That was almost as bad as when I found out she was cheating on me after letting all the money and power got to her head. She actually wanted me to stay with her when I found out. Mostly to save face, of course. She never gave a shit about me or anyone else. She was a stone-cold social path through the and through.
“Not really,” I finally answered Simon, understating my feelings on the issue.
The truth was that I still felt like shit and the fact that so many people were chatting and laughing together just made it worse, because I didn’t feel like doing any of those things. All the men here looked like they had thrown together their outfits in a fit of panic, not sure what to wear to such an event – or maybe that was just me.
The women, though, had worn cute outfits and looked great. Reece’s cousin Maya was here, as were her friends Catharine and Amanda. Gia was here, of course. And there were other people I knew but I tried not to look in their direction, for fear they would come over and try to talk to me about She Who Shall Not Be Named – although her parents did name her, Jessa.
“Can you believe what the Rangers are doing this year?” I asked Simon, for purposes of changing the subject, of course.
“Not at all, man, it’s ridiculous. Where I’m from, the fans would have rioted by now,” Simon agreed.
“We don’t take our sports as seriously over here,” I joked.
“Apparently not. It is more of an ancient grudge situation, more to do with regional rivalry. Sunderland and Newcastle have hated each other since the 18th century.”
“Yikes!”
“We can certainly hold a grudge,” Simon conceded.
I wasn’t sure if he meant anything by that but couldn’t help but wonder. Simon could be very dry and somewhat hard to read sometimes. Perhaps it was a cultural difference.
“Hey guys,” Reece said, sidling up to the drinks table.
“Hello,” Simon said.
“Hey,” I said, not meeting his eyes.
“Is everything, alright?” Reece asked.
“Yeah,” I said, pouring a fourteenth shot of Jäger while Simon was preoccupied and couldn’t stop me.
“I’m kind of surprised – in a good way, of course – to see you here,” Mike continued. “I know you’ve been avoiding big social events. It’s hard to avoid the app, when everyone is using it.”
I didn’t know what to say. Part of me wanted to tell him to go fuck himself for bringing up the thing I didn’t want to talk about. Some host he was. Another part wanted to punch him in the jaw but he was my friend, so I refrained from both and did nothing.
“You’re not wrong,” is all I could muster up the thought to say.
“That’s why I invited you here,” Reece said. “It’s just friends and family, yeah? Nothing to be scared of or self-conscious about.”
“Yeah,” I said, unable to keep from feeling self-conscious, despite his assurances.
Graciously removing myself from the party, I made my way into the quiet sanctum of the massive kitchen. It was pleasantly cool in there, with its spacious tile counter-tops and top-of-the-line appliances.
I took a deep breath, revealing in the relative silence, having become a bit of a hermit, which I hated to admit.
I noticed her ass first. She had been bending over into the fridge, putting her beautiful curves of full display.
Coming up out of the fridge, she brought an elbow and then cake with her, careful to keep it away from her large breasts, to keep from getting icing on them. I imaged what that might look like, only minus her shirt and apron, and what it would taste like if I cleaned the icing off her using just my tongue.
I could feel my cock getting hard.
She really was gorgeous.
“That’s an interesting cake,” I said, sliding up next to her.
“Thanks. It’s for the gender reveal,” she told me, matter-of-factly.
“A gender reveal?” I asked her, blankly.
“Yeah; that’s the reason behind this baby shower.”
“I haven’t heard of this tradition.”
But then again, I hadn’t heard of a lot of things involving babies or parenting.
“It’s when they let everyone know if they’re having a boy or a girl,” she said, “based on the color of the icing that’s in this cake.”
“I don’t know much about this kind of stuff, though I’m happy for Reece,” I admitted. “Are you a friend of Gia’s?”
“Her oldest friend actually, as well as the baker for this baby shower and gender reveal party. I think one lead into the other.”
“I’m Mike,” I said, offering a hand.
“Sally,” she smiled, taking my hand, having already placed the cake on the counter.
I had just met her, but I already felt better here in the kitchen with Sally than I had out at the party, with all the talk about babies and what had gone wrong with the app and my relationship with Jessa.