Picking Up the Pieces (18 page)

             
“Fine by me.” Shane smiled and gave Amanda a light kiss on the cheek before he started toward the dining room. But he stopped and turned back toward us before he left the room. “Oh, and Merry Christmas, Lily.”

             
“Back at ya,” I yelled after him. Once I was sure he was gone, I leaned toward Amanda. “The poor bastard doesn’t stand a chance.”

             
Giggling, Amanda replied, “I know. Now let’s discuss more important things. Like what my mom will be wearing.”

***

Amanda got the answer to her question about an hour later when her mom showed up “fashionably late” as she called it, wearing an oversized green sweater with appliqué candy canes and gingerbread men.

“Hi, mom,” Amanda said, leaning in for a quick hug.
I was surprised that she initiated anything that resembled affection. She must’ve been really overcome with the Christmas spirit. It’s not that she didn’t love the woman. She did. But Amanda also didn’t have the greatest patience when it came to her mom, and I couldn’t blame her. As well-intentioned as Angela was, she was a total flake. “I see you’re still keeping the local Salvation Army in business.”

There’s my girl.

“Oh, I didn’t get this one from the Salvation Army. I found it in a lost and found box at the mall.”

Amanda actually looked stunned.
“You mean you’re wearing a complete stranger's crusty, old Christmas sweater?”

“Would I have somehow magically known the previous owner if I had gotten it at the Salvation Army?” Angela questioned.

“No, but at least that person probably would’ve cared enough to wash it. A hobo could’ve been wearing that for Christ’s sake. And even
he
didn’t like it enough to keep it.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Angela scoffed as she walked toward the living room.

“I’m ridic . . . never mind. Why do I even bother?” Amanda threw up her arms in mock indignation but couldn’t hold in the laughter as she walked back toward the kitchen.

I couldn’t help but giggle as they both walked off.
This is going to be one helluva Christmas.

By four o’clock, we were sitting down to dinner.
Well, two dinners would be more accurate. Shane’s dining room table had developed a sort of nutritional divide. They had agreed to serve turkey and a round roast as the staple dishes of the meal, so these were in the center of the table, flanked to the left by Amanda’s side dishes and to the right by Shane’s.

             
We all eyed each other warily as we stood around the table, afraid to show allegiance to either side. Amanda and Shane sat on opposing ends of the rectangular table, Amanda in front of her food, Shane in front of his. Choosing a seat became akin to choosing gang colors. Suddenly, I felt a shoulder bump mine. I looked to see who had tapped me.

             
Shit.

             
“Where you sittin’, shawty?” Shane’s eleven-year-old nephew Henry was going through some sort of bizarre identity crisis.
Hate to break it to ya, kid, but you’re not Eminem.

             
I smiled sweetly at him. “Where are you sitting?”

             
“Uh . . . I guess . . . I guess right here,” he stammered as he pointed to a chair next to Shane, clearly thrown by what he interpreted as me flirting with him.

I immediately dropped my smile and said curtly, “Then I’m sitting over there,” as I pointed to a chair beside Amanda.
I began walking toward my chosen seat when I heard him mutter behind me.

“I love it when a chick plays hard to get.”
He pulled out his chair and plopped down in it.

I swung my head toward Amanda and raised my eyebrows.

“Ignore him. Everyone else does,” she offered as she took a sip of her wine. Her eyes never left Shane.

Angela sat down on the other side of Amanda.
“You use very interesting language, Henry. Is it, oh what’s it called, umm . . . oh, yeah, Ebonics?”

“Jesus Christ,” Amanda murmured.

“Nah, it’s just me, baby.”

“Henry,” Talia scolded, “t
hat’s enough.”

“Haters gonna hate,
Mom,” Henry muttered.

“And idiots gonna get grounded if they don’t learn how to show some respect,” Talia countered.

Henry immediately shut up, which caused me to fall slightly in love with Talia.

“Everything looks wonderful,” Shane’s mom Katherine interjected, probably hoping to steer the conversation in a more positive direction.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Amanda said under her breath, which earned her a kick from me. She hadn’t been around Shane’s mom that much since they got together, and the last thing she needed was to make a bad impression.

“So, are we all going to stare at the food or are we actually going to eat it?”
Shane’s brother Ben asked loudly.

“We should say a blessing
,” Katherine suggested.

“Well who’s going to do it?
And can they hurry? I’m starving.” Ben received an irritated glare from Talia, but simply shrugged his shoulders and added, “We were all thinking it.”

“It’s Shane’s house.
He should do it,” Amanda suggested with a smirk.

“What a great idea,” Kat
herine gushed.

Shane stared daggers at Amanda. “Sure, I’d be honored to give the blessing.”

We all joined hands, bowed our heads, and Shane cleared his throat. “Dear Lord . . .”

Amanda let out an extremely unattractive snort
, and I squeezed her hand tightly. “Sorry, something was stuck in my throat.”

Shane let out a long, agitated breath before he started again.
“Dear Lord . . .” He hesitated a moment and looked up at Amanda, as if daring her to interrupt him again. She smiled coyly and he went on. “We thank you for this food we are about to eat, even though some of it has been stripped of any nutritional value during its preparation.”

I tried to bite back a smile as Amanda’s head shot up.

“We also thank you for allowing all of us to be here today. Even though some of us are difficult and pigheaded, we appreciate being able to celebrate this day together. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“That was . . . very nice, Shane,” Katherine commented.

“Yeah, Shane. Very nice,” Amanda added. Her voice sounded sincere, but anyone who knew her could recognize the gleam in her eye. Tonight was about to get very interesting.

“Why thank you, Mom.
Sweetheart.”

