Page 40 of Neo
“The best.”
Oh, good Lord, Daddy. Don’t bring Great-Grandma into this.
“Yeah, Ma, it’s really good,” Shane adds, looking at me with a side eye.
“Uh, I don’t usually eat beef,” I say, and Shane kicks me softly under the table. “But it’s tasty.”
A few more minutes of mindless pleasantries continue over the dinner table. Shane drones on about hockey. My father asks me about business school. And then the bomb drops.
“Baby girl, I have some great news,” my father says, dropping his fork down with a clank.
“What is it?”
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’ve asked Kate to marry me, and she said yes!”
Kate stands out of her seat and offers me a smile of self-restraint, her engagement ring sparkling under the white lights of the chandelier. I didn’t notice it earlier because I don’t make it a habit of inspecting what Kate is wearing, but now it shines in my eyes like a beacon of futile hope.
“We wanted to wait until you got home to tell you.”
I feel my stomach drop.
“You’re marrying her?” I turn my head to glare at Shane. “Did you know about this?”
Shane’s head is down, but he slowly lifts it and enunciates slowly, “I had some idea.”
“Kee-Kee,” my father interrupts as Shane’s mother sits back down.
“Do you even know what this means?” I say to my dad.
My dad’s smile falters. “Kennedy, I thought you’d be happy for us.”
“And why would you think that?” I ask in disbelief, standing for dramatic effect.
“Maybe because I thought my happiness mattered to you.”
“How can I be happy? You just met her and now she’s in my mother’s house, cooking in my mother’s kitchen, and her son is the most arrogant person at my school making my life a living hell.”
“Excuse you,” Shane interrupts with laughter in his voice. “Me, arrogant?”
I slam my hand on the table, glaring at him, my fists clenched.
“Don’t you dare make a joke out of this! You’ve made my life miserable at school, and now I have to deal with you at home?”
“Does Shane bother you at school?” his mother asks in confusion, looking between us. “I thought you two were friends.”
Shane raises an eyebrow. “We seem to only be friends when she comes to my games or to my parties. You know, when it’s convenient for her.”
“What does that mean?” I snap. “There’s always some sarcastic undercurrent to everything you say. I go to the school’s hockey games, not just yours.”
“And the parties?”
“You made me go!”
“You forced her to go to a party, Shane?” His mother asks in disbelief.
“I can’t imagine that I could force Kennedy to do anything she didn’t want to do.” He responds. “We made a bet on a game and she lost. That’s why she came to the last party. You’d have to ask her why she came to all the others.”
I despise him.