Page 11 of Down Bad

Lottie and Marcos’s nightmare nephew?

I invite a few friends over after work on the guise of a movie night, which is just an excuse to hang out and blow off steam. We always throw on a movie everyone’s seen a hundred times. All the lights stay on. We talk through the whole thing. Someone’s always in the kitchen making something. That would be Billy tonight, his hubby Tanner in the armchair with tears of laughter in his eyes from the movie, glued to the screen with a beer in hand. It’s one of those nights both of their boys are staying over with friends and they’re free. Mindy and Joel weren’t as lucky tonight, turning my invite down. Lance and Chad are here, which is nice, because even without kids they’re always busy. We all grew up together, same age give or take a year, but with the exception of me and Lance, none of us were all that close in high school.

Times were different even fifteen short years ago.

Sadly, the last thing anyone cares to chat about tonight is my next-door nightmare situation. Whenever I try to bring it up, the conversation steers elsewhere. “Yep, Trey’s ten-year reunion, you heard me right,” says Lance, “and I don’t think many people from his class are flying in for it. RSVP count was low, last I heard.”

“He’s already found the love of his life, anyway,” says Chad on the couch next to him. When he gets a look, he shoots a funny one right back. “What? You already forgot how the hell we happened?”

“Oh, duh, us.” Lance gathers a handful of popcorn and shrugs. “We were an astronomically improbable anomaly.”

“Don’t go usin’ big words he don’t understand,” says Tanner.

Chad reaches around Lance to smack Tanner over the head, causing him to laugh. “Watch it, I will take you down on this floor in front of your husband!”

“I’m not gettin’ involved,” calls Billy from the kitchen. I still don’t know what he’s whipping up, but it smells vaguely like pizza. Chefs’ minds never rest, I’ve learned. He runs T&S’s Sweet Shoppe.

Y’know. Where I recently got a couple banana-nut muffins.

That someone probably threw away.

I glance at the window nearby, noticing the guestroom light on next-door. The blinds are open, but I see no one inside.

It’s not that I need to talk about Diego to my friends.

I’m not even sure I want to.

But I have a crisis here.

And all my friends have is popcorn.

“Please, please, please tell me Nadine went to you about flower arrangements for the reunion,” says Lance.

It takes me ten solid seconds before I realize he’s talking to me. “Oh. Nadine?” I shrug. “Well, um … I mean …”

“Nooo,” breathes Lance, scandalized instantly. “She’s still using Marcy from Brighthouse??”

“Nadine needed a sort of all-in-one thing,” I quickly say in her defense, eyeing Tanner who happens to be Nadine’s son—despite him not seeming to be paying attention. “I really don’t have any hard feelings. Besides, I helped with flowers at the recent Boomin’ Barbecue thing on the Fourth, and she—”

“That was at the McPhersons’, not the Strongs’, and—wow, I cannot believe her.” Lance nudges Tanner on his other side. “Knock a little sense into your sweet mama. Why isn’t she supporting her local businesses?”

Tanner, way too glued to the movie, mouth full of popcorn, only half-turns to Lance. “Say what?”

Lance gives up instantly and reaches over to put a hand on my knee. “Listen. If Cassie and I get our shit together, we’re doing this big fashion runway thing in the fall, it’s gonna be ridiculous. Like, over-the-top country-chic. Very ‘yee-haw but make it Vogue’.”

Chad snorts.

Lance leans in and adds: “I’m withholding sex from Chad until he agrees to be a model.”

Chad snaps to attention. “You’re doin’ what now?”

“And we’ll need flowers,” says Lance to me. “Tons of flowers.”

“You ain’t withholdin’ anything from me!”

“Cassie and I got your back.” Lance winks at me, then throws an arm over the couch and calls out at Billy. “Seriously, what are you making in there? A four-course meal? I thought you were just getting wine!”

Something catches my eye in the window.