guest bedroom. I’m lying back against the plethora of comfortable pillows as Lily is currently going on and on about her new favorite drink—grape vodka and Sprite. I can’t help but laugh.
Things with our friendship have been great since Christmas. We text a few times a week and talk on the phone about once a week. It’s not too much, but it’s enough. I still feel my connection with her, but I don’t have the guilt of always being inaccessible. Our relationship reminds me of high school before we started dating—easy and carefree.
Stella pops her head in the door. “Jax, you ready?”
I pull the phone away from my ear, resting it against my chest. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Okay, no problem. Dinner’s ready whenever you are.” Her lips pull up into a smile, and she walks away from the bedroom.
“Hey, Lil. I’m going to let you go.”
“Yeah, I have to go, too. I just wanted to say hi,” she responds.
“I’m glad you called. Have fun tonight. Be safe.”
“I will. You, too,” she replies. “Love you.”
“Love you more,” I say. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
After hanging up with Lily, I head to the kitchen table where Stella is pouring wine.
“Wine, huh?”
She smiles shyly. “My parents serve wine with every meal. It’s a habit. Is that okay? Do you like Chianti?”
“Yes, it’s fine. Thank you.” I prefer beer, but I can tell Stella has worked hard on this meal, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings. Wine will do.
I sit down at the seat across from Stella and dish up my plate. I take a bite of the chicken potpie and make an exaggerated groan. “So good, Stell.”
“Really? You like it?” she questions hopefully.
“Delicious. Really good. I mean it. You know you didn’t have to go through all this trouble. We could have ordered takeout.”
It dawns on me how much time she spent preparing this meal today. Looking around the table, I realize it is all a little much for a study session. My place setting includes a fancy linen place mat, an abundance of silverware, and nice china. Even candles are lit in the center of the table. It looks like a place setting at one of my dad’s ritzy benefit dinners.
“It was nothing, really. I love to cook. Plus, don’t you get tired of takeout?”
Truthfully, yes. “Yeah,” I agree.
She is simply trying to be nice. That’s who Stella is—a nice person who would do anything for anyone. She comes from a lot of money. Perhaps this is how she has grown up, setting the table for all her family dinners. Who am I to judge?
Dinner is delicious, and I’d say that Stella’s dish was an even tie with my mom’s, which is huge because my mom is the best cook in the world.
After we clear our plates, we head back to the living room. I open my laptop, and we continue to work on our project. We finish off the bottle of wine and start another.
“Let’s take a break from this stupid crap,” Stella blurts out, making a popping sound when she pronounces the last P.
I chuckle. “Okay. What do you have in mind?”
Stella refills my glass with wine. “Let’s play a game.”
“What kind of game?”
“I have Life.”
“I don’t know. I always end up being a teacher, making twenty-four thousand a year, and driving around a minivan full of little peg-headed children that you know I can’t afford with that salary. It depresses me.”
Stella throws her head back in laughter. “Fine. No starving peg-headed children. What about Monopoly?”
“Okay. I could do Monopoly. Just know that I’m very competitive. I will own Boardwalk and Park Place, and I won’t go easy on you with rent.”
She stands up, chuckling. “Only if I don’t land on them first.” She walks over to the closet and returns with the board game.
“This might take us a while. You should stay here tonight,” she offers.
“That works. Thanks.”
I’ve stayed over at Stella’s a few times after studying late into the night. I have to admit, her guest bed has a pillow-top mattress sent from heaven. Not to mention, chances are, I’d get back to my apartment, and Ben would have a sock on our door handle, so I’d have to sleep on our lumpy couch.
“I don’t really feel like walking back in a foot of snow at three in the morning anyway,” I add.
Two hours, another bottle of wine, and many little plastic houses and hotels later, Stella lands on Boardwalk.