, come on! I made sure you were still breathing! You only turned blue once and that was because I was too busy defending you to notice!"

  "Oh, gee, I guess that makes it okay then," she said dryly.

  Chapter 6

  "Thanks a lot, asshole," Eric said, snatching the cake knife out of Nathan's hands.

  "Hey!" Nathan made a grab for it and missed.

  Eric glared at his older brother as he made short work of cutting a huge slice of their mother's triple layered double chocolate cake with fudge and peanut butter frosting. He plopped the huge slice of cake in a bowl and tossed the knife behind him into the sink.

  Nathan rolled his eyes. "Real mature, dip shit." He made a move to steal Eric's cake only to have his hand slapped away. "Ow! What the hell?"

  "What is going on in here?" Alice asked in the same exasperated tone she used when they were teenagers and she caught them smoking. At least she didn't look like she was about to make them smoke an entire carton of cigarettes this time.

  "Nothing," both men grumbled.

  "Uh huh," Alice said absently as she walked around the counter and grabbed a clean knife out of a drawer. She looked at Nathan and frowned. "Sweetie, shouldn't you be getting Caitlyn a slice of cake?"

  "I was trying to," Nathan bit out as he rubbed the back of his hand, scowling at Eric.

  Their mother let out a pained sigh as she grabbed several plates. She raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Eric. "I'm assuming you're getting Joe a plate."

  Eric gestured towards the large slice of cake with his chin as he scooped out some M & M ice cream.

  "Are you getting Camie a slice as well?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

  He snorted. "What? And encourage her stalker tendencies?" He shook his head.

  Nathan chuckled softly as he looked quickly over his shoulder to make sure the three of them were still alone in the kitchen.

  "Seriously, mom, what were you thinking? That woman is frightening," Nathan said, feigning a shudder.

  Eric sucked ice cream off his finger. "Thank god, I thought it was just me," he said with a sigh. "Seriously, mom, what the hell were you thinking?"

  "I was thinking," she said as she expertly sliced and placed four slices of cake onto small plates, "that it would be nice to see my youngest son settle down and give me some grandchildren before I die."

  "Jeez, ma, I'm only thirty. Besides I don't see you getting all desperate about Nathan. He's not married either."

  "I don't have to set Nathan up-"

  "Something I truly appreciate by the way," Nathan muttered.

  "-because he puts himself out there and doesn't have a problem keeping a steady girlfriend," she finished as she began scooping ice cream onto the plates, making sure to give Nathan an extra scoop of chocolate swirl.

  "Fine, but you don't do this to Joe either. Only me, why?" he asked as he grabbed two spoons and stabbed them into the large slice of cake.