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“That sounds original.”
We both laughed.
“Dinner. Tomorrow night. Seven o’clock. How does that sound?”
“Like a winning proposition.”
Mason kissed me on the fore
head. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
I climbed back into bed and fell asleep dreaming about Mason.
jude
BITCH!
17
November 1994
Tenth Grade
Pembroke Pines, Florida
Henry Pierce paced the kitchen floor, waiting for his wife to come back inside from the garage. Meredith came in carrying a large turkey that she had retrieved from the chest freezer.
“This turkey’s a little small but I think we’ll make do,” she said.
“How many people do we have coming over for Thanksgiving dinner?” Henry asked.
“About a dozen.”
Henry sighed and sat down at the table. “Why is it that everyone always gathers at our house for holiday dinners? Don’t they ever entertain at their homes?”
“Henry, that’s not fair. You know my family members entertain from time to time. It’s just that we live in the most central location and that makes it easier for everyone to get together.”
Henry smirked. “If you say so, but I think it has more to do with us footing the grocery bill than anything else.”
Meredith didn’t comment. They both knew it was a true statement. While Meredith tried to act as if she “came from money,” that couldn’t have been further from the truth. She’d grown up dirt-poor, the daughter of two janitors who favored being addressed as environmental engineers. She had two older sisters who were golddiggers, which explained why Meredith was one herself. Unfortunately, her sisters hadn’t landed a wealthy man. Meredith seduced Henry one night while he was too drunk to know better, they had a whirlwind romance, and were forced to marry after Meredith became pregnant.
Henry had long recovered from the fact that Meredith had trapped him by lying and saying she was on the pill. After it was all over, said and done, he found out that she’d never taken a birth control pill, rather less had a prescription for one, in her entire life. Henry wasn’t rich by anyone’s standards but compared to Meredith’s family, he was Donald Trump.
“Whatever, Meredith,” Henry said. “That’s not what I want to talk to you about anyway.”
Meredith put the turkey in the sink and ran hot water over it to begin thawing it out for dinner the next day. “Well, we have to talk while I’m cooking. It’s getting late and I still have to rinse my greens and get them on, cut up the potatoes for my salad tomorrow, and bake a couple of pumpkin pies.”
“Good grief! You act like we’re feeding an army!”
Meredith snickered. “Hell, Henry, you know how my family eats.”
Henry cleared his throat and pulled his chair up closer to the table so he could rest his elbows. “Meredith, we need to have a serious talk about Jonquinette.”
Meredith paused and stood still before facing him, leaning her hips against the sink. “What about her?”
“We can’t keep ignoring her behavior. All these years, we’ve made excuses for her actions but something has to be done immediately before it gets out of hand. I don’t even know what I’m saying. Things have already gotten out of hand and you’re not helping matters any.”
