Dinner Saved
“Libby!” Michael called as he rushed into the room where he found his spooked fiancé.
“There’s a face!” Libby screamed pointing at the mirrors of her vanity. Michael looked but was unable to see anyone. “There was a face in the mirror!”
“I believe you.” Michael pulled her into his arms for a reassuring hug. She burrowed her head into his chest. This convinced Michael that there was no way this was Norma. His late wife was not the type to scare or upset people. An angry shriek had him releasing Libby.
“Look at my eyes!” She was turning her head in every direction in the mirrors. It took everything he had not to laugh. During the episode Libby had drawn her eye liner up the side of her face. Angrily Libby jerked make up remover cloths out of a pack and began to wipe her face. “I’m taking a bath.”
Libby filled the giant white hammock tub she had recently installed. While the tub was filling, she went to the kitchen to get a bottle of wine. Her bare feet barely made a noise as she walked across the laminate. Yet, there was an echo of high heels for every step she took. Completely creeped out, she ran into the kitchen. Once she was on the tile, the echo stopped.
“The ghost hunters will be here tomorrow. They are bringing a psychic. They should be able to find the underlying cause of this.” Michael informed her. He was sitting at the table with his email open on his laptop.
She nodded as she left the room carrying a bottle of white and a glass.
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I was standing at the sink scrubbing the pan, grumbling under my breath, when the ding dong of the doorbell intruded. Great, another uninvited guest. I grabbed a towel to dry my hands off as I walked across the formal living room to the front door. The peep hole revealed a young Asian standing on my doorstep holding a paper bag. With a confused smile, I opened the door.
“Can I help you?” Pulling the door shut behind me to keep the animals in, I stepped out onto the porch. The kid had probably gotten the wrong house.
“I have your Sesame Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, and Kung Pao Chicken with three egg drop soups, six egg rolls, and crab rangoons.” He held the bag out to me. Out of reflex, I took the bag containing our usual order. “Have a nice evening.”
I stood there in confusion holding the bag of food while he turned and jumped on his moped in the driveway. My husband reached around me to grab the food. I followed him back into the house. “Did you order that?”
“Duh. Every time Eleanor shows up, dinner gets ruined, and we end up eating baloney sandwiches. I think our daughter deserves better than that.” The overly earnest look he was wearing meant he was lying. HE didn’t want a sandwich. I answered his earnest look with my don’t bother trying to lie to your wife look. He smirked at me. “And don’t think we haven’t noticed you switched us to turkey baloney, woman. We do not approve!” He swatted my ass.
He darted for the kitchen with me hot on his heels. I launched myself on to his back and playfully bit his neck. “EWWWW! Not in the kitchen. We eat in here!” Our teenage daughter had torn herself away from her room to grace us with her presence. She barely looked up from her phone to chastise us for our PDA. My husband set the bag of food on the counter.
“Wanna climb on my front so we can really gross her out?” Our daughter flipped her dark blonde hair out of her face so we could clearly see the horror on both her face and in her green eyes. Despite her horror, she somehow kept typing.
“Jesse Leefe!” It wasn’t much of an admonishment since I was giggling. Grossing out our daughter was one of our favorite activities. I let go of his neck and slid to the ground. “Savannah, get some plates and set the table. Jess, get your stuff off the table. I’ll grab some drinks.”
The three of us settled around the table to enjoy the evening meal. We spent a few minutes passing around containers and sauces. “So how was everyone’s day?”
My question received a shrug from the teenager. Not surprising. I looked at Jess to see if he had anything to add to the conversation. “Want to hear about the new scandal in the department?”