"You’re setting yourself up for a complete disaster.”
“Too late for that,” I said back to Luke. He was pushing the shopping cart lazily up the aisle behind me. Who would have bet that an intimate Thanksgiving dinner with my boyfriend Finn would have turned into dinner for eight, with a seventeen-pound bird. Luke had no idea of the truth and it was hard keeping it from him.
“Oh, Will is bringing that guy Daniel to dinner. They have been talking ever since Halloween.”
“The more the merrier!” I squealed. As I stopped dead in my tracks, Luke rammed the cart right into my lower back.
With Halloween neatly tucked away between myself and Grady, no mention of the night’s debauchery leaked out. My ship-to-shore romance with Finn was on the level, along with Grady and Marc who moved their relationship into Marc’s single bed-room apartment. Daniel, who came into my life when we passed one another when I went AWOL, and we played house and had sex, makes a return visit as a date for my buddy Will.
I had made Finn a memorable breakfast, eggs, buttered toast, pancakes, and myself naked under his Navy issue wool turtleneck pullover.
“Eggs over easy,” I said as he came up behind me.
“That goes for the cook, too,” he whispered. After his home-cooked meal turned cold and our bodies tangled on the kitchen floor, a pot of coffee and stale toast was good enough.
“No, I told you a hundred times everything is okay,” I said to Grady. “Every time he wants to talk, we have sex."
“I'm telling Marc!”
“Grady don't you dare. If you tell Marc, then Finn is going to find out!” I yelled.
“You would ruin four people’s lives!” Grady was a pressure cooker: any second he is going to explode. I had to reel him in long enough to sort all this out and figure how to cook a seventeen-pound turkey in a bachelor’s kitchen.
“Just relax,” I said, taking my tone down, calm and slow. “Make a nice big cheesecake for Thanksgiving. You’re in charge of desserts, remember,” I said sweetly.
“Sure. Cheesecake. Marc likes cheesecake.”
“See you Thursday after the Parade.” I hung up.
To-Do List: I played host and house-husband to my boyfriend for the next few days. In the morning, we planned to watch the Macy’s Parade with the guys and have a grand Thanksgiving dinner, timed for late afternoon.
Not-To-Do List: Let Grady ruin everything and lose Marc. Have Finn find out and break up with me. Make any eye contact with Daniel. Let Will in on the truth. Have Luke go ape-shit on me. Crack under pressure …
