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Chapter 16
“Ihave to wonder if you ladies invited me to this impromptu gathering more for my sparkling personality, or my sparkling wine.”
Abby delivered the line as she walked through Genevieve’s door, holding a bottle by the neck in each hand.
“About evenly split. But if I’d known you were going to arrive double fisting the stuff, it would’ve been the wine. No question.”
Abby laughed, setting the treasures down on Gen’s entry table. “I don’t blame you. Where’s Ella?”
“In here!” Ella called from the kitchen. “I’m making popcorn.”
“Oooo,” Abby said, rubbing her hands together in front of her. “Are we watching a movie? Maybe something really cheesy from the 80s or 90s?”
“Nah. Or, I guess we could. But that’s not why she’s making popcorn. She just likes it.”
“I’m not ashamed. It’s nutritious and delicious,” Ella chimed in, still in the kitchen.
“It’s neither,” Gen called back, “but that’s fine.”
“Oh, God. I’m so glad you two called. I didn’t even realize how much I needed a night of laughter and fun.”
Gen flopped down on the couch and Abby chose an overstuffed armchair.
“Has business been bad? Is that what’s stressing you out?”
Gen realized that there was just a touch too much eagerness in her voice. It wasn’t that she wished her friend’s store any financial bad luck. She was just a little excited at the prospect that the topic of conversation that evening might be something other than her and Gavin.
“Oh, no, the opposite, actually. The shop’s doing great. I’m really starting to see my goal come to life before my eyes– we’re becoming more than just a local liquor store and growing into a real destination for local fine wines.”
“That’s awesome! So what’s the issue, then?” Ella’s voice, Gen noticed, showed the proper amount of concern as she carried her bowl of popcorn into the living room and settled in on the opposite end of the couch. She was properly chagrined and promised herself to focus on her friends as the night wore on and not just think about herself.
Yeah– and focusing on your friends will help you think about Gavin less! It’s a win-win! Oh, wait…crap. Well, that whole ‘not thinking about yourself’ thing lasted less than two point seven seconds. Great.
“Well, while running a successful and quickly-expanding business is awesome– I mean, come on, it’s the dream, really– it also comes with challenges I didn’t expect. Like tons of paperwork, and managing staff, and local politics, and…just, bullcrap, basically.” She sighed. “I mean, I know it sounds naive as hell, but I really just pictured myself talking to people about wine, and introducing them to exciting vintages and varietals they’d never thought about before. I must’ve been nuts.”
“No, honey. Not nuts,” Gen assured her friend. “Delusional, sure. So, so delusional. But not nuts.”
Abby laughed and threw one of the decorative couch pillows at Gen’s head. Gen reached up blocked it, karate chop-style. “Oh, Abs, if you wanna come for me, you gotta come so much harder than that!”
All three women laughed and Ella exclaimed, “I can’t believe we’re already this silly and we haven’t even opened the wine yet!”
“I can fix that!”
Abby stood and walked to the kitchen with the wine bottles she’d come in with and then returned a moment later with glasses for each of them, the ruby-like liquid sloshing slightly as she walked.
Gen lifted her glass to her lips and sipped the sweet deliciousness. The flavorful liquid filled her mouth and slid silkily down her throat, and immediately her shoulders relaxed and her head stopped the incessant buzzing that had been torturing her since she’d watched Gavin walk away this afternoon.
She felt like herself again, there with her friends, drinking wine and talking about their lives. Everything that defined her in her own mind– her humor, strength, and independence– was back full-force, and she reveled in it.
Still, even on that evening, she felt the weight of Gavin from time to time. Especially as glass after glass of Abby’s amazing wine finds disappeared into her, she felt increasingly desperate to unburden herself about Gavin and his mysterious malady.
Mr. Rogers had famously said, “If it’s mentionable it’s manageable.” Gen only knew that quote because she’d made a joke about it once, a little wordplay on the words mentionable and unmentionables. At the time, she hadn’t thought much about the sentiment behind the phrase, but tonight, it was burning in her brain and the flame showed no signs of extinguishing anytime soon.
If I could just talk about it…just get the girls’ perspective…I mean, it’s not as if Gavin explicitly told me to keep it to myself…
She knew it was wrong, though. No matter how strong the temptation was to just lay all the facts out to her friends and make the situation more “manageable,” she couldn’t. Those facts weren’t hers to share. She only knew them because she’d snuck around and followed him when he couldn’t have been clearer about wanting her to butt out and mind her own business.
She hadn’t honored his wishes about that, and it would be a real betrayal to run and blab about what little she’d learned just because she was upset.
This isn’t about you, Gen. It’s about Gavin. He needs your support, even if that support consists of doing nothing. And even if doing nothing is so far out of your nature that it feels like you’re losing your mind. Just zip it. For Gavin’s sake.
Well, hell. If she was going to have to resist her natural urges to spill out the thoughts that were burning her gut like acid, then her gut was going to need a thick layer of coating in the form of the awesome Cab Sav that Abby had brought. She lifted the glass to her mouth again, gulped down what was left in it, and then stood to walk in the kitchen and get herself a refill.
