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As the party guests began to leave, Hunter stood up from his chair and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Excuse me, everyone," he said, and the chatter died down. "I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for coming out to celebrate Mark's birthday today. It's been a great day, and I'm so happy that we could all be here together."
He paused for a moment, looking around, and then his eyes landed on me. "But there's something else that I want to share with all of you," he said, and my heart started to race. "Becca and I have been dating for a little while now, and I just wanted to let everyone know that she makes me very happy."
There was a moment of stunned silence, and then everyone started to clap and cheer. I felt my face turning red as Hunter walked over to take my hand. "I'm sorry if I surprised you," he whispered to me, but I could see the happiness in his eyes.
I looked around the room, feeling a little overwhelmed by all the attention, but also incredibly grateful to be surrounded by so many people who cared about us. Steve was beaming, as was Natalie. I knew that there would be questions and maybe even a bit of gossip, but at that moment, I didn't care. All that mattered was that Hunter and I were happy and that we had each other.
Middle Ground
The girl swam onto the rock and lay back with her eyes closed, breathing deeply, her red hair glinting in the sunlight. She was surrounded by a group of mermaids, all of them trying to touch her legs. I wondered despairingly how I had gotten stuck watching cartoons at this age.
"Do you want me to make dinner while you finish that?" Becca asked, her voice teasing. Dinner was over at the cafe, and she was going to spend the night. I was happy she was here; I just didn't like the fact that she had to gloat so much about my punishment.
"Watch out for my revenge, you won't like it," I said, a tone of warning in my voice. Becca had a laugh and took Mark's hand, leading him out of the living room and to the kitchen. I watched them go, then I turned over to the screen and barely kept a growl from escaping my lips.
Becca had no idea what was coming to her. This would seem mild compared to it. I closed my eyes, remembering Mark's party, it had been fun, more fun than I had expected, and it made me grateful for Becca all over again, I couldn't imagine planning and executing a kid's birthday party.
We still hadn't unwrapped the gifts though. and I had promised Becca it would be done before she made it back here this evening, but for some reason, it hadn’t, and I couldn't even think of why. Mark wanted to spend the time after dinner unwrapping them and I wanted to let him, but according to Becca, after dinner was time to sleep. So, I was stuck doing it unless I could get Mark to do it after school. And this was my punishment, watching a cartoon while Becca and Mark made dinner. I groaned and blinked my eyes open.
I had just picked my phone off the couch to go through my emails when I heard Becca calling to me from the kitchen. She didn't sound happy.
"Hunter!"
I scrambled off the couch as fast as I could and walked over to the kitchen. The sun was just setting outside the windows, the rays splashing onto the floor in a golden shower of light. It made the house worth whatever had been paid for it.
When I walked into the kitchen, I knew immediately that something was wrong. Becca was wearing a sickly-sweet smile like she had eaten something that didn't agree with her, but she couldn't complain to the cook while Mark looked plain unhappy.
"What's wrong?" I asked, looking from one face to the other, uncertain from whom the tension had generated. They both looked mad.
"Mark wants pizza for dinner, how about you tell him it's unhealthy to have that?" She said with a smile on her face.
Before I could get a word in, Mark jumped in. "Dad and I need pizza for dinner," he announced, looking at me for confirmation.
I winced, avoiding Becca's eyes. Mark made it sound like I let him eat pizza for dinner every night, which wasn't completely true, but it also wasn’t completely false. The boy was a child, and he wanted to eat whatever he craved in the moment and while I had given in from time to time, we certainly didn't eat pizza every night.
"We can order in some pizza tonight, but we'll have to work it out come morning, so get ready, buddy, you'll be waking up real early tomorrow," I said to him, still avoiding Becca's eyes. I didn't need to look at her to know, she was displeased.
"Hunter, I don't think it's a good idea to let Mark have pizza for dinner, what's next? Ice cream for breakfast? He needs to eat something healthy."
"Dad and I ate ice cream on Saturday," Mark said, smiling up at me now. I winced again and pulled my eyes closed, sifting my hands through my hair. The little snitch. I was obviously his hero for supporting his choice.
"Okay Hunter, want to tell me what's going on here?" Becca asked.
"Can we talk about it later babe?" I asked. I didn't want to have the talk in front of Mark. Not with him sitting there, his eyes passing from mine to Becca's.
"Yes, but for dinner tonight, we'll have baked chicken tenders with sweet potato fries and green beans," she announced, moving away from the two of us to the stove.
"That's not pizza," Mark said his face on the verge of tears.
"No, buddy, it's not, but how about you have some yogurt for dessert?" Becca asked. "You'll have pastries at the cafe tomorrow. What do you think?"
"I love pastries," Mark announced, pizza already forgotten.
"Then we have a deal," Becca replied, walking over to Mark and sticking her hands out for a shake. Mark stuck his out and wrapped his finger around hers. "Want to help me?" She asked. Mark nodded, his hair shaking enthusiastically in his eagerness. Then he jumped off the kitchen stool and walked away from me. Like he hadn't been on the verge of tears just now.
"You're excused, sire," I heard Becca say. She was already pointing things to Mark, but her eyes when she looked at her, they still weren't happy. I shook my head, confused now. I wasn't the one who had asked for pizza for dinner. The culprit was prancing around the kitchen just then, right beside her.
"I could help," I said.
