WORK IN PROGRESS: Dinner Disasters: Sebastian and Layana

Chapter 2 (Layana): Tumbling Down

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Sebastian came storming into the kitchen just a minute after I did, and I noticed that his shirt was stained from the plate of spaghetti I'd thrown at him. Looked like the plate had connected after all. I was pretty sure there was still a single noodle sticking to his shoulder.

"Layana, what the --"

He didn't get much more than that out because I was ready for him. I already had the prime rib roast held in both hands over my head and the second I saw his face, I launched it right at his head.

It's hard to throw a six-pound roast with accuracy, and although I missed his head, I hit a perfect bullseye on his chest. It might not have been as satisfying as his handsome face, but I'd take it.

"Layana, stop!" he said, but I just grabbed the smashed potatoes, one after the other and kept up a steady barrage throwing them at him. He batted them away as he advanced on me, and when I ran out of those, I started throwing the little lava cakes. All the Oxiclean in the world wasn't going to be able to save his dress shirt.

"Enough!" he said, taking ahold of my wrist, but I managed to smash the last lava cake in his face with my unsecured hand.

"Dammit, that's enough!" He made the mistake of letting go of my wrist to wipe the gooey, dripping mess off his face.

Excuse me? Sebastian didn't get to decide when enough was enough. That was my prerogative as the wronged party here -- and as the one who had just been forced to waste perfectly amazing chocolate lava cake on him, I was now even more wronged than I had been at the restaurant when I'd seen him with that woman. So, to drive that point home, I swung at him, trying to push him back, but he wrapped me up in his arms, whispering into my ear.

"Settle down, Layana. I don't want you hurting yourself."

"Oh, only you can hurt me, is that it?"

He blocked my knee to his balls and then picked me up in his arms, bridal style, effectively trapping my arms and legs.

Unfortunately, I was part wolverine, honey badger, Tasmanian devil -- take your pick -- and I was so enraged by his move that I snapped my pearly whites at his face.

Admittedly, not my proudest moment.

He held me away from him just in time to avoid rabies, and then sat me down on the couch. "Are you ready to listen?

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. "Sure. Let's hear it." I could always kill him after he told me his little story.

"She's a partner on a new project. That's it. We just inked the deal today."

"That's it? That's your explanation?"

"Yes. It was two colleagues celebrating a new partnership. Nothing more."

My father had always told me I should have been a lawyer. That profession never appealed to me, but I couldn't deny I loved poking holes in people's stories. So, full steam ahead.

"So why haven't I heard about her?"

"I don't talk about all of my new partners with you."

OK, fair, that was the truth, but his answer wasn't good enough. There was more to this. I sensed it in my gut.

"Why were just the two of you having dinner together?"

"We'd just signed the deal today and wanted to talk about the new partnership."

"Do you have dinner with all your new partners one on one? Drink wine with them in an intimate setting to discuss a new partnership? Discussions that would be more appropriate in an office setting during normal working hours."

The first crack in the wall. Sebastian looked like he realized he might have made a mistake. A huge fucking mistake.

"No --"

"Then why were you having dinner with her? Why have dinner with a woman by yourself like that? Why not invite me to celebrate with you? Invite her husband?"

"She's single, and I didn't think --"

"No, you sure as hell didn't think. So, she's single. We'll come back to her marital status and why you weren't thinking. Why weren't you answering my texts or calls?"

I saw something I didn't like on his face. "I thought it'd be rude to answer while --"

"You thought it'd be rude to ignore this other woman you're wining and dining to take a call from your wife?!"

"Layana, fuck. You're making this sound like more than it was."

"Really? I'm the bad guy here when my husband is the one who was out with another woman on our anniversary and decided she was more important than I was and ignored my calls and texts? Is that really how you're going to spin it Sebastian?"

"I shouldn't have ignored your calls. I'm sorry."

"No, you shouldn't have been having dinner with another woman, Sebastian. You should not have been toasting new beginnings with her. You should not have been with a woman who smiles at you seductively and makes dirty insinuations about you no longer resisting her."

"She's been after me for a while to combine forces. That's what she was referring to. That's all."

"So you say. But I'm a woman, and there was a lot more than that being conveyed, and you were going right along with it. So how long have you known her?"

"A year."

"A year. You looked pretty comfortable for having resisted her for so long. Is this the first time you've shared a one-on-one meal with her?"

And there it was. The second crack in the wall.

"No."

"Please give me more. Have you had lunches with her?"

"Yes."

I leaned toward him. "Sebastian, if getting information from you continues to be like pulling teeth, I'm actually going to start pulling teeth. How many lunches?"

"Five or six."

"And dinners?"

The third crack was appearing.

"Three or four. But it was all about working together. That's it."

"Really? But you weren't working together before today. So what could have possibly necessitated dinners and lunches by yourselves?"

The fourth crack appeared in the wall.

"Layana --"

I sensed it was all about to come tumbling down.

So I might have helped when I grabbed the lamp from the table beside me and threw it at my husband.

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA