Understanding Me, Understanding You

Chapter 13. Friends, Enemies and Lovers...

As people entered the house and everybody was getting settled for the rehearsal dinner, there was a lot of talk about Stevie and Lindsey getting along so well.

"Mom, dad, where's my sister?" Melinda walked over to the island in the kitchen.

"She's upstairs with Aunt Lori..." Lindsey replied.

Stevie meantime took a pretty big gulp of wine because she just couldn't handle the stress of everything and being inside Lindsey's body, she had a little more freedom to drink.

"Well, how come?" she crossed her arms, staring at what seemed to be her mother, right in the eyes.

Suddenly, while in his ex-wife's body, he realized the attitude his eldest daughter held with even her mother.

"Why are you so nosey?" he asked, genuinely wondering why she felt she held such authority.

"Oh, come on..." Stevie mumbled under Lindsey's breath.

"I mean, who cares what your sister's doing? Aren't you busy enough with everything else? All your friends are here, your soon to be husband. What does it matter what Dru is doing?"

Stevie knocked back the rest of the wine in her glass.

"I guess it doesn't matter..." she shrugged. "Are you feeling alright, mom?" she then questioned.

"I'm great... Your father and I have a lot to do and we're busy for right now."

"Okay..." she pursed her lips and took off.

As soon as she did, Stevie turned. "Why did you do that?"

"You let her talk to you like that?" he then asked.

"She's not usually that moody..." she crossed her arms.

"Wanna bet?" he wondered.

"What does it matter?" she wondered. "Dru's got you wrapped around her finger, not to mention Lauren..."

"There's a big difference there. At least Dru doesn't intervene where she doesn't belong and Lauren isn't my daughter..."

"Bullshit, Lindsey, she's half your age and--"

"She isn't half my age..."

"Besides, what do you call this evening when Drusilla caught us upstairs?"

"I call that a child who loves her parents and wants them back together."

She rolled her eyes, and kind looked the other way as he continued.

"I see a grown woman who's upstairs taking a pregnancy test, having hoped to rely on us being at her side... Yet we're down here with Melinda and her fiance, spoiling her further than we have. And she talks to you like you don't matter. She didn't even acknowledge you because she thought you were me... Don't you see that?"

"I'm not blind. I know what goes on..."

"And you let her romp all over you."

"Y'know what? Maybe this wasn't a good idea..." she finally turned to face him fully.

"What?" he shrugged.

"Maybe working together isn't gonna solve any issues. Why don't you go hang out with Sharon, my mother and anybody else while I hang out with your friends and brother as we wait on Lori and Dru?"

"There's an idea... We've only been glued at each others sides for almost forty-eight hours. I'm sick of this shit."

"Oh, go to hell."

"See ya there," he picked up his drink and walked over to sit down with the girls he normally did his best to stay away from.

Stevie then stormed off and she made her way to stand with a bunch of the men who often gathered together and she quietly joined the mix as she sipped her beverage.