The wine is like vinegar.
The potatoes are dry and lifeless.
But we seem to be getting along pretty well. Look at Mark. He's trying so hard to be casual -- stuck in between the two of us, me, the former boyfriend, and Eric, the successor...like a royal triumvirate.
Look at the way he drinks his wine, deep, enjoying swallows of Cabernet. Is he still as attracted to me as I am to him? Did our knees touch under the table on accident or was it planned? I practically died as he tasted the salmon -- and I breathed a sigh of relief when he celebrated it's simplicity. He and Eric even swapped work stories and found a common bond in golf. I was beginning to feel like a third wheel.
Look at his mouth. Look at his mouth. Always turned down just a bit, the lower lip fuller than the upper. A cocky grin when he wants it, a calming curve when he feels relaxed. Does he know what his mouth does to me? Is he aware he could win wars with his mouth? I bet not.
Why didn't it work? Why did he end it all those years ago, leaving me in a pool of tears on the basketball court? Didn't he know one day he'd be here, at dinner with my boyfriend, in our home? Does he wish this were Andrew and Mark, instead of Andrew and Eric? And what about Eric?
Eric...
I will admit it -- there was a part of me yearning for drama tonight. A competition between these two men, Eric and Mark. But things couldn't be smoother, damnit.
Eric is calm tonight, collected, relaxed -- damnit, he's enjoying himself. How can he just sit there and have FUN? This isn't right. He should be seething with jealousy at the mere sight of Mark. Doesn't he know we just touched knees? All right, maybe on accident -- but we touched. No, Eric compliments my food, my table, my looks, my jacket! He tells Mark he knows I'll go far in whatever "field" I wind up in... He tells Mark, asking me to move in was the greatest thing that could have happened.
Eric! You're so damn supportive tonight! Where's the drama? Where is it?
Hmmmmm -- let's see.....
"So Mark, tell me. Do you still have feelings for me?"
