High C

23. Cooked Goose

Natasha was not proud of herself but she was determined. Once her father had shown Bob the door in the most literal sense, all hell had erupted, just as she'd hoped. Any chance that her plan might someday be appreciated as a clever prank had disappeared in the rearview where it had always seemed greater than it actually was. Her only choice now, whenever she decided to reveal her game, was to present it as a necessary lesson validated by her eventual wedded bliss with Rodney.

Listening to the raised voices of her outraged family, she felt a fraud for her own audacity in thinking her cause justified such a lack of respect for those who loved her most. Her mother pleaded with her. Where was her self-worth that she could marry a man who made a pass at her sister? Her father bellowed until he choked on his own saliva, his disappointment in the willful blindness of his intelligent daughter expressed from the most familiar vent. And DeeDee, her beloved big sister, worried, yes, and angry too, but so hurt at the thought of losing her sister to a desperate act of denial, it was though she was grieving her other half while being consoled by a look-alike stranger.

They had quieted to say grace over the Christmas meal, and ate in sullen silence until Natasha suggested she take leftovers home to Bob and then the protests began again.

"Everybody here is over reacting," Natasha stated brazenly. "If I'm not upset, why should you be?"

"Why aren't you upset??" her mother her mother struggled to ask without shouting. "He kissed your sister!"

"He thought she was upset about running into her ex-boyfriend at the hospital."

"He did not say that!" DeeDee gasped.

"You saw Kurt?" Alexis asked DeeDee, her eyes so sympathetic that at once Natasha knew DeeDee had told their mother everything and could not help but feel wounded, hypocritical as it was.

"You knew he was married?" Natasha asked their mother.

"You were dating some married guy?!" Alvin said, so surprised he stuttered.

"I didn't know he was married," DeeDee fumed.

"You told Bob though." Natasha said sulkily.

"Kurt's out of the picture, and running into him certainly didn't mean I was open for business with your fiancé!"

"I didn't say that," Natasha said.

"Good. Because I know you are not even thinking about thinking that this was in any way my fault."

"I know it wasn't. It just wasn't Bob's. He's been...stressed." Natasha said with a shoulder shrug.

"So you keep saying," Alexis said. "Is that supposed to account for that cockamamie lie about being an actor?"

Alvin put his hands in prayer pose and yelled, "If only that were true!" at the ceiling.

"Is he mentally well?"

"Of course," Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Then he thinks you're stupid," DeeDee said.

"My daughter is NOT stupid! At least you weren't. Has he got something on you?"

"Like what, Dad? He's got some inside info that would force me to marry him?"

"You're not saying you love him," DeeDee said.

"That goes without saying."

"Then say it."

"I love him all right! Geez! Can we please drop it?"

"I'll drop him," Alvin said.

"You know, if you'd told us we weren't ever going to be allowed to be happy with who we married I wouldn't have wasted my time dating. I would've conducted interviews."