Hita - Anita Claire Page 0,23
with him, but it feels like he’s rejecting me for my cooking, which is so unfair. How was I to know that you need to use old Sambar powder? It makes me even more pissed off since he wasn’t much of a boyfriend. He was never around, totally controlling, not interested in sex, wasn’t particularly fun, and had no sense of humor. I should be dumping him, he shouldn’t be dumping me.
Since I don’t have any plans Saturday night, I join Kristi. She’s been meeting up with Brian and Tim at Game Kastle to play Warhammer. At first I’m a little rusty, but I soon catch on and am right in the thick of things. They tell us they’re having some friends over to their apartment next Saturday and invite us to join them.
On the way home I ask Kristi, “Do you think they’re really having friends over, or was that just a weak way to invite us out?”
Kristi laughs it off. “Who cares, either way we’ll be playing games.”
***
One of the ping pong guys wrote a little program that IM’s both your computer and your phone, so you don’t miss your turn. There’s enough of us playing to have rolling competitions. Whereas six months ago, I was considered a warm up partner, I’m now a regular player. Though, the two Chinese guys are so fast I don’t know if I’ll ever win against them. My favorite guy to play against is Colin. We play at about the same level. After we play, if he wins or loses he treats me the same, always with an easy smile, a joke, and a friendly conversation as he hands me a drink out of the beverage refrigerator.
***
Getting together with the princesses on Friday, Jennifer asks me about Anil.
“Dinner was a complete disaster. I mean he acted like I intentionally tried to poison him.” Thinking about it, I start laughing. Finally sputtering out, “Why do I find this so funny?”
Jennifer watches me laugh, shakes her head, finally saying, “You’ve always had a quirky sense of humor.”
“He has no sense of humor. I’m so glad this wasn’t a traditional Indian arrangement. I wouldn’t have learned what a humorless personality he had until I was married.” Jennifer shutters and I ask, “What was that for?”
“Thinking about being married to Carter makes me shutter. His values were so different from mine. He judged people based on how much money they earned. He wasn’t very nice to people he thought were below him.” With a contemplative look she continues, “Don’t get me wrong, I someday want to have the house on the hill with the tricked out kitchen, nice car, and a couple of cute kids. But I will never choose my friends based on the size of their bank account.”
Clinking margarita glasses with her, I say, “Here’s to finding guys who get us and whose values we share.”
***
Kristi contacts Brian and Tim about bringing Jennifer with us to their party. On Saturday the three of us head over to their place. They live in a generic apartment complex that looks like it was built in the 1980s. The apartment is a decent size with tan carpeting and white walls. It’s decorated with what Juliette calls “minimal guy,” in that they have an Ikea couch in the living room facing a massive TV and gaming console. The dining room has a full size Dance Dance Revolution machine in it. Not the Wii version, but a full arcade version designed for two people.
Brian and Tim actually have friends over. Again, mostly guys. By the look of the T-shirts they all work at either Cisco, Intel, or Apple. On the way over, Kristi tells us that Brian and Tim went to UC San Diego. Upon entering the apartment, Brian comes over to welcome us, he leads us past the Dance Dance Revolution machine and into the kitchen where they have a large Igloo filled with beer covered in ice.
Jennifer elbows me, as she tips her head to point at a beer poster of a hot girl in a bikini taped to the wall. “Isn’t that Juliette’s high school friend?”
“Yeah, remember when that poster came out? It was all over campus. Juliette flipped.”
“So did Meredith. She said she met that friend when she stayed at Juliette’s over Thanksgiving.”
Tim joins us in the kitchen as Kristi asks, “What’s with the Dance Dance Revolution machine?”
“My parents got it for me when I was in high school. I was totally into it at