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“No.” Elizabeth looked at Kristen and noticed she was shooting daggers in her direction. What had she done to get this girl to dislike her already? Deciding to ignore Kristen instead of worrying about her, Elizabeth looked at Jacob. “I’ll take more of those chicken wings. They are delicious, Jacob.”
Jacob reached for the wings and placed a few on Elizabeth’s plate. “Thanks. They’re my specialty. Some people think they’re too spicy. I guess you aren’t one of them,” Jacob answered, filling his plate also.
“The spicier the better,” replied Elizabeth with a flirty smile.
With a last quick glance of disgust at Elizabeth, Kristen took the wine bottle and refilled her glass. “Here, Jacob let me fill yours.”
Kristen reached over to fill Jacob’s glass, making a point to place her hand on his arm. Jacob glanced sharply at Kristen and gave her a simple no thank you and turned his attention back to Elizabeth who just stopped eating. She suddenly looked very pale.
“Are you okay?” he asked her as he placed his hand on her back.
“Where’s the bathroom?” She placed her hand over her mouth. Jacob pointed her in the right direction, and she quickly got up and dashed off, just getting the door closed and leaning over the toilet before she got sick.
A few seconds later all the food and wine she had consumed had been expelled from her stomach. She wiped her mouth with toilet paper, flushed the toilet, and stood up.
“How embarrassing!” Elizabeth looked in the mirror and leaned against the sink steadying herself and rinsed her mouth. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Hey, it’s Stacey. Are you ok?”
“I am now. I’ll be out in a minute.” Elizabeth rinsed her mouth again, and splashed water on her face, drying herself on a towel hanging by the sink. She opened the door and left the bathroom.
“Dinner was delicious. Thank you for inviting me, but I think I need to go home. I’m not feeling well.”
“Man, Jacob, your cooking made her sick. Maybe we all need to stop eating before we find ourselves in the bathroom.” Chad joked as he elbowed his friend in the ribs. Jacob threw an irritated glace at Chad and became concerned as he noticed how ill Elizabeth looked.
“No really. It wasn’t the food. I haven’t been feeling great the past couple of days. I just think it’s exhaustion from getting through the end of the semester. I’ve been tired.I think I should go. Nice meeting all of you. Thank you again, Stacey.” She looked at Stacey with sincerity, waved, and headed quickly out the door and across the yard toward home.
“Well, that was interesting, and quite a bit disgusting,” replied Kristen with contempt. She was standing next to Jacob, as close to him as possible. Stacey came back to the table and passed around the dessert she had sitting on the buffet. Everyone went for dessert: chocolate cake or cheesecake.
“Well, I feel bad for her. I hope she’s okay. Maybe it was your cooking, Jacob.” Chad grabbed the cheesecake passed to him and placed a slice on his plate.
“Jake, you gave someone food poisoning. I hope we’re all okay and don’t end up running for the john.” Don joined in the joking, trying to lighten the mood in the room.
Jacob shot his friends an eat shit look and grabbed a piece of chocolate cake. Kristen sat back down next to him, filled their glasses with wine, grabbed her fork, and helped herself to some of Jacob’s cake.
The conversation steered away from Elizabeth. The friends laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. Charity and Don soon excused themselves to head home.
Stacey thanked them all for coming and started to take some of the plates and dirty dishes to the kitchen. Chad and Jacob helped. Kristen grabbed the wine bottle and her glass. This was her contribution to the cleaning.
“Sis, you look exhausted. Why don’t you go relax and get ready for bed, I’ll clean this up.” Jacob preferred less people in the kitchen so he could make sure things got put away correctly.
“Thanks, Jake. I appreciate it. I think I’ll get ready for bed. I’m exhausted. Would you make some coffee?” Stacey hugged her brother, and he nodded hugging her back.
“I think I’ll wait for coffee in front of the TV and find us something to watch.” Chad, always finding a way to get out of work, left the kitchen without waiting for an answer which left Kristen and Jacob alone.
Jacob set to work putting leftover food in Ziplock storage bags. “Kristen, you make a mean pot of coffee. Can you get that going please?”
Always willing to help Jacob whenever possible, Kristen happily obliged and quickly had the pot brewing, filling the kitchen with the aroma of fresh coffee. She emptied her wine glass with one last gulp and noticed that Jacob still had some in his.
She reached for his glass. “Jake, are you going to finish this, or can I?”
“Go for it, Kristen. I think I’ve had enough.” She emptied his glass also and placed it on the counter making sure to brush her hand against his arm as she did. Jacob stopped packing away leftovers and glanced over her way.
Kristen grabbed his arm and slowly turned him toward her.“Dinner was great as usual, Jacob.” She rubbed her hands up and down his chest, looking into his eyes. “You know I love your cooking. It is so hot watching a man who knows his way around the kitchen.”
He grabbed her hands and pulled them off him, looking down at her. “What are you doing, Kristen? You know what I think about us.”Take a beat. You don’t want to go there again.
“I know what you say, and I know how you react—they don’t equal out. Maybe you should just finally let yourself go. We had fun the time we were together. You know we did. We go well together.”
