Page 47 of The Beach Shack Artists 3
Joey blinked slowly. “Wow. So, we’re fully in the ‘cold war’ phase of family conflict. Neat.”
Bea reached over and stole one of his napkins, crumpling it just to have something to do. “It was like dinner theater, but no one remembered the script.”
At that moment, Bernie walked in with his coffee mug and tablet, looked at their faces, and said, “Family dinner aftermath table?”
“Obviously,” Joey said, pulling out a chair.
Bernie sat down and opened his tablet. “Scale of one to ten, how bad?”
“Like, eight,” Stella said.
“Meg hosted,” Bea added.
Bernie nodded knowingly. “Ah. So, there was fancy food and hidden anger?”
“She made butter flowers,” Stella said.
“And yes, Meg called Mom a diva,” Bea said again. Bernie needed to know. “In case that wasn’t obvious from the energy.”
Bernie’s jaw dropped for a moment. “To her face?”
“To her face,” Stella confirmed.
“Bold move,” Bernie said, typing notes. “Probably overdue, but bold.”
“Any chance they’ll actually work things out?” Joey asked.
Bernie paused, like he was thinking really hard about it.
“Probably not anytime soon,” he said cheerfully. “But they might eventually get tired of being mad. Like when you’re in a fight with your friend but then you both want to watch the same movie.”
“You’re saying reconciliation via Netflix?” Joey asked.
“Stranger things have happened,” Bernie replied.
Bea sighed. “That’s not super encouraging.”
“Look,” Stella said, standing to grab more napkins, “the only thing that changed is now we know for sure that trying to force a family meeting is like shaking a soda bottle.”
“But at least you got to see someone call Meg a control freak to her face,” Joey said.
“And Mom tried to explain why she reorganized the spice rack by color energy,” Bea said. “To Margo. Who was not having it.”
Bernie chuckled and closed his tablet. “Well, this sounds like it’s going to get interesting around here. I should probably get going before the fallout starts.”
He stood up, grabbing his coffee. “Good luck, you three. Try not to let their drama burn the place down.”
After he left, they sat with their coffee and pastries, trying to wake up.
“The weirdest part,” Stella said, “was Margo just walking out like she was done with all of us.”
“She looked so tired,” Bea added quietly. “Like, actually tired. Not just annoyed.”
Joey paused mid-napkin fold. “That’s... kind of scary, actually. Margo doesn’t get tired. She just gets more efficient.”
“Yeah,” Stella said. “It felt different. Like she wasn’t walking out because she was mad. More like she was just... finished.”
They sat with that for a moment. “Why are we the ones who have to be normal?”
