Look Again

He continues shifting plates and platters. “Everyone knows you can’t put a pot of gumbo next to jambalaya. It’s gauche.”

I want to snort, but I think better of it. Not in front of the food. Not in front of Dexter Kaplan. I smile instead and catch Dexter’s eye. He smiles back. Maybe we’re just amused at his friend. Probably that’s what’s happening.

“Separate them with this plate of shrimp,” Hank says, scooting something from across the table, “and the rice.” Hands hovering over the newly reorganized dishes, he rotates a bowl a half turn.

Ginger throws her hands in the air and shakes her head. “You do understand that it all goes down the same tube and into the same intestines, right? No matter the order of the platters?”

Dexter laughs out loud.

Hank is undeterred. “There,” he says with one more adjustment. “Perfect.”

I like listening to him. I like his accent but also his voice. He has the kind of nice voice I’d like to listen to even if he wasn’t saying anything interesting. Maybe we’ll become friends, and he can read my emails to me.

I enjoy the meal so much that I forget to worry if we still hate Dexter. Ginger doesn’t seem to be holding on to her previous assertion too strongly. The food is delicious. The company is almost equally so.

“Does Lola really hate the Chamberlain kids?” I ask, licking the sauce off the back of my fork.

Dexter answers first. “She despises them.”

Ginger shakes her head. “That’s not true.”

“It was true when I was one of them,” he shoots back.

“Okay,” she concedes. “She hates some of them. But mostly she doesn’t want anyone coming in here making unrealistic demands. You know, like ‘Here’s what I want to eat.’ It’s like she wants to be the mama, hollering that dinner’s ready, and you better come hungry. Here’s what we’re having, and you can take it or leave it.”

I sigh and pat my stomach. “I am deeply in favor of taking it.”

Dexter smiles at me across the table. I feel a flutter somewhere beneath all the delicious food filling my insides. Sure, he’s kind of an arrogant jerk, and I’m not prepared to forgive him for the airport business or for taking my picnic Pellegrino out of my hands, but he does have a nice smile.

And his smile will still look nice when I’m representing our department as the Chamberlain arts chair.