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I watched as Charlie stiffened in her seat. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but I knew I didn’t like any of it.
‘She is actually great with the clients,’ Douglas continued. ‘Sometimes I call her in for a meeting if I need to calm someone down since Charlie seems to be great at that.’ From what I’d seen he called her in more than a few times, but I thought I’d stay out of it, for now. ‘But for some reason she is mostly a loner. She barely has any friends.’ I stiffened in my seat and slowly put the knife and fork down. The food was leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
We all turned to Charlie when she spoke up.
‘Not that I need to explain myself, you know I have friends. But when would I have the time to go out with those friends? I spend most of my time at the office.’
‘You had time for a dog, which I’m still not happy about.’
‘You don’t need to be happy about it. And having time for a dog is very different from going out with a different friend every night. Just because you guys don’t like to spend time alone with yourselves, doesn’t mean I have to be a social butterfly either. I’m happy with who I am and the amount of friends I have.’ I watched as she cut a piece of her lasagne and angrily put it in her mouth.
‘Charlie,’ Kimberly sighed. ‘No one is saying anything about who you are. We’re just saying sometimes you’re maybe a little antisocial.’
‘And that doesn’t sound like a bad thing to your ears? Anyway, if you want to call me antisocial so be it. I’m happier when I’m spending time on my own or with my very limited friends. You can worry about yourselves.’
The tension in the room spiked up, and I was too shocked and uncomfortable to say or do anything.
Douglas sighed and shook his head while he reached for the wine I’d brought in and poured himself a second glass. ‘No one is judging you, Charlie. We just think it’d be better for you if you went out a little more maybe. Meet some new people.’
Charlie put her fork down and picked up her water glass. ‘Well, Dad, I’ll keep that in mind when you ask me to stay after work hours. You might be right after all.’
‘Charlie, Douglas, this is not the time for this talk when we have company,’ Susan cut in and focused her attention on me. ‘I heard that your family lives in Montauk, is that true?’
‘Yes,’ I answered, still a little unsure of what was happening and pretty pissed off as well. ‘Yes, they do. Me and my sisters were born there. One of my sisters lives in Pittsburg, but my parents and the other sister are still there.’ I tried my best to be respectful as I focused on Susan. The respect I had for Douglas was already gone.
‘They must be happy you moved closer to them. Maybe they’ll visit soon?’
‘I’m planning on making a trip when I have a free weekend maybe. It’ll be easier for me.’
I studied Charlie as she took a few swallows from her water glass – she had barely touched her food when everyone was happily eating what she had cooked. And this was how they were treating her?
‘I’m not the biggest fan of green beans, but they taste amazing. Is it the dressing, Kimberly?’ I asked just to be annoying. She met my eyes and I saw the small line of confusion between her brows.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, I assumed you had prepared it. Charlie made the lasagne and I thought the rest was from you.’
‘I’m afraid not. I don’t enjoy cooking as much as Charlie does, as you can tell from her figure. Plus, I had a lot of things I had to deal with at the office. Between the two of us, she is the better cook. She has more time. I’m extremely busy with the cases at the moment.’
Even I knew that Charlie barely had time to breathe at the office.
‘Even I’m a better cook than Kimberly,’ Scott added, speaking maybe for the first time since we had sat down. I had almost forgotten that he was even there.
Kimberly smiled at her husband and he returned it.
‘That’s true,’ she agreed easily. ‘Scott is good with pasta and eggs.’
‘We learned it was better if I handled the kitchen early on in our marriage,’ Scott affirmed.
I forced myself to take another bite of my lasagne and tried to not to follow every move Charlie made. ‘How long have you two been married?’ I asked Scott. He was blond with dark green eyes and in my opinion too quiet and passive for someone like Kimberly. I didn’t think anything was wrong with her necessarily before this dinner, but she reminded me of someone I’d worked with a couple of years back, and I wasn’t too surprised to see that she wasn’t a close sister to Charlie since they were polar opposites, character-wise.
