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“So,” I said, “where is the pairing list. None of this makes any sense to me until you tell me which wine you’re serving with it.”
26
Danica
Walking in the door from one of the best nights I could remember ever having was like a splash of cold water directly in my face. Reality hit me with a suddenness I wasn’t prepared for before I could even close the door behind me, and I sighed.
The house was a wreck. Clothes were strewn on the floor, and dishes were piled up on the coffee table, an open pizza box sitting beside it with eighty percent of a pizza still in it. There were what appeared to be tissues all over the couch, balled up. The carnage continued through the place until I reached the third bedroom, which I had converted into an office.
What I found there made me sit back on my heels and close my arms across my chest. The furniture of the room was all pushed up against one wall. It was actually kind of impressive since one of them was a somewhat heavy bookshelf, and it had the books back on it, albeit haphazardly as if they had been taken off and put back on.
In the center of the room, her legs spread out to either side and her forehead resting on a pink yoga mat was my sister. She was muttering something under her breath as she reached her fingertips out toward her toes.
“Shit, dammit, son of a bitch,” Jaz grumbled.
“I thought yoga was supposed to be relaxing.”
Startled, Jaz’s head shot up. She made eye contact with me and then began to crumple back down, falling backward and landing against the wall. I cried out and went to her, but she had regained herself by the time I got to her.
“Ouch,” she said.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine, fine. Just got startled and looked up too fast. All the blood rushed out. Remember I only get to use like half my blood now since this thing is taking up the rest of it.” She indicated her stomach.
“The baby,” I corrected, “and yes, the baby needs as much as possible.” I stood and offered my hand, and Jaz got out of her impressive split position rather much easier than I would have and I wasn’t carrying a bowling ball in my stomach. Tempering the jealousy, I tried to return to the upset that I had when I first walked in. “What the hell have you been doing in the very, extraordinarily short time I was gone?”
She shrugged. “I ordered a pizza. Got a slice in and realized I didn’t like it. It’s weird, I always like cheese pizza, and I never let myself have it. But all of a sudden, I just absolutely had to have popcorn.”
“But you hate popcorn.”
“Always have,” Jaz continued, nodding. “But it just sounded amazing, and you know what? It was. It was delicious. I ate three whole bags of it. Then I got sick. Then I got sad about eating so much and being sick and being here and not dancing. So I sat on the couch and cried for an hour and took a nap. When I woke up, I decided to do some yoga. Then you showed up. That cover it?”
Nodding, my eyes as wide as quarters, I shrugged. “I guess. Can you help me clean up?”
“Yeah,” she said, “as soon as I take a bath. I just need to soak for a few minutes.”
“Ah.” Classic Jaz. Whenever she had to do something she didn’t want to, she always went with the bath line. It was her go-to getting out of everything since she was a kid, since she knew no one would argue with her about getting clean. Especially since she was always dancing and sweating everywhere.
I went about cleaning up, tossing the tissues away and doing the dishes. I smelled the pizza and shrugged before putting it in the fridge. It was possible the cheese would have gone bad in that time, but it was also possible it would be fine, and pizza sounded like a good dinner, even if it was reheated. By the time I got the living room about done, I could hear sobbing coming from the bathroom. Concerned, I knocked on the door.
“Jaz,” I called, “you okay?”
“No.”
“Can I come in?”
“Yes,” she said in the same pitiful voice.
I opened the door and saw Jaz, leaned against the back wall, cucumbers over her eyes and her hair tied back in a high bun. There were purple bubbles making mountains on the surface of the tub, obscuring her body and making the room smell strongly of lavender.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m just so frustrated,” she moaned. “This baby is killing me. I should be able to do that stretch with no problem. You don’t know what it’s like. My body is a fine-tuned machine, Danica. A machine!” I rolled my eyes, but she couldn’t see me through the vegetable slices.
