away,” Evvie said quickly, pouring more wine. “They’re in the basement.” She was pretty sure Dean was looking disapprovingly at her, but she ignored it.
“Did you get tired of them?”
“Yep. Just wanted a change. I like these, they’re simple.”
“Boy, out with the old and in with the new over here, huh?” Andy said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dean jumped in. “Okay, that’ll do, Tipsy McGee, Buzz Lightbeer. I say we go sit outside now that it’s not so hot. I’ll bring the brownies, because I’m going to stuff about ten of them down my throat.”
Evvie grabbed the wine bottle she’d only just started on, and indeed, when she stood up, she reached out and steadied herself against the side of the table. “You good?” Dean muttered. She nodded and winked at him.
Out in the dark, they lit a candle and sat around the metal patio table. Monica slipped her shoes off and put her feet on Andy’s lap, and Evvie looked at the candle flicker reflected in her wine when she held her glass in close. “This is cool,” she said, her words beginning to slur.
“I’m not sure you want to be too close to an open flame right now,” Dean said, scooting the candle away from her. “And don’t breathe on it either. We’re going to get a flamethrower situation.”
“Do you remember the guy,” Andy said, “from high school, the guy who lit vodka puddles on fire with a lighter? And somebody said he had done it at home and he burned their toolshed to the fucking ground?” He took another drink. “That was nuts.”
“I have vodka,” Evvie said. “I could light puddles of vodka on fire.”
“No, thank you,” Andy brayed at her. “You are not the kind of girl who lights shit on fire.” He gestured at her with his beer. “Although maybe you are now, I’ve lost track of a lot. Dishes, everything.”
“Yeah, well. It’s funny how little information you get when you stop speaking to me.”
“I didn’t stop speaking to you. We stopped having breakfast together every single week because I got busy and you got busy.”
“Busy?” Eveleth almost knocked her wineglass over with her animated response to this one. “You weren’t busy, you were cutting me off.”
Andy wrinkled his brow. “I’m pretty sure you cut me off first, even if I didn’t know it at the time.”
Evvie was shaping every word with her mouth like it wasn’t responding the way she expected. “Oh my God, what is your problem? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the dishes. Why are you obsessed with every detail of my fucking life?”
Andy’s beer clanked inelegantly against the table as he leaned forward with it in his hand. “What are you talking about, I’m obsessed?”
“You’re picking at me about everything I do. You’re mad that I didn’t talk to you all about my marriage, you’re worried about what plates I’m using, you’re on me about school like you’re my dad, you’re telling me not to help Dean. I don’t get it. I don’t get what your problem is.”
“You’re not making any sense. Have some more wine, would you?”
“Did you not want me to meet anybody, Andy? Is that why you’re mad about everything I do without telling you? Or are you mad it wasn’t you?”
Now Dean, who had been watching and hoping all this was going to sputter harmlessly like a birthday candle, the way his teammates’ drunk arguments always had, leaned forward toward her. “Hey.”
“No,” she said. “I’m serious. He’s pissed off at me all the time, and the minute you moved in, he decided he was ready to start dating again. What is your issue, Andrew? You have something you want to tell me about why you’re acting like a jealous boyfriend? You want to explain it to her?” She tipped her head toward Monica, whose feet were still in his lap.
Andy, even with the hoppy aroma currently wafting from every word he said, was now still. All he said, when he finally said anything, was “What?”
Dean stayed right by Evvie’s ear. “Listen to me. Listen, listen. You have had a lot to drink. You trust me, right? You trust me. I am telling you that you have had a lot to drink. This is a bunch of things you don’t mean. You’re upset, and you’re very drunk, and in the morning, this is already going to be an unhappy situation, so listen to me and let me help you and take you inside so you