Conflict of Interest

Chapter One

Jenn

"Do you ever wonder what clouds would feel like? You know, if you could touch them?"

"Okay," Carrie decided, taking my wine glass away from me. "You're officially cut off."

"How come?"

"Because we have to meet with my family in two hours, and you have a drinking problem, especially exacerbated by my family affairs."

"I do not have a drinking problem."

"Jenn, at my sister's baby shower you sucked the Kahlua out of the tiramisu."

"Well what kind of party has no alcohol?"

"She was pregnant, Jenn."

"That doesn't mean we all were!"

Carrie allowed herself to laugh, letting her head fall back on the grass beneath us. "I don't understand why you didn't just eat the tiramisu."

"Who needs all those calories?" I shrugged. "I just needed the buzz."

"And that, is why I say you have a drinking problem."

"Because I need to be tipsy to deal with your family? Please, Car, if that were true, the entire world would have a drinking problem."

"My family is not that bad."

"They're all so...like you."

"Oh, you're right then, Jennifer. Clearly they're horrible, horrible people."

"Clearly."

She pushed me hard with the hand closest to me, and I laughed, rolling over onto my stomach. "Can't we just not go?" I tried, knowing the answer very well.

"Why are you so opposed to this?"

"Because your family hates me," I pouted, letting my face fall to rest on my crossed forearms.

"Oh, and you so highly respect them that their rejection hurts."

"Hey, I said I needed to drink to deal with them. I didn't say I didn't respect them."

"Please tell me where the disparity lies, Jenn."

"I like them, okay? I do."

"I don't believe you."

"I mean it!"

"Say something nice about them, and I'll buy it."

"I think your family is very...classy," I tried, searching my entire mind for the right adjective - and it had to be a positive one. That was a challenge. "And I like that they all wear suits to casual events."

Carrie just laughed, knowing that what I was saying was true. "You don't like that at all. You just wanted to make fun of it."

I just continued to laugh, thinking about her uptight lawyer parents and all their stuffy siblings and extended relatives. "Car, remember when we babysat your niece and we took her to the movies and--"

"And my sister put her in a blazer. Yes, Jenn, I remember. I also remember you commenting on it to Jacqueline afterwards, and her making me a profile on Match.com the next day."

"A blazer," I gasped through tears, unable to control the hysteria. "She was five!"

"And you wonder why my sister doesn't like you."

To that, I gasped. "Jackie doesn't like me?"

"Oh, she loves you," Carrie said in a way that let me know she was lying. "Deep down. Deep, deep, deep..."