Page 10 of The New Year's Party
Will
December 31, 10:30 a.m.
“Sorry to bother you...” Will’s best customer service supervisor, Anna Lim, had just opened the door of his office. Her face was strained.
“It’s no bother!” he said from behind his desk, giving her a reassuring smile as he quickly minimized his browser window. Not that she could see it from where she was standing. “What’s up?”
“We have a customer attempting to shoplift. I could use some backup.”
“On it,” said Will, immediately rising and straightening his tie. If Anna was asking for help, it must be an emergency. The last time she’d asked him to step in was when a customer had climbed onto the returns register, laid himself out lengthwise on the counter, and refused to leave until he had a sign from God. Will was happy to provide that sign.
Sure, there were some cases of mental illness in the area, but mostly it was drugs. It really was an epidemic. He should know; he had Doug for a friend. Will sincerely hoped Doug was doing better this year. He hadn’t seen any of the old crowd in well over a year—if not two—and communication was at a bare minimum. When the paper invitation to Phelps’s party arrived, Will knew he had to put his foot down. Even thoughhe’d promised Jenn full commitment to the family this year, he couldn’t keep on like this, cut off from his oldest friends.
“They’re toxic,” Jenn said when he showed her the invitation, her cheeks pink with fury. “I don’t understand why you’d ever want to see them again.”
“That’s what being friends means,” said Will. “You stick by each other no matter what.”
He did feel like a hypocrite saying that, because he’d been notably absent this year... and most of the previous year.
“They took ourmoney, Will! You’re theirchump. When are you going to stand up for us? Clearly, we have a different definition offull commitment to the family. Your high school friends? They use you, they’ve always used you—” Jenn’s hand shot forward, toward the invitation. Like she could just grab it, knowing he’d let her.
Something in him snapped.
“Stop,” he said, gripping Jenn’s wrist with one hand while he raised the invitation high over his head with the other. “Stop it, Jennifer.” He never used her full name. “I have done what you asked. I have dedicated myself to you and the girls this year. I’ve gone to work and come straight home afterward, I’ve taken the girls to soccer and gone to church and men’s fellowship and Wednesday night dates with you. Now I am going to this party, and you can’t stop me.” His voice was trembling by the end.
He let go of her wrist, astonished at himself, exhilarated, adrenaline rushing through him. Jenn stumbled back, cradling her arm as if he’d really hurt her, she who was made of steel.
And he dared hope, for a second, that she’d just say, “Okay.”
But it didn’t end there. No matter how firm and strong he was, no matter how clearly he stated his wants, his needs, his intentions, it never ended there. After fighting into the wee hours, Will fell exhausted onto the couch, where he’d been exiled.
The next day, when he woke up, the tassel of a throw pillow digging into his cheek and his long legs cramped, Jenn was singing while she made pancakes. She kissed Will when he shuffled over to get his coffee and told him she’d arranged for her mom to watch the girls so that she could come to the party too.
He purposefully didn’t react to her breezy announcement. A profound unease clung to him as he pulled a mug from the cupboard. Did she not remember their conflict? Or were his emotional reactions so outsized thathewas the one distorting reality? Had he been exiled to the couch, or had he crashed there because he was the petty one who didn’t want to sleep next to her? It was suddenly hard to remember the details...
“I thought you were against it,” he said in a neutral voice as he poured his coffee, his back to Jenn.
“I mean, it’s not myfavoriteidea, but... compromise, right? Isn’t that what makes a marriage tick? Anyway, I’m not letting you go without a date!” She came up behind him and nuzzled his ear. “It’ll be good for us, right? A night away from the girls. Maybe we can get busy. I think the world needs another little Bernanke, don’t you? We’ve been talking about trying for a boy...”
His gut curled while she fawned over him. He wanted to go alone, and she knew it. But Jenn was smart. Oh, she was very smart. Was he willing to pay the price of embarrassing himself and Jenn in front of Jenn’s mom and their girls? Willing to watch Jenn cry and say, “Will, babe, we were supposed to go together! I don’t understand!” or some twisted view that made everyone thinkhewas the bad guy?
Jenn nibbled on Will’s ear and giggled, and it took everything in Will to stand still when what he truly wanted to do was elbow her in the gut so she would get off him, stop touching him.
“No weapon involved, right?” Will asked Anna as he followed her down the short hall and onto the floor of the Dick’s Sporting Goods he had managed for eight years. His home away from home.
“No.”
Of course not, or she would have told him immediately.
“So what’s the situation?” asked Will.
“You’re not going to believe this, but a guy is trying to steal one of the Schwinn electric bikes we just got in by literally walking out the door with it.”
“What?” His long stride was barely keeping up with Anna’s rapid pace. “Is security involved?”
“Yes, they’re blocking the door until the cops get here.”
The Schwinn electric bikes were top notch, retailing around a thousand dollars. It didn’t surprise Will that someone was trying to steal one. They’d had a guy try to pull a fast one recently by “exchanging” a bike he’d just pulled from the store rack, using a receipt for that same bike from two days prior that had ended in a canceled transaction.
