Page 84 of The Plus One
“I don’t mean to be blunt,” Maria said, all inflection begging to differ as they ate dinner. “But what is going on between you two?”
Jude and Indira both choked on their food, spluttering and coughing. Maria reached over and patted Jude firmly on the back.
“What do you mean?” Jude said, hacking into a napkin.
“Well… didn’t you two always—hmm, how should I phrase this?”
“Despise each other?” Indira offered, taking a sip of water.
“Find the other the human embodiment of annoyance?” Jude supplied.
“Wish the other a slow and painful demise?”
Maria and Don blinked at each other across the table. “Well, er, yes. I suppose so.”
Jude and Indira giggled.
“I convinced Indira to be my date to the wedding,” Jude said, taking a bite of his gnocchi.
“Took so much begging,” Indira whispered to Jude’s dad. “Poor boy was desperate.”
Don pressed his lips together in a silent laugh, and Jude gave her foot a playful kick under the table.
“Well, joke’s on her,” Jude said, nodding toward Indira while he looked at his dad. “Because now that I have her in my clutches, I don’t plan on letting go.”
Indira glanced at Jude through her lashes, reaching for his hand under the table.
“What does that mean?” his mom asked, eyebrows furrowed. “And why are you talking like a villain?”
Jude glanced at Indira. Color was high on her cheeks, a deep and dusky rose spreading across her skin. Her lips spread in a smile.
“Indira and I are, um, together,” Jude said, clearing his throat. “She’s… she’s my girlfriend.”
A beat of silence danced across the table before Mrs. Bailey erupted in excitement, clapping her hands. “Oh, how lovely,” she said, beaming. “Don, you owe me ten dollars.”
Jude’s head whipped between his parents. “What?”
Don looked up at the ceiling, a defeated sigh leaving his lips before he reached for his wallet in his back pocket and pulled out a bill, passing it across the table to his wife.
“She bet me, probably fifteen years ago, that you two would end up together,” Don said, his face a pitiful combination of happiness and disgruntlement. “The woman knows everything, I swear.”
“I do,” Maria said, winking at Don. “But this is wonderful,” she cheered, turning to Jude and Indira. “You always seemed to have a knack for keeping him grounded.”
Indira let out a loud laugh. “That’s a very forgiving way of phrasing it, Mrs. Bailey.”
Jude rolled his eyes. “I’ll say.”
Maria gave him a good-natured smile, passing him another roll.
“What’s new in your life, Mrs. Bailey? Are you still at Better Beginnings?”
Maria let out a forlorn sigh. “That place would crumble to the ground without me, I’m just going to say it.”
Jude nodded, trying to hide his growing smile. “So true, Mom.”
She launched into a whirlwind story about cut funding and staffshortages at the preschool she worked at, the never-ending administrative issues she had to deal with. Even in the long list of problems, she still managed to tell story after story about a toddler doing something adorable. Maria loved to talk, and she didn’t take a breath before segueing into some piping-hot drama with her neighborhood book club that was spilling over into the planning of the block’s annual holiday party.
“All I’ll say on the matter is you better be prepared to dust off all the skeletons in your closet if you start spreading a rumor likethat.”
