Page 7 of The Affair
His eyebrows rose, clearly not convinced.
“Aunt Sally cornered me and wouldn’t let me out until she plied me with lipstick.”
He briefly looked at the new shade I was sporting and went back to ham duty. “That makes sense.”
His keen eye made me feel uncomfortable, and a quick look at his trophy wife, Bethany, only made it worse. Dressed in head-to-toe designer, she didn’t have a single hair or lash out of place. How that woman managed to birth two children and still look like she belonged on the front of a fashion magazine was beyond me.
Trying not to let my self-doubt show, I resisted the urge to smooth down my own hair as she sent me a polite smile from across the table.
“Your lipstick looks nice.”
“Thank you,” I answered uncomfortably. “Um, yours too.”
Bethany and I had never been super chatty. Throw in a funeral, and I was pretty sure radio static would be better entertainment than the two of us.
“Oh, there you are!” Aunt Sally announced, her beaming face a serious contrast to the room’s gloomy mood. She’d found the food tables and stacked her plate accordingly.
At least someone from our family would be enjoying all the hard work that had gone into today.
At that moment, my young niece screamed out the word, “Ham!” and banged her chubby fists on the table, temporarily making everyone nearby chuckle under their breath.
Scratch that, I thought to myself as I watched a small smile appear on my mom’s face.
I guessed two members of the Woods family were enjoying the food.
Aunt Sally chose the seat opposite of my mom and wasted no time in taking over the conversation. “The service was just beautiful today, wasn’t it?” She began digging into her plate, giving a cursory glance at the offerings it bestowed before choosing some sort of potato casserole to start.
There was a short pause as we all waited for the other to respond until, finally, my brother volunteered. “It was a fitting tribute for such a remarkable man.”
Sometimes, I wondered if my brother had been switched at birth.
When we had been kids and all I’d wanted was a normal little brother to play outside with, I’d sometimes wondered the same thing. As we grew up and his oddities worsened—going to summer school for fun and readingDon Quixoteto his teddy bear in the third grade—I had known there must have been some kind of mistake.
But, no, he was a Woods, just like the rest of us.
“Oh, Elle, I have some samples for you. Don’t let me forget. I’ll drop them by your car on my way out. I have some things for your mom, too, so I can just do it all at once.”
I looked at my aunt with a half-frown until her eyes met mine. Her fork was halfway to her mouth, and she stopped.
“The lipsticks we used,” she explained. “I thought you might want to re-create the look—you know, for later.”
“Oh,” I answered. “Um, thank you.”
She nodded, satisfied, and finished her bite before taking a look around. “Oh, would you look at that? I didn’t grab myself a drink. Will someone watch my food? Those volunteers are vultures. They’ll pick up my plate as soon as I get up.”
“I’ll tend to it, Sal,” my mom answered, to everyone’s surprise. She hadn’t said anything in what felt like an eternity.
“Thanks, Mary.”
I waited until she was a safe distance away and then turned to my mom. “You ordered more things from her?”
She merely shrugged before adding, “I like supporting her.”
“You barely wear any makeup, Mom, and the stuff you do wear comes from the drugstore on the corner of Main. This is your fifth order this year. She’s taking advantage of you!”
Her eyebrow rose. “She’s my sister. She is doing no such thing. They make nice gifts, and I’ve had to thank a lot of people lately. It’s been a blessing to have her helping me.”
I hadn’t realized she’d been giving Aunt Sally’s products out as gifts.
