Tightening the Knot (14 page)

           
They arrived at Mr. and Mrs.
Kester’s
house in time for lunch with six dozen cookies, a laundry basket full of presents for the family and a large white box containing Meredith’s wedding dress.
 
The house smelled delicious as Jeanette had made her famous cinnamon bread.
 
Meredith picked a choice spot in the living room for another round of gift giving after the meal.
 
Everyone agreed that because she had done so well on the scrumptious food that Jeanette should have the honor of opening the first present.
 
She picked up one from Tom.
 
Meredith knew it would be something to add to the Santa collection.
 
She was not clairvoyant.
 
Tom had bought his mother something with Santa every year since he was ten, usually something kitchen related.
 
This time it was a butter dish with Santa’s head and shoulders poking out the top for a handle.
 
Jeanette held it up to show off and opened it so everyone could admire the full Santa on the inside.

           
As she was about to put it aside, Greg snorted rather loudly and she realized he had been trying to suppress a laugh.

           
“What’s so funny?”

           
“I… I just have to know.
 
Am I the only one who thinks that’s just a little bit creepy?”

           
“Creepy?”

           
“It’s a butter dish.”

           
“I know, but… I’m sorry, Tom… but to me it looks a little… with that shape, like Santa’s popping out of a coffin.”

           
“What!?”
 
Jeanette held it up again to inspect it.

           
Tom started laughing, too.
 
“Oh, no!
 
I see it now.
 
The way he’s lying down inside makes it look like he’s sitting up when you close it.”

           
Jeanette took the lid on and off a few times and found that she and Ellie were now the only ones able to keep a straight face.
 
Perhaps Ellie had been the one to select this Santa.

           
Meredith was caught up in the laughter now as well.
 
“It is a little creepy how it looks like he’s sitting up in it.”

           
“Yeah,” Tom agreed.
 
“It’s like a vampire Santa or something.”

           
Jeanette just sighed and said, “Oh, stop it.
 
It’ll look fine once I get a stick of butter on him.”

           
Something about the way she said “him” instead of “it” only reinforced the image in everyone’s mind of Santa lying in a coffin.
 
Only now he was lying under a stick of butter.
 
They laughed harder until Greg, who had started all this, felt he should be the one to move things along.
 
Particularly if he intended to stay on good terms with his mother-in-law.
 
He opened up a pair of slippers.
 
They were successfully unfunny.

           
But Jeanette had her new dish washed up in time for dinner that evening.
 
It sat proudly in the very center of the table and was responsible for many stifled smiles during the blessing.
 
As napkins went into laps, Tom said, very politely, “Mom, will you please pass the vampire Santa.”

           
She was not actually in a position to reach the butter.
 
He knew this.
 
The line was intended to make her crack and it worked.
 
She let out a quick laugh and smiled at Meredith.
 
“Honey, please give your brother the vampire Santa.”

╣ Chapter 18 ╠

           
“I actually miss her.”

           
“Really?
 
I mean, she was cute, but you made her sound like a bit of a menace.”

           
“Yeah, well, the house seems so empty now.”
 
Meredith was having lunch with Jenna.
 
The house felt empty for a lot of reasons.
 
The school was closed so she was still on vacation, but she felt like the only one.
 
Greg had returned to work on Wednesday, Thursday and now Friday.
 
And Katie had gone back to work with him Wednesday morning to be returned to Mark.
 
Tom had returned to
Ohio
on Wednesday as well so she was no longer spending the evenings at her parents’ house.
 
And then there was still that strange happy anxiety between her and Greg.
 
“And it’s quiet, too.”

           
“Quiet?
 
You miss the early morning whine sessions?”

           
“Like I’d miss a toothache.”
 
Meredith smiled wryly and then paused.
 
“But things are just sort of quiet in general.
 
It’s weird.”

           
“You mean between you and Greg?”

           
“I don’t know.
 
I think things might be a tiny bit better, but not… I mean, we’re still barely talking, but instead of tense, angry silence, it’s just this weird, happy silence.”

           
“Happy is good.
 
I’m not so sure about silence.”

           
“I mostly feel good that there’s
some
progress, except when I’m sitting around with a goofy grin on my face, and can’t think of a single thing to say.
 
My biggest fear is that we’re both expecting an awful lot from an event that might turn out to be very lame.”

           
“Well, I’ll be thinking about you when I’m sitting home alone watching the sixty-twelfth annual whatever
Rockin
’ Eve.”

           
“Sixty-twelfth?”

           
“I know.”
 
Jenna shook her head at herself.
 
“I was trying to think of a big number and my mouth was faster than my brain.”

           
“I thought you had plans anyway.”

           
“Oh, I forgot to tell you.
 
Tammy ditched me for James.”

           
“Already?”

           
“Apparently.
 
He admitted he was wrong about something and so now he’s allowed to take her out for New Year’s.”

           
“Well, I’m sorry she flaked on you.”

           
“I’ll get over it.
 
And it’s not like I’m surprised.”
 
Tammy was one of Jenna’s co-workers.
 
She had been dating James for nearly four years, on and off.
 
They would break up every few months and spend about two weeks discussing when they were going to start talking to each other again.
 
Tammy also taught jazzercise and her class paid the price on the days she stopped speaking to James.
 
“I’m more bummed that I’m not doing something with Shawn than I am that I’m not doing anything.”

           
“Still no luck there, huh?”

           
“No, and I may have to give up on him.
 
He completing blew me off yesterday.”

           
“Really?”
 
Meredith put down her fork, already indignant for her friend’s sake, but waiting for the full story.

           
“Well, I had decided that it was time for me to go ahead and ask him out.
 
We’ve been getting along great and I don’t know what he’s waiting for.”
 
She ignored the look from Meredith.
 
“Yesterday I had the perfect chance.
 
He happened to be coming out of the showers right as I was about to step out for a bite to eat.
 
I pretended it was just a casual idea for him to join me, like it had just popped into my head since we were both heading out.
 
And
d’you
know
what he said?
 
He said he’d love to,
but
he had some meeting he had to get to.”

           
“How do you know he didn’t really have an appointment?”

           
“Because when I came back a half hour later, I saw him leaving!
 
He had obviously stayed to chat with someone else there, even though he didn’t have time for me.”

           
“Did he say anything when you saw him leaving?”

           
“No.”

           
“He just ignored you?
 
Maybe he is a jerk.”

           
Now Jenna looked a little sheepish.
 
“Well, he didn’t exactly see me.
 
I kind of hid in my car when I saw him.”

           
Meredith laughed, understanding the refuge of a car.
 
“If you really like him otherwise, I wouldn’t write him off until you see what he says when he actually has a chance to say something.”

           
“Do you really think there could be a good explanation?”

           
“Sure.”
 
Meredith paused for a moment, knowing Jenna was waiting for an example of one.
 
“Maybe, um, maybe he got a phone call right after you left canceling the meeting.
 
And maybe he stayed at the club because he knew you were coming back.”

           
“That could work.
 
I certainly like it better than my idea that he was talking to Miss Freaky Eyes at the desk.”

           
“Who?”

           
“Oh, yeah.
 
We got this new girl up front and she wears colored contacts and changes the color like every day.
 
It’s a little freaky.”

           
“Freaky eyes?
 
Aren’t you the one who went around for a month with one green eye and one brown?”

           
“Hey!
 
That was like, twelve years ago and it’s not my fault I lost one.”

           
“Whose fault was it?”

           
“Okay, so maybe it was my fault, but I couldn’t throw away a perfectly good colored contact just because it no longer had a match.
 
I had to dish a lot of ice cream to pay for those.”

╣ Chapter 19 ╠