Tempest straightens from grabbing bbq tongs that dropped to their now needs-a-good-mopping kitchen tile. “You’re right!”
She said it so enthusiastically that Chris, Noah and I stare at her, and Christina explodes, “He is not!”
Even Evan seems surprised, but is more subtle in showing it.
“He’s right, yes he is. Evan, you are in fact, right! This is too small a space for all of us. And since we cleaned up last time, and you and Noah did not, the ladies will step out and allow you two capable men to do your share.”
On a groaned, “No,” Evan closes his eyes.
His sisters shout an authoritative, “Oh yes!” in unison.
I pat Noah on his back. “Have fun.”
He laughs, not minding taking over, something my control-freak brother loves to do. He’s an architect who opened his own firm after deciding his inherent problem with authority got him into trouble whenever working for other people. Especially since ideas are precious and his were often better than his superiors, Noah struggled as an underling. That doesn’t always fly, being better than your boss, he’d told me after being sacked for the third time.
I have a feeling arrogance had something to do with it. With me he’s always been a calming rock, but in the workplace where his strengths lie, he doesn’t like to be modest. Waste of time, he said.
Evan, however, pays for other people to clean his home after the parties in his East Village home where the art world elite enjoy a rare private outdoor patio to put their butts out on while they drink their butts off. He eyeballs us on his way to their tiny kitchen while we girls grab a full bottle of cabernet and three long stemmed glasses, heading for the couch.
I sit with Christina. Tempest stands above us in her long flowing dress, pouring like she won ingenuity’s prize.
While clearing the fridge of food past-date, Noah asks the room, “Anybody notice who was missing tonight?”
We all exchange looks, and it dawns on me. “Don’t.”
“James was notably absent.”
Christina exclaims, “Oh! I hadn’t even noticed. I was so focused on introducing Bennett to everyone.”
Noah chuckles, and I point at him. “You don’t know anything!”
“I already took a guess, and you didn’t deny it.”
Evan twists the faucet and plugs the drain, smirking over his shoulder, “Am I to gather you Tucked James? Was that wise, Zia?”
I sigh to Tempest, “Pour more.”
Temp frowns, “Oh no! I take it that it—”
“—didn’t go well? No, it really didn’t.”
Christina is watchfully sipping her wine as Tempest takes the curious reins for both of them, “What happened? How could that have gone wrong? I would’ve thought you two would have been great together. You get along so well.”
“That’s why I tried.” I cut a glance to my chuckling brother again. “What, Noah?! Wouldn’t you have tried if you were in my shoes?”
He sets two filthy serving plates in Evan’s rising water. “I have more sex than you do.”
“If you didn’t.”
“If I didn’t? I don’t want to imagine that, but alright, let’s give it a go. I would definitely remedy that with someone other than a close friend, unless I knew we could be more.”
“I thought maybe we could!” At the silence of my family, I circle my head and discover them thinking they know better. “Like you just said, Temp, you’d have thought it would’ve worked out!”
“But do you like him in that way? I never got the feeling you did.”
Leaning back into the sofa like it’s my personal teddy bear, I shrug. “Not really.”
Noah laughs, “My point!”
“He was saying all of the right things! I hoped if I jumped over that invisible yet oh-so-powerful friendship line there might be chemistry waiting on the other side!”
Christina raises her glass and Tempest and I do the same, creating a trinity of hope. “To all of us finding love.” The clink is fragile, and our expressions show we’re not convinced as Tempest sips and sighs, “It’s so hard to date in New York.”
Christina says, “That’s what I told Grandma Lily before Bennett and I got serious. You know what she said?” We all wait for her dramatic pause, knowing our grandmother is not some flibbertigibbet, her advice is worth following. “She said that it’s hard for us because we don’t believe it’s easy. Or possible.”
I tilt my head. “Are you paraphrasing?”
“I am. I don’t remember exactly how she said it, but that was the meaning. I know! I’m not as well spoken, but you get my point.”
Noah calmly argues the point, “I don’t think that’s accurate. It is difficult to find someone in New York.”
Christina points her glass at him. “And if you keep believing it, it will keep being real.”
Evan argues, “I’m never without a date.”
“Oh I date all the time. Constantly,” Noah nods, wetting a washcloth and wiping up spilled salsa. “But finding someone I love, that I’ve never done.”
Tempest stamps her foot. “There are too many choices so you men keep dipping your dick into every woman who’s willing.”
He wrinkles his nose. “Jeez Temp.”
“Oh please,” she tosses back. “If I don’t say it outright you can’t really feel the power of it.”
Christina crosses her legs, grabbing a throw pillow to put behind her back. “When you do find someone, it is really amazing to get in deep.” We both laugh. “Not that kind of deep! I mean where they’re your best friend and your lover. You go to them when you’re happy and when you’re stressed. They’re your soft place and your rock. That you cannot find if your dick is a pogo stick bouncing from one pussy to the next!”
Tempest smirks, “Nice!”
Even chuckles, “How did you out-vulgar Tempest?”
From behind her glass Chris smiles, “Took some effort,” and takes a mischievous sip.
Carrying beer to their coat closet, Noah says, “When you say James said all of the right things,
