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She purses her lips, nodding as she peers past me into the house. “Yeah, I clean up real good. Is Penny around?”
“Yes, please. Come in.”
“Wanda!” I hear as Ethan tears across the living room with his arms out. He captures her in a full tackle, barely moving her at all. That is a strong woman. Stronger than she looks, even.
“Hey there, little monster,” she coos, burying her nose in his hair.
He holds her tight, grinning with his eyes closed. It’s really sweet.
I still sort of in awe that this is even happening and just try to make myself useful, collecting wine from the cellar and getting Ethan to help me set the table. The women chatter in that rapidfire way that they do, finishing each other’s sentences and delivering only the punchlines of their shared jokes. Most of it goes over my head, but I can still feel the affection in the air. It’s like its own atmosphere, filling the room.
“Okay, so tell me again?” Penny smirks, lifting the giant sauté pan up to pour the contents into a serving bowl. “It’s Elsie? Right?”
Billows of steam cloud the air in front of her, frizzing her hair up just around her ears, glossing her collarbones.
“Elise,” Wanda corrects her with a secret smile as she takes the serving bowl and pivots to place it on the table.
“Wait, what was that?” Penny intervenes. “Was that a smirk? Are you thinking about this woman and smirking?”
Wanda just shrugs and picks a cherry tomato off the top of the pile of food in the bowl.
“Is smirking good?” Penny persists as she makes her way around to the dining room table. I try not to listen in too closely and keep myself busy opening wine.
“Come on, spill it! Where did you meet her? What is she like? What does she do? Is she from here?”
Wanda holds her hands up, laughing as she sits down and enthusiastically begins serving herself. “Okay, okay, okay! I promise I will tell you everything just as soon as I know, okay?”
“You don’t know where she’s from?” Ethan interrupts, prompting a laugh from both women.
“We’ve only had one date, sweetie,” Wanda explains gently. “I try not to demand a complete autobiography on the first date, you know what I mean?”
Though I am fairly certain that Ethan does not know what she means, because he doesn’t have any dating experience at all, he still nods sagely.
“But I could tell right away. It’s a connection,” Wanda shrugs demurely.
It’s funny to see her batting her eyes and blushing. You would never know that just earlier today she hung a ceiling’s worth of drywall by herself.
“And where did you meet this fairytale princess?” Penny asks sweetly before tucking in to an impressive portion of food on her plate.
“Actually… Tinder,” Wanda mutters.
Penny raises her eyebrows. “Excuse me? You did what now?”
“I know, I know, I know. But it’s not as bad as I thought, okay? I figure, I’m a normal person and I am on there. So I figured there must be other normal people like me, right?”
“Wow, I am amazed!” Penny gasps.
“What’s so amazing about that?” I ask, more curious than I probably should be. “You never tried it? What about eHarmony or Match or something like that?”
“Me? What? No.” Penny shakes her head. “I would be afraid of the kind of guy I would find. Just some stranger? And with Ethan to consider? Just, no.”
Wanda and I exchange a look of understanding. I guess that makes sense. I hadn’t thought about that angle. Penny never had any trouble finding men to date, but she was always sort of cautious. She always asked around, even going so far as to buddy up with the guys’ ex-girlfriends. Her mother had some rough experiences dating, and Penny was more careful because of it. Even with that, jerks got through.
“What about you, Clay?” Wanda winks at me over the top of her wine. “Are you a swipe right kind of guy?”
I swallow carefully, buying a little time to craft an answer that will get me in no trouble with Penny or Ethan or Wanda—or any combination of those people.
“I’ve tried it, but as you can see, I wasn’t really successful, or we wouldn’t all be having dinner together tonight.”
