I politely excused myself from the small group I was with and made my way to Tiffany and Dave. The closer I got, the more I noticed that it wasn’t just her outfit that had changed, but her entire appearance. I didn’t want to say that her makeup was bad, she just had a lot of it on, and I personally didn’t think she needed any of it. Not to mention, her hair had been professionally styled.
This was the Tiffany I’d seen in the press. It made me apprehensive about approaching her.
“Hey, glad you guys could make it,” I said as I made my way to them.
“Of course, this sounded like a lot of fun.” Dave’s voice matched the excitement in his eyes.
Tiffany, on the other hand, didn’t appear to be bothered one way or another. She took the oversized pair of sunglasses off the top of her head, slid them down to cover her eyes, pursed her lips while glancing around the yard, and said, “This’ll do.”
Oddly, Dave seemed to nudge her with his elbow, to which she briefly stared at him before correcting herself. “I mean, thank you for the generous invite.”
I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so I went with the typical, “Oh-kay… Well, let me introduce you to some people.”
As I led the two over to the small gathering around my sister, I could hear them whisper-fighting behind me. Part of me found it comical, while the other part grew even more confused than before.
“Tiffany, Dave…I’d like to introduce you to my sister, Jessa Estrada. Her husband, Marcus, is around somewhere, probably hiding.”
Jessa held out her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.
For a long second, Tiffany just stared at my sister’s offered hand, and from what I could see beyond the glasses, she appeared to be disgusted at the thought of touching someone else. Finally, she grabbed the tips of Jessa’s fingers, twisted her wrist so that it was more of a royal-like shake—the whole kiss-the-top-of-my-hand gesture—and smiled. “Same here.”
Dave cleared his throat and immediately took over. “Thank you so much for the invitation. That was very kind of you.”
At least one of them could be friendly.
I wasn’t sure what had gotten into Tiffany, but I planned to find out what it was before the end of the day.
“There are hors d’oeuvres set around on most of the tables. Help yourself. But don’t fill up on them, because in an hour or so, the real food will be coming out.” No one could say that Jessa didn’t make an excellent host.
Dave hummed while glancing around the back yard. “I do love a good hors d’oeuvre.” And with that, he excused himself—politely—and made his way toward the trays of finger food, leaving Tiffany behind.
I could tell that my sister was uncomfortable, which might’ve had something to do with Tiffany’s attitude, but I had to give it to her, she was always willing to stick it out in the hopes that it was all a misunderstanding. She was never one to judge someone on a first impression. Her philosophy had always been that if you paid attention to someone when they didn’t know they were being watched, you’d know all you needed to.
“So…” Jessa started awkwardly. “I hear you’ve recently gotten engaged to Adam King. Congratulations. Have you two picked a wedding date yet?”
Tiffany swallowed harshly and pulled her lips to one side. It was the first sign of the woman I’d hung out since she showed up. Although, that all quickly vanished when the only thing she said was, “No.”
Clearly being thrown off guard, my sister recovered by asking, “Do you plan to have a long engagement?”
Again, Tiffany acted as if she were nervous, though it wasn’t clear why. She pulled in a deep breath through her nose and quickly exhaled, as if preparing herself to answer a difficult question. “I honestly have no idea. I’m usually the last one to find out these things.”
My sister and I nervously laughed at that, which seemed to ease some of the tension. Maybe that was it. Maybe Tiffany was just nervous about meeting other people. From what I had gathered through a couple quick Google searches, it didn’t seem like she had too many friends. This could be why—because she had a hard time meeting new people.
“I haven’t seen him around…is he away for work?” I’d been dying to understand her relationship better, and I finally had my chance to ask the questions that had been plaguing me since our moment in her living room the other day.
“Yes,” was all she said.
I waited a few seconds to see if she would elaborate, yet she never did. “What does he do during the off-season?”
Her forehead creased, and had she not been wearing such big sunglasses, I would’ve probably seen her brows knit together in confusion. “He travels.”
“Even when he’s not playing?”
“Yeah.” Either she didn’t want to talk about it, or she was pissed about something.
So I decided to drop it.
“Why don’t you two go walk around and try some of the food. I’m testing out a few new items.” Jessa politely shooed us away, likely over Tiffany’s coldness.
I had to slow my steps so Tiffany could keep up. Honestly, it made me laugh to myself. “Why in the world would you wear those shoes to a backyard party?”
“Because,” she snapped while stumbling next to me. “It went with the outfit. Plus, I didn’t see any flats in the closet.”
“You don’t know what shoes you have?”
She nonchalantly waved me off. “Does any woman?”
I couldn’t really argue with her there. “Why don’t you just take them off?”
“Then I’d have to carry them around all day.”
I stopped and carefully gripped her elbow to steady her. Holding out one hand, I said, “Give them to me, and I’ll put them in my place. You can get them before you leave.”
I assumed it would’ve taken more persuasion than that, but it didn’t. She quickly stepped out of the
