‘This is a burgundy,’ he said. ‘The good stuff.’
‘Cool!’
‘Your mother and I brought this bottle back from our final trip to Europe.’
‘When you and Jody had that party,’ Jeff piped in.
‘Oh yes,’ said my dad, looking at me.
Final trip, I thought.
‘Our neighbours called the cops,’ Jeff explained to Lee. ‘I slept through the entire thing!’
‘Apparently it was a very, very good party,’ my father added, moving his eyebrows up and down, like he used to.
‘Why?’ Lee asked.
‘Myra’s friend Jen threw up sangria, was that sangria? I remember orange pulp in a beautiful cloud burned into our good white couch, which we had to throw out and, if I remember correctly, the police were called ... ’
My father paused for effect.
‘Dad.’ I didn’t want him to go on. I knew he was trying to be funny. But it was like my father was drunk without even opening the bottle.
‘Lee, have you met our Jody yet?’
‘No,’ I hissed. ‘Lee hasn’t met Jody.’ Jody would have fucking killed my father for this.
‘Wine sounds good,’ Lee said. She smiled at me. ‘Okay?’
The music had been cranked up so loud at that party that no one had even heard the door. The police barged in, there were four of them and they were shouting at everyone. No one thought to turn down the music so it was on the entire time they were there, checking every single room, confiscating every single bottle. I was with Jen and Charlene in my room, sharing a mickey. I didn’t even know that Jen had already thrown up. Apparently the police found Jody naked in our parents’ room with three university guys. That was written up in the report so my parents found out. They had to pay this massive fine for underage drinking. They didn’t even know that Jody was on the pill.
My dad poured three full glasses of the burgundy. I reached across the table for mine.
‘Hang on,’ Lee said. ‘Let me make a toast.’
Lee looked at me and nodded. I felt so strange.
‘To Neil, to Myra, to Jeff and to Jody in absentia.’ Lee looked up at our alien light fixture that hung over the steaming pizza box. ‘Thank you for this food and this company and being in the moment. Chin-chin.’
Jeff started laughing. ‘Chin-chin?’
I downed my wobbly glass. ‘Chin-chin! Thank you, Father, for that final trip!’
My father sipped his wine and ignored me. ‘Cheers. Thank you, Lee. It’s been a while since I’ve had anything to drink.’
‘This is really, really good,’ Lee said.
‘Yep. My mother knows her grape,’ I said. ‘Wonder what she’s drinking in Seoul. She’s in Seoul, right?’
My father peeled his pepperonis off his slice and ate them first. ‘Yes, Myra,’ he said. ‘We all know that.’
I wolfed down three slices. Lee seemed uncomfortable and ate really slowly. Jeff read his manga over dinner. I wanted more wine.
‘Is that Sailor Moon?’ Lee tipped up the cover of Jeff’s book. ‘It’s cool that you read shojo. Vintage too! You should check out Rose of Versailles – Oscar’s a fucking maniac bisexual. Sorry, ’scuse my language.’
Jeff laughed. So did my dad. ‘No, no, it’s okay, Lee. My daughter is a champion cusser.’
‘Cusser?’ Cusser sounded like one of my video clips. Teenslutcusserlicker.