Pulling my hand away, I clear my throat. “What about you, Sir? What do you do?”
“I'm a gastrologist.” The way he says it makes Sia shrink in her seat.
“Oh,” I say as a waiter comes by and places a basket of warm rolls on the table. Grabbing one, I take a big bite. “Mm,” I say with a mouth full of bread. “I have a great doctor joke. Guy goes to the doctor dressed in nothing but bubble wrap. He says, ‘Doctor can you help me?’ The doctor says, ‘No, I can clearly see your nuts.’” Chuckling hard, it takes a second for me to realize that no one else is laughing along.
Swallowing hard, I stuff the rest of the roll in my mouth and run my hands up and down my thighs. This is awkward.
“Sia, your mother tells me you'll be applying to medical school for the next year.”
“Yeah, a few more months and I'll be trading dresses and heels for scrubs.”
The woman shivers as she closes her eyes. “I remember those days. They were awful.”
“I'm happy I get to go to work in jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing fancy, and I don't care if it gets dirty,” I add to the conversation.
“Mm hm,” the woman mumbles uninterested. “I'm sure it's just lovely,” she says. “All that dirt and lord knows what else.”
“Once I got chased through a field by a flock of wild turkeys. I had to climb a tree, only to realize that it was home to a nest of white faced hornets.” Shuddering, I cringe. “Spent the next few days in a bath of oatmeal and looking like I got the chicken pox.”
Glancing around, everyone has a mixed look of either disgust our horror on their faces. And Sia, well she just looks empty. There's no smile or frown. Her deadpan stare is fixed on the centerpiece on the table.
I'm bombing here.
I was hoping that if I was just myself that maybe they would warm up to me. A good joke, a funny story, it usually works. Not on these people. These people have no sense of humor or desire to get to know me at all.
“Excuse me,” I say, pushing my chair back and standing up.
With long sweeping steps, I move through the room, and head for the restroom. I don't know what else to do. Playing pretend doesn't sit well with me, and being myself is making everything worse.
This was a big mistake. I should have never come.
It was naive for me to think that this girl was different. I thought I saw something that obviously isn’t there. I'm embarrassing her.
Sex really does turn a man blind.
I didn't see any of this coming.
10
Siobhan
The air around me is sour. I want to breathe but I can't. My legs are heavy as cement, and the rest of my body is just stuck. I'm trapped here. Trapped at this table. Trapped in this world. Trapped like an animal in a cage.
Every wall is closing in on me, squeezing me from every direction. I can't escape.
I want to laugh at Mark's jokes and his stories. I want to ask him more, learn about his past, get a view of life through someone else's lens.
But I can't. Not here. Not around these people.
If I even show a shred of interest, it will reflect so poorly on my parents, and this entire event. These people will mock my mother, they'll never let her live it down. They might not even allow her in their social circle again. I can't do that to her.
I don't know what Mark's thinking. And in the same breath, I'm grateful for him just being himself. It draws me to him even more, with more and more of my heart opening to him.
The edge he bears is such a turn on. I can't ignore the pull I feel. But he needs to realize that he's not at home. To make a good impression here, he has to play by the rules, even if they're terrible and wrong.
Looking around the room, I see my parents mingling, but no Mark. He's been gone for a few minutes now.
I should go find him.
I feel awful about how these people are treating him, but he needs to know he can't take it personally.
“Excuse me,” I say, forcing a smile and leaving the table.
Searching the venue, he's not in the room anywhere. Standing outside the restroom door, I wait until I think it's clear, pushing the door open slightly and calling his name. He doesn't answer back.
Where the hell did he go?
My heart pounds hard as I wonder if he left altogether. Maybe he decided to just go home, back to the things and people he knows. Back to a place that isn't going to judge him like they are here.
Where he's a hero for his talent with engines, and not looked down on because he doesn't have disposable money. It would be hard to hold it against him if he bolted after the way he's being treated.