I should have asked why Courtney wanted me there at nine.<\/p>\n
I didn't.<\/p>\n
That was my first mistake.<\/p>\n
My second was believing my family wouldn't invite me to a restaurant just to pay for everyone else's dinner.<\/p>\n
I had believed that for a long time.<\/p>\n
Standing in the doorway of the private dining room, I was beginning to understand how wrong I had been.<\/p>\n
Everyone was already seated.<\/p>\n
My parents were there.<\/p>\n
Courtney was there.<\/p>\n
The table was covered with dishes, glasses, and the remains of a celebration that seemed to have gone very well without me.<\/p>\n
Nobody looked surprised that dinner had already been served.<\/p>\n
Nobody moved to make room.<\/p>\n
I stood there holding my bag, trying to understand what I had walked into.<\/p>\n
Courtney noticed me first.<\/p>\n
She gave me a smile.<\/p>\n
Not the kind that made me feel welcome.<\/p>\n
The kind she used when something had gone exactly the way she wanted.<\/p>\n
"Rosemary. You're here."<\/p>\n
I glanced around the table.<\/p>\n
"Looks like I'm late."<\/p>\n
She shrugged.<\/p>\n
"We've been celebrating."<\/p>\n
I waited for her to say something else.<\/p>\n
She didn't.<\/p>\n
My father looked between us.<\/p>\n
"I thought you were joining us for dinner."<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
"So did I."<\/p>\n
Courtney shifted in her chair.<\/p>\n
There was a little silence.<\/p>\n
It wasn't a long silence.<\/p>\n
But it lasted long enough for me to notice that no one seemed particularly eager to explain what had happened.<\/p>\n
My mother reached for her glass.<\/p>\n
"You're here now, Rosie."<\/p>\n
As if that settled everything.<\/p>\n
I looked at the empty plates.<\/p>\n
The folded napkins.<\/p>\n
The serving dishes that had been pushed toward the middle of the table.<\/p>\n
I had missed the meal.<\/p>\n
Not by accident.<\/p>\n
I was beginning to see that.<\/p>\n
There was something humiliating about arriving at a celebration after everyone had finished eating.<\/p>\n
Especially when you had been expecting to take part in it.<\/p>\n
I tried not to let it show.<\/p>\n
That was another habit of mine.<\/p>\n
Keeping my face pleasant.<\/p>\n
Keeping my voice steady.<\/p>\n
Making uncomfortable moments easier for everyone else.<\/p>\n
I had become good at it.<\/p>\n
Too good.<\/p>\n
Courtney settled back against her chair.<\/p>\n
Her dress was pale cream silk, smooth and expensive-looking.<\/p>\n
I remembered thinking that it probably cost more than I paid on my mortgage every month.<\/p>\n
I didn't know its actual price.<\/p>\n
But I knew Courtney liked beautiful things.<\/p>\n
And I knew she seldom worried about what those things cost.<\/p>\n
She looked perfectly comfortable.<\/p>\n
I wasn't.<\/p>\n
"Did you already have the cake?" I asked.<\/p>\n
Courtney glanced toward the center of the table.<\/p>\n
"Yes. We did."<\/p>\n
I followed her eyes.<\/p>\n
There was nothing left for me to see except the evidence that it had been served.<\/p>\n
I had been invited to an anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n
At least, that was what I had understood.<\/p>\n
There had been no mention that I would be missing the actual celebration.<\/p>\n
No warning that the meal would be over.<\/p>\n
No explanation that my place at the table would be different from everyone else's.<\/p>\n
I looked at my parents again.<\/p>\n
They seemed uncomfortable now.<\/p>\n
But discomfort was not the same thing as objection.<\/p>\n
That distinction had taken me longer to learn than I liked admitting.<\/p>\n
My father kept watching Courtney.<\/p>\n
My mother kept watching me.<\/p>\n
And Courtney watched neither of them.<\/p>\n
She was looking toward the check.<\/p>\n
It was resting near the edge of the table.<\/p>\n
A small thing.<\/p>\n
Folded restaurant paperwork.<\/p>\n
The kind of thing most people ignored until it was time to leave.<\/p>\n
Courtney didn't ignore it.<\/p>\n
She turned toward me with an expectant expression.<\/p>\n
And I finally understood that there was a reason she had wanted me to arrive after everyone finished.<\/p>\n
I just wasn't ready to say it aloud.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
For a few seconds, I still wanted an innocent explanation.<\/p>\n
Maybe dinner had started earlier than planned.<\/p>\n
Maybe there had been a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
Maybe someone had forgotten to tell me.<\/p>\n
I was willing to believe almost anything except the answer sitting directly in front of me.<\/p>\n
That was the part I felt ashamed of later.<\/p>\n
I wasn't confused because the situation was complicated.<\/p>\n
I was confused because I didn't want to believe my own family had done it deliberately.<\/p>\n
Courtney touched the paperwork with one finger.<\/p>\n
My eyes followed her hand.<\/p>\n
Then she smiled again.<\/p>\n
And I knew the conversation wasn't going to be about why I had missed dinner.<\/p>\n
It was going to be about what she expected me to do now.<\/p>\n
I should have asked why Courtney wanted me there at nine. I didn't. That was my first mistake. My second was believing my family wouldn't invite me to a restaurant … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36817,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36797\/revisions\/36817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}