Page 26 of Two Friends in Marriage
“Like what?”he asks.
“Maybe a plant or two?But I don’t know anything about houseplants.”
“You should ask Yvonne.I’ll give you her number, and you can text her.”
“Oh.Um.Are you sure she’d be okay with that?”
“Why not?”
I guess I didn’t imagine having relationships with anyone in Evan’s family separate from him—and does he think of Yvonne, who’s been dating Leo for under a year, as family?
He comes over to me and sets his hands on my shoulder.“I’m happy to ask her instead, if it makes you uncomfortable.”
“No, no, I’ll text her.”
A few minutes later, I send Yvonne a message.I snap a picture of the room and tell her that it faces north-ish—I don’t know if that’s important, but it might be.
She immediately starts sending me links to pretty plants, and I can’t help but smile.
Our first houseplant arrives, unexpectedly, on Saturday evening.
At Lana’s insistence, Evan and I agreed to hold a small housewarming party.At five o’clock, he drives to Finch Station to pick up our friends, while I stay back and finish preparing the food.I’m not usually much of a hostess, but then again, I’ve never had a house before.Evan suggested we buy frozen appetizers that simply needed to be baked in the oven, but I wanted to make my own.And so here I am, preparing brie bites and spinach feta bites.
With purchased puff pastry, of course—I’m not that much of a masochist.
Still, in my flowered apron, I feel like a housewife, even if the apron is my husband’s.Personally, I’d have bought something less bright and colorful.
At the sound of a key in the front door, I throw the muffin tin with the brie bites into the oven, set the timer, and head out to greet our guests, feeling more nervous than I usually would at the idea of seeing longtime friends.
“Jane!”Ash hugs me with one arm.“I can’t believe you own ahousenow.Red bricks, a garage, and everything.Here, I got you a bunny ear cactus.I wasn’t sure what to buy for a housewarming gift because I don’t know anyone else who actually owns a house.”
I take the cactus from his hands.“Thanks for coming.”
“Nice apron.It’s Evan’s, isn’t it?”
Evan laughs from the back of the group.“Of course it is.”
Ash is one of those people who’s more a member of my friend group than an actual friend.I find him a bit much in large quantities but am happy to see him at group events.He and Evan dated briefly, though it was a long time ago now.
Lana and Camila enter the house after Ash.Camila is carrying the charcuterie tray that she promised to bring.
“It’s a shark-cuterie board,” she says, “but you’ll have to eat some of the prosciutto before you can see the shark.”
“I won’t have any trouble doing that,” Evan says.
“The board itself is your housewarming gift, by the way.”
Behind Lana and Camila is Georgie, who doesn’t say much but pulls a bottle of white wine out of their hoodie.
Everyone takes off their shoes in the front hall, and I meet Evan’s eyes.“How was the drive?”
“Not too bad,” he says.“A stalled bus caused a back-up near the station, but otherwise, about as good as you could expect.”
We give our guests a quick tour, beginning with the kitchen.In the living room, Watson—decked out in a rainbow lei—is the main attraction.Next, we head to the dining room, which is mostly empty, unfortunately.We still need to buy furniture for it, but it hasn’t been a huge priority.Ash is impressed by our “in-unit laundry,” and Lana appreciates the fact that we have multiple washrooms.
But as we climb the stairs, I feel a bit anxious.When we arranged this little party, I wasn’t thinking about everyone seeing our bedrooms.
“This is my room,” I say, opening the door a crack.“Looks like the bedroom in my old apartment, basically.”
