"I talked to Cody today," my brother told me when he called tonight, his third call this week. "He asked me about that guy you brought to April's birthday party. What's his name?"
"Blaine," I answered flatly.
"Yeah. Is he your boyfriend or something?"
Good Lord.
"Yes."
"Oh. Well, Cody asked me about him and I didn't know."
Not because I've never told him. Not because he's never met him, for God's sake.
"What did Cody want to know?"
"I don't know. If you were still dating him, I guess. Oh, one of the girls is having a birthday soon. I don't know which one."
"Lainey."
"Yeah, that's right. When is that?"
"Right after Thanksgiving." He's been to her birthday party every year since she turned one. You would think it would stick by now.
"Are you bringing that guy to Thanksgiving?"
"Blaine." It irritates me that he deliberately won't use names. It's "that guy" and "that dog of Mica's." It's like he looks for ways to minimize things important to me. It's all instinct though--he isn't self-aware enough for it to be a strategy. Making me feel unimportant has been his life's work, though.
"Yeah."
"He'll have Thanksgiving with his family." Blaine and I haven't talked about it, but it seems obvious.
"What does he have for family?"
"He has a daughter, son-in-law and grandson. He has a sister and brother-in-law and nieces and nephews. Probably great nieces and nephews too." There's also family on his wife's side but I haven't heard too much about them.
"What happened to his wife?"
"She died a number of years ago."
"Oh." He drew out the word as if he were letting that sink in, but clearly nothing sinks in if it's about my life. "How do you know this guy?"
"My friend Eve introduced us. They're friends."
"Eve is the one with the dog you take care of?"
"Yes." Izzy. No reason why he shouldn't know her name by now. I post a picture or two of her on my Facebook page every time I stay with her because my dog-loving friends have fallen in love with her.
Another pause. "Well, Cody said you can bring him to Thanksgiving or to the birthday party if you want."
"OK."
"Cody asked me if this thing with him is serious. I told him I didn't know."
"You can tell him it is."
"I see."
Unlikely. And I took a liberty there because he was making me mad and I knew that bit of news would quickly shut him up. Things are serious but on the gauge of seriousness the needle is past green and into the orange with red a ways off.
"Nicki was back at work today--" And then it was forty minutes of life at work, the latest problem with his home laptop and an update on something I couldn't care less about but have heard every detail of for the last three years.
Some nights I shouldn't answer the phone.
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