Pearl remains frozen at my side, so I stick a hand out in her parent’s general direction. “Nice to meet you.” I realize, too late, that I should have let her take the lead. I’m about to say Mister or Missus something, but then I realize I don’t even know Pearl’s last name.
“Oh no,” Pearl’s mom says quickly. “We don’t use last names here. It’s Marnie and Fred. And we are so happy you’re here! Pearl didn’t tell us she was bringing anyone.”
“Mom,” Pearl groans. “Don’t scare him off the second he gets out of the car. This is Gabriel. And we’re new. So please, don’t jinx it.”
“Jinx it?” Marnie gasps. “I would never! Oh, my goodness! Isn’t this just a great surprise!”
“Now, Marnie,” Fred warns softly, but there’s so much affection in it that it’s hard to take him seriously. “Let them at least get their bags out, and let’s get them fed and watered. We can save the questions for later.”
“Yes. Right, I’m sorry.” Marnie grins at both of us. “Let us help you with your bags.”
“That’s quite alright,” I assure them. “I’ve got it.”
“That can wait too!” Susan rushes forward to hug her sister. Pearl quickly disengages from me, and I have to admit, I kind of miss having my arm around her narrow waist. She was warm, and of course, she smells like heaven. Now I’m the one getting chills running up my spine, and I can’t blame it on the weather because it’s full-on sunny and as hot as the inside of an old boot after a long day’s work. “You’re here right on time! We have everything set up in the back yard.”
“Everything?” Pearl asks tentatively.
“All the games! I didn’t have a stagette since I couldn’t get everyone together before the wedding, and I didn’t want that anyway, but you already knew that, so I planned a whole bunch of party games for this afternoon instead.”
“We were just about to play pin the penis on the groom,” one of Susan’s friends—a tall, blonde woman—pipes up from the crowd of friends and probably bridesmaids that are gathered near the front step.
“We have different colored penises!” That’s from a brunette.
“Purple and green and pink and blue!” Another one of the friends, though it’s not obvious which one because I can’t actually see the whole group.
“Oh. That sounds…um…great.” Pearl looks at me like I might be able to save her, but I just shrug, almost imperceptibly.
“He can play too!” The blonde says eagerly.
“Whoa now,” I warn. “I’d participate if I were doing the pinning, but not if I was being pinned to.”
There’s a chorus of giggles as I flash my best, friendly grin. Pearl groans beside me while Susan claps her hands eagerly. Fred goes around to the trunk of the car and starts grabbing Pearl’s bags, and Marnie starts talking about cookies and iced tea, which sounds really, really good since I’m getting roasted like a rotisserie chicken under the early afternoon summer sun.
While I break away and grab my own bags before Fred can burden himself with them, Susan leads her friends around the side of the house, probably into the back yard. Fred marches on ahead, and Marnie quickly follows.
“Two minutes down, only about five thousand more to go,” Pearl mutters under her breath as I walk beside her to the front door. I notice she doesn’t lock the car even though there’s an envelope with cash in the glove box.
“You know how many minutes there are in a day? That’s impressive.”
“Not a day. Three and a half days. We still have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the rest of today to get through.”
“Still. You counted that out?”
“I did do the calculation on my phone last night. I thought breaking it down by minutes would be helpful.”
“Hours might have been better. It’s a less intimidating number.”
“I hope you’re ready to get fed.” Pearl changes the subject the second we walk through the door. “In this house, we eat until we’re ready to burst for fear of offending my mom.”
“I heard that!” Marnie’s voice echoes from further back in the house. “We force-feed no one!”
“But no one can ever tell you no when you try and force the fourth and fifth helping on them!” Pearl calls back.
The house is nice on the inside too. It’s freshly updated with dark hardwood and grey painted walls. The interior is tastefully arranged, from what I can see. The entrance opens into a large living room, and beyond that, I can kind of see into the kitchen, where the room curves. I bet Pearl had a hand in all the art and rugs and pillows that brighten up the room. Maybe the flooring and paint choice too.
Pearl slips out of her flip flops, and I ditch my shoes too, even if walking around another person’s house in bare feet is probably gross and weird. Pearl doesn’t seem to even notice. She gives me a half sympathetic, half grateful look before she leads me straight to the kitchen.