“Is that the fourth?”
She turned to me. “What is it?” My eyebrows pointed towards the glass of champagne she carried. “Yeah?” she said doubtfully. I snatched the glass from her hand and slapped it onto the iron tray of the waiter passing by. The drink shook and some of it was skipped into the air. “What? Are you kidding me?” My expressions remained indifferent, sure of themselves. “Oh come on! I’m not a teenager!” A woman laughed nearby and we both glanced to her then back at each other. “Let me play pretend that I’m happy.” Her mouth corners dropped downwards and I moved my face away. “It helps get over your last comment,” she had given up on changing my mind, only trying to stir guilt inside me.
“You wanna lose yourself in front of everybody?”
“That won’t happen.” I sighed as she whispered “I hate my life.”
At that, many thoughts gathered up in my mind, I was about to break them down, staring into a bush, until she blurted “It’s Dina! She’s back again!”
I turned towards where he mouth was in an O. A woman in a copper taffeta gown that complemented her swarthy skin tone was approaching. Her thick hair that she always complained was tied up on a side. “Rhoda!” she exclaimed while she was still about seven feet away from us, her way-over-the-top smoky doey eyes (I’m a writer, I notice all kinds of stuff) wide open.
“Dina!” she had her arms out ready for a hug. Dina took fast steps, holding her dress, towards Rhoda and the two women embraced amorously as if they haven’t seen each other for centuries. Come on it was only what, like a couple of weeks?
“I missed you so much!” one of them squeezed out the words. I don’t know whom; I was looking away, blank-faced.
“Look at you! You look so hot!” I’ve grown accustomed to what I find exaggerated complimenting; it’s just that I haven’t seen the two of them together for a while.
“Aw thanks! I honestly love your dress!” I mocked Dina’s tone when she finally noticed I existed. “Oh Jack, it is you. I saw you from afar and thought I was mistaken,” she stretched her hand out and I shook it.
“Hi.”
“Hey. What are you guys doing together?” she rubbed her elbow.
“He lost a bet.” Dina looked puzzled at me and I raked my fingers through my hair.
“Don’t ask.”
“So tell me,” Rhoda started enthusiastically, “how was your trip?”
“Honestly it was amazing. You know, I saw our old house, my old middle school, my cousins. Two of them are already married. And all childhood memories came back. Like for example when I drove down the street to school that I used to take you know like every day twice, and all that chaos at morning before school and my sister nagging at me to get out of bed and all the fighting that happened afterwards. It all came back. I welled up a couple of times.”
Wow, interesting story.
I must however admit that as much as I hate having to listen to their chats… or pretty much everything they do together, from shopping to finding a boyfriend for Dina, somewhere, buried inside me, I’m truly grateful to this woman. When I wasn’t there when my own wife needed me the most, she was. She helped her all through her pregnancy when I didn’t even know she was pregnant. As a nutritionist I always thought she was a gift from God, she helped both my wife and Katie stay healthy and perhaps if it wasn’t for her help, I don’t even want to know what would have happened. She was there when my wife was about to suicide beneath all the pressure and the loneliness. If I had negative feelings for Dina, they were sheer guilt, along with some jealousy.
