AndrewCranking the stereo’s volume, I cruised into my neighborhood. The street lights were coming on, taking the day into the first minutes of dusk. After talking to Bob the morning before, every minute following had been nothing less than perfect.Seeing Lanie again—and this time with Bob’s approval—meant that I’d been in a good mood all day long. Work had flown by, and the only time I’d felt any sense of irritation was when I looked at my phone and found no texts from Lanie.Call me spoiled, but I wanted to hear from her each and every hour.As the garage door opened, my phone rang as if on cue.“I was just thinking about you,” I answered.“Good things?” Lanie asked with a laugh.“Bad things,” I growled. “Really, really bad things.”“Oh. That’s, uh.” She cleared her throat, and I laughed.“What are you doing?” I asked.“Just making some dinner. Is it okay that I called? I wanted to, you know, say hi.”“Stop. Hearing your voice is the perfect ending to my day.”“That’s sweet,” she c

Lanie“I don’t know what he expects me to do at that lodge,” Mom continued on, her voice blaring from the speakers of my desk phone. “He’s only going there because that man, what’s his name, is going there too. The one whose company your father wants to buy. He’s hoping to do some business over Christmas vacation.”“Have you told him this?” I sifted through some papers on my desk, looking for the parent survey forms the school collected the day before.Mom was silent. I could picture her well, probably pursing her lips as she pressed the phone to her face and looked out at the bird feeder in the backyard. It was her greatest hobby, that bird feeder. Somehow, she recognized a lot of the birds that came to it. If a regular visitor stopped coming by, she’d worry they’d been eaten by a cat or flown into a window.“No,” Mom finally said. “You know how your father is.”“Yeah.”“He told me he met with Andrew.”Segue much, Mom?“Uh-huh,” I carefully answered, “and things are good between them

AndrewMy phone buzzed in my pocket, and I surreptitiously peeked under my desk to get a look at it. As I always hoped, it was Lanie calling.Loudly clearing my throat, I looked back up at the four employees seated across from me. “We’ll deal with this account tomorrow. You can go back to your desks now.”They all exchanged confused looks.“Right. Back to work,” I reiterated, adding a smile to show them I was still working on being nicer.Still looking dazed, they collected their papers and left. The second the door closed behind the last one of them, I dialed Lanie.“Hi,” she answered.“Please tell me this is a midday phone sex call.”She laughed. “I wish. You do know I’m at work, right?”“So am I.” I put my feet up on my desk, getting more comfortable in my chair. Not until Lanie did I really learn the meaning of relaxing.“Unfortunately,” she slowly said, “This isn’t a personal call.”“Uh-oh.” Without my thinking about it, my feet were back on the floor. I leaned forward in my seat

LanieThe light turned yellow, and I slowed the car down, not in any rush to get to my parents’ house.“When are you leaving?” I asked Erica.“First thing tomorrow morning,” she answered, her voice coming through the car’s speakers. “Traffic is going to be a bitch.”“You’re not complaining about the romantic weekend your boyfriend is taking you on already, are you?”“Never.”I smiled to myself. Each time we’d talked since the interaction with Dirty Pirate Guy, aka Troy, Erica had gushed about Matt in one way or another. It seemed that having another guy ask her out was all it took for her to remember she was, as she put it, one of the luckiest people in the world.“And when are you back?”“Sunday night. It’s the full, extended weekend, baby.”“Sounds nice.” The light changed to green, and I sighed as I hit the gas. “I’m four blocks away.”“Don’t be afraid. You’ve already told them you’re sleeping with Andrew. Telling your parents about Thanksgiving will be a piece of cake.”“Just to c

AndrewI stared at the multiple grocery bags on the kitchen table, my head spinning.“Okay. How many recipes are we following again?”Raven inspected the laptop on the counter. “There’s the stuffing, the turkey, the green bean casserole, the cranberry sauce. That’s for Lanie. Um, sweet potatoes, salad. Course, any idiot can make that.”I sucked in a long breath, wondering if I was having my first anxiety attack. “Salad. Okay. We can do that. Where’s the lettuce?”Raven made a face. “That’s the last thing we have to make. We need to get the oven ready for the turkey. Did you thaw it?”“Uh.”“Dad!” Raven loudly clapped her hands. “Keep it together. Did you thaw the turkey?”“Y-yes,” I stuttered. “I think so.”“What?” She looked disgusted.I opened the fridge and cautiously poked the turkey. “I think it’s thawed. How do I tell?”“Drop it on the floor,” she sarcastically snapped. “If it breaks a board, it’s still frozen.”“Don’t start an attitude with me, Raven. Not right now.”As I spun