The Science of Growing Apart

23- Dinner

I got an emergency call from Eleanor on Friday night saying that she made way too much baked ziti and she needed dinner guests immediately. I was the perfect person to call, considering I was just about to order pizza for myself and down an entire bottle of white wine on my couch.

I tossed on a pair of jeans and a sweater, my trusty duck boots and said goodbye to Tulip as I abandoned her for a home cooked meal.

Casey and Shiloh were there when I arrived at the house, playing with Auden in the living room at her giant dollhouse. Rebecca and Micah were setting the table in the dining room and I could hear Eleanor rummaging around in the kitchen.

"Smells amazing," I said as I walked through the foyer.

"Hey," Casey greeted me from the dollhouse and Shiloh offered me a friendly wave. "Glad you could make it."

"Beats spending Friday night alone with a bottle of wine and a paint by number."

"I've had one of those before, but I lost my patience halfway through and improvised the rest of it," Shiloh said just as Auden threw a Barbie at her and then Casey had to sternly scold the little girl for throwing, but even Casey's most stern voice was still very gentle.

"Come on in, dinner's ready!" Eleanor called as she carried a large casserole dish of baked ziti through the kitchen archway into the dining room. Micah fetched utensils and garlic bread and then it was time to dig in.

"Did you tell Ellie about tomorrow?" Casey asked me.

"What's tomorrow?" Eleanor piped curiously as she dished out a small portion of pasta for Auden.

"I haven't told her yet, no," I answered, even though it was pretty obvious now by Eleanor's confusion. "I have a date."

"Ooh, exciting! What's his name?"

"Emmett. He's a teacher."

"Do you have pictures?" she asked.

I pulled out my phone and navigated to his Tinder profile to show Eleanor. I noticed Rebecca glance toward the screen as well and then she quirked an eyebrow at me and asked, "Tinder? Isn't that just for hookups?"

I just smiled back at her and said, "It can be used for lots of different things. I met my ex on Tinder and we were together for a year."

"But he cheated on you," she pointed out rather callously. I pinched my lips together, feeling a hard lump form in my chest. Not sure if it was embarrassment or irritation that Casey must have talked about my passed relationships with her for her to know that. I guess engaged couples didn't hide things from each other, but what business did they have discussing that?

Everybody around the table looked shocked that she'd bring it up and I could tell that Casey was about to speak up, but I didn't want anybody to defend me. Her shark senses would eat that right up, so I recovered from the chest lump quickly and responded as I stabbed into my steaming baked ziti. "Relationships fail all the time, not just ones formed using online dating. It's just another way to meet people."

"He's really cute," Eleanor said as she handed me the phone over the table. "Hopefully he has a personality to match."

"Are you saying that attractive people don't have good personalities?" Micah asked her curiously as he helped his daughter with a fist full of pasta try to aim it toward her mouth.

"I'm saying it's rare sometimes," she defended herself and then reached toward him and touched his cheek. "Don't worry, Micah. You're one of the rare ones."

"I tried Tinder a couple of times," Shiloh spoke up as I started to inhale two pieces of garlic bread. "But I kept chickening out when they asked to meet up in person."