Friends with the King of the Underworld | Book 1

Chapter Six

My parents loved entertaining. While most families built pools in their backyard for the summer months, my parents built a deck in the backyard to entertain guests instead. It had small round incandescent bulbs strategically placed along the banister and strung around the overhanging trees to illuminate the space. There was a large outdoor turquoise couch where everyone sat and conversed, and dad's grill sat in the corner.

I could tell my mother missed Lorraine. As soon as she showed up, her whole face lit up and they hadn't stopped talking since. My father whom was also a friend of Lorraine's didn't hide his happiness either. Lorraine brought a bottle of white wine, which was opened immediately.

Preferring to stick to my favorite red, I turned it down but joined them in conversation on the turquoise couch.

They laughed and joked for what seemed like hours about each family, work, interests, and politics. I always enjoyed watching my parents talk to their friends as if no amount of time had passed and they were just picking up where they left off when they last saw each other.

Now that Damien would get married–if that happened–would that be how our lives would be like? Would we go years without seeing each other and just catch up every once in a while, like the old friends we were? Would we stop talking all together?

It wasn't like I was actively not making friends. I preferred to keep to myself most of the time, and, even in the first couple of years of college, I made friends. We hung out once or twice, but didn't keep contact once we weren't in the same classes anymore.

I swallowed, feeling the familiar lump in my throat right before I started to cry.

I was being silly. He was fully able to move on with his life if he so chose to–it wasn't his fault he was my only friend.

Still, the thought of being alone was starting to nag at me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. No, finish college first. With college behind me, I could go to the city and start a new life.

It was like mom said. I always saw my life as starting after I graduated high school then after I graduated college when I would finally move away from my childhood town–nothing until then mattered.

It wasn't a good way to live. But having small finish lines was what would get me through the day sometimes.

"Emmy?"

I looked up to Lorraine who was calling me. She stood in front of me, her salt and pepper hair tightly wound in a bun on top of her head. Her gold earrings swayed in the small gentle breeze.

Her lavender pantsuit showed she was in an important position at the company she worked at where she had just come from before dinner.

She had a smile on from ear to ear and she attentively put her hands on a younger man's shoulders.

It must have been Chris. How did I miss him coming in?

He was also in a dress shirt and pants, it looked like he left the jacket in the car before coming in. They were blue pants that worked well with the gray shirt he wore. He had gold stubble along his square jaw and gold messy hair.

I stood and smiled, shaking his extended hand. "You're Chris."

He nodded and smiled, showing his teeth. I noticed one of them was slightly crooked. "It's nice to meet you."

I noticed Lorraine slowly backing away behind him. "Would you like a glass of wine?"

Sticking his hands in his pockets, he shrugged. "Sure, what do you have?"

He was a nice guy and a great conversationalist; he made jokes, talked about his work and was genuinely interested in what I had to say.

He started petting Woof when he came around and even let him sit on his lap as we spoke. We both had similar tastes in music; though, he preferred more electronica than I did. Eventually, we made it off the deck and walked near the edge of the woods behind the house talking about everything we experienced in high school.