Mavis sets the table like she's staging a play.
I watch her from the doorway. She moves with purpose—this placemat here, that candle there. She picks up two place cards, holds them for a moment, then sets them down in a configuration that isn't the one she started with. Her back is to me. She doesn't know I'm watching.
Demi ends up beside Connor.
I end up across the table, wedged between two cousins whose names I've already forgotten. They're deep in a conversation about a fantasy football league and have not looked at me once.
I sit down. I unfold my napkin. I take a picture of the table under the guise of texting Rachel.
8:04 PM. Seating arrangement. Demi to Connor's right. Mavis to his left. Me at the far end.
I put my phone face-down and pick up my fork.
The food is good. I'll give them that. Mavis made a brisket that falls apart at the touch, and there are three kinds of potatoes and a green bean casserole that somebody clearly put effort into. I eat everything on my plate. I ask for seconds. I compliment the brisket, and I mean it.
Demi doesn't eat much. She's too busy talking.
'Connor, do you remember that little Italian place on Bleecker?' She touches his arm when she says it. Light, casual, like it's nothing. 'The one with the candles in the wine bottles?'
Connor smiles. 'Trattoria something.'
'Yes! God, that place.' She sighs like she's remembering something precious. 'Best cacio e pepe I've ever had.'
'We should go back sometime.'
'We should.'
I cut my brisket into a smaller piece. I chew. I swallow.
We. Not you and I. We.
Across the table, Mavis refills Demi's wine glass before anyone asks. She doesn't look at me.
The cousins beside me argue about a quarterback. I eat my green beans. Demi laughs at something Connor says, and the sound of it is bright and practiced, calibrated for an audience. Connor's hand disappears under the table for just a moment. Then it reappears.
I take another picture. Not of them. Of my plate, my glass, the candle in front of me. Timestamp. Evidence of presence. Evidence that I was here and I was watching and my hand did not shake.
9:47 PM.
Dinner ends. The men migrate to the living room. The women start clearing plates. I stand up and begin stacking dishes, and Mavis appears at my elbow.
'Oh, don't worry about that, Karter.' Her voice is warm. Generous. 'You're a guest.'
'I don't mind helping.'
'Really.' She takes the plates from my hands. Firmly. Smiling. 'Go relax. You looked tired earlier. You should rest.'
She walks away with my dishes.
I stand there for a moment. Then I go upstairs.
---
The headache excuse is a good one. Nobody questions it. I hear Connor tell his cousin, 'She gets migraines,' and I think: yes. That's what this is.
The guest room is small and smells like cedar. Connor's jacket is draped over the chair by the door. His phone is on the dresser, face-up, screen still lit from a recent notification.
I don't touch it.
I sit on the edge of the bed and wait.
Five minutes. The phone lights up again. I can read the preview from here without moving.
*D: did she notice anything lol*
I look at the name above the message. The contact is saved as Derek. But the initial is D. And the tone is not Derek.
I know Derek. Derek talks about sports and stock tips and sends Connor memes about working out. Derek does not send messages like that.
I take out my phone and photograph the screen from where I'm sitting. The image is clear enough. I upload it to the folder. Q4 Tax Docs.
Then I sit back and breathe.
The thing about waiting is that it requires you to be very honest with yourself. There's no distraction in a quiet room. Just the sound of laughter drifting up from downstairs, and the shape of what you already know, and the question of what you're going to do with it.
I already know the answer. I've known it since I sat in the dark in our apartment and heard Connor ask me if I wanted Thai food.
I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to confront him in a house full of people who are rooting against me. I'm not going to give Demi the satisfaction of watching me fall apart at a dinner table while she sits next to my fiancé in a red dress.
I'm going to wait until Thanksgiving.
And then I'm going to give this family a holiday they will not forget.
Downstairs, someone turns on music. Connor laughs at something. Demi's voice rises above the rest, bright and easy and completely at home.
I look at the ceiling.
I smile.
Patience is just anger with a plan.
