Re-Arranged

Chapter Seventeen

"Cheers!"

The four glasses clinked together and while Kelly and Luke took a short sip of their waters, Allison and Carl downed their champagne like it was water.

"What are we celebrating even?"

Allison was the first one to put the glass down, but Carl answered quicker, stumbling over the feeling of the alcohol hurrying down his gullet. "No- nothing. It was a date night for us." He pointed between him and his wife, and let out a heavy breath. "Chugging the champagne was a bad idea," he murmured and held up a finger. "I'll need a moment, hoooo."

"I'll need... more." Al said, shaking her head and blinking her eyes rapidly.

"Water might help?" Kelly offered, nodding towards the goblets with clear liquid in front of them.

In the end, it took far more than a couple of moments for either of them to shake off the feeling and engage in proper conversation.

"As I was saying," Carl continued, "this was supposed to be our date night."

"But once the babysitter came in, we did not feel like eating alone," Allison took over without ceremony.

"Please. Once we were in the car, all she would talk about is you" – Carl gestured towards Kelly, who had just taken another sip of her water and sputtered it out – "and in all my years of feeling jealous of you two, this was a whole new level of annoyance for me." He said all this with such a calm expression while grinning wide that even Darian choked on air. "And I quite politely suggested she take you to visit the parents instead of me."

"But we settled on having dinner with you guys two days before we leave," Allison concluded, as cool as cucumber on ice.

"Good to know I'm not the only one who feels like a third wheel when these two get together," Darian observed over his glass of water.

"I had some glorious years of jealousy-free life when Kel began dating in college, but no, neither did it last nor did it douse out the fire. When it reignited, it was stronger!"

"Stop being a drama queen, Carrie," Kelly said and rolled her eyes, tossing her napkin at Carl. It landed on his chest. He picked it up and placed it on the table beside his.

Turning to her, he raised an eyebrow and pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, as though accepting a challenge. "Am I though?" He leaned forward and clasped his hands over the table, nodding from Allison to Kelly. "Do either of you ever care for what goes on around you?"

Before either of them could answer, Darian slapped a spoon on the edge of the table to bring their attention to him. "Is that important right now? I just got insulted indirectly and no one cares!"

Amidst the puzzlement the remaining three expressed, only Kelly ventured forward with the questions. "Insulted? How?"

"According to Carl, you were far more deeply in love with what's-his-face than with me." He spoke a little too calmly, the way he did when he was controlling himself from turning petulant like a child.

Kelly took a second to think back on what had been discussed so far before speaking. And when she did, she could not hide an amused smirk. "Ah. That was just the consequence of his dazzling, handsome face. Didn't I tell you? I blocked out the world when I was with him, it was so hard to tear my eyes away from him!"

Carl and Allison wrinkled their noses and bared their teeth almost in unison on behalf of the one being addressed. "Ouch. That must have hurt more than being kicked in the nuts," Carl whispered at a volume that was heard around the table.