To my knowledge, Shane never referred to Amanda as ‘sweetheart' and meant it sincerely, which led me to believe the gauntlet had not only been thrown, but accepted.

“Mommy, can I have some turkey?”
I looked at the sweet little girl beside me. I’m not sure how Talia and Ben had created an abomination like Henry and then something so adorable like Mackenzie.

“Sure, baby.
What else do you want?” Talia asked.

“Ummm . . .”

“Kenzie, how about some fresh tomato with basil?” Shane interrupted.

Amanda scoffed.
“Why would a six-year-old want that? I have some macaroni and cheese over here, Mackenzie. How does that sound?”

“Why would she
want
this? Maybe because she wants to live to see her teenage years. Trust Uncle Shane on this one, Kenzie. Amanda is trying to kill you.”

Our heads all flew toward Shane when we registered his words. Then Mackenzie started to cry.
“Why would she do that, Uncle Shane?”

A look of horror swept over Shane’s face as he realized what he had just said.
“Oh no, Kenzie, I didn’t mean that.”

Kenzie was all out sobbing now as Talia wrapped her arms around the young girl and tried to soothe her.

“Nice job, Shane,” Amanda quipped.

“Shit, I’m so sorry, Kenz.”

“How come when I talk, mom threatens to ground me, but Uncle Shane can curse?” Henry accused.

“Because, like mom said, you’re an idiot.”

Katherine looked appallingly at her oldest son. “Ben, you shouldn’t call your son names. That's twice his parents have called him an idiot at the Christmas table. I never spoke to you boys like that.”

“Well,
Mom, maybe if you had, your other son wouldn’t be traumatizing my daughter over Christmas dinner.”

Then Angela decided to offer her own pearl of wisdom. “Don’t worry, Ben.
Shane probably didn’t cause any real damage. I mean, you should hear some of the things I said to Amanda over the years. And she turned out just fine.”

“Thanks for helping,
Mom,” Amanda said dryly.

“My pleasure,” Angela replied happily as she spooned some sweet potatoes onto her plate.

The dinner table was in complete chaos, with everyone talking at once and arguing with one another.
And to think, I almost went home to Chicago for Christmas and missed all this.
Suddenly, I started laughing. An uncontrollable belly laugh that echoed through the room. Eventually, all other conversation ceased as everyone stared at me. Even Mackenzie stopped her crying to look at me quizzically.

“Did I miss a joke?” Amanda asked, amusement evident in her voice.

I couldn’t even stop laughing long enough to answer her.

“I think she’s drunk, dear,” Angela volunteered.

This little gem from Angela only made me laugh harder, which I hadn’t even thought was possible. Finally, I tried to form some kind of coherent speech. “You two . . . are such . . . assholes. You’re utterly . . . perfect for each other.”

Amanda pushed her tongue into her cheek to keep a serious countenance, but it was no use.
She was soon laughing just as hard as I was. She looked up at Shane, smiling the first genuine smile she’d worn all night. “I love you immensely. You know that, right?”

“I do,” Shane replied simply, his lips tilted up in a boyish smile that showed just how in love with Amanda he was.

“Good. Then let’s eat. Mackenzie, you know I love you too, right?”

The little girl nodded.

Amanda smiled. “Then, you know that I’d never hurt you. You can eat whatever you want. Nothing bad will happen.”

The little girl sniffled a few times, but visibly relaxed.

The rest of dinner passed without incident.
We enjoyed easy, lighthearted conversation and no one else cried or threatened physical harm. Once we had finished dessert, which Shane had thankfully not even tried to prepare something for, we got up to clear the table. But Shane and Amanda quickly told everyone to go into the living room to relax. They’d clean up and be in so that we could all exchange presents. Even though we all repeated that we’d help, the offer was half-hearted and proven insincere as we all walked toward the living room without giving the dinner table a second look.

However, as Henry sidled up next to me and tried to hold my hand, I quickly thought better of my decision and started toward the kitchen t
o offer some help. As I walked through the doorway of the kitchen, I stopped short and quickly drew back so that I was hidden behind the corner. I poked my head forward just enough to watch Shane and Amanda.

Shane was
scraping uneaten food off of plates into the trashcan and putting away leftovers as Amanda rinsed dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher. But it wasn’t what they were doing that captivated me. It was
how
they were doing it. They worked silently, but cohesively, moving around each other as though it were a dance they had practiced to perfection. I watched as they exchanged loving glances and quick kisses. I saw the light touches Shane gave Amanda as he moved around her, as well as how her body leaned into every graze of his fingers.

And as I stood there observing them, I knew I was witnessing a special moment in time that I’d always remember.
It would be a moment I would hope to recreate in my own life. A moment that I would lean on when things in my life weren’t going as planned. A moment that would always reassure me that true love did exist.

***

Two days had passed since what would probably go down as the most memorable Christmas dinner in history, and by nine o'clock Friday night, I was becoming sufficiently bored. Adam and I had texted back and forth a few times about nothing in particular. Amanda was busy staying glued to Shane’s ass, Tina was visiting family upstate, and the rest of my girlfriends sucked. That only left Max, but I didn’t want to hang out with him either.

Well, that wasn’t
entirely
true. I did
want
to. But I just wasn’t sure where I stood with him. I’d been giving a lot of thought to our friendship, and I was starting to think that maybe it wasn’t worth everything I was sacrificing for it. I enjoyed hanging out with him, but was that enough? I had already lost Adam once because I was wrapped up in having "fun"
with Max. And I just couldn’t justify losing who was potentially the love of my life for someone who was just
a good time once in a while. In fact, I was pretty sure doing so would make me the dumbest motherfucker on the planet.