v. 5.0

Annabelle was stirring bolognaise sauce in a pot on the stove. Dan stood in the kitchen doorway, bottle in one hand and corkscrew in the other. “Shall I uncork the wine?”

She didn’t look up. “Fine.”

He nodded, forced a smile in case his wife noticed, then turned and headed into the dining room. He pulled the cork, then took a quick swig out of the bottle. Not knowing what else to do, he sat down on the couch and stared hungrily at the hors d’oeuvres waiting in a tray before him on the coffee table. He thought about making a drink, but the bar was in the kitchen… and the last thing he wanted to do was go back in there.

No, he’d keep with the established program and wait for Annabelle to bring in his usual Bombay Sapphire martini with an olive in a frosty glass. The prospect of having her take this extra effort for his benefit—something he’d never noticed in the past—made him uneasy. He sensed that everything happening tonight was being tallied in a permanent emotional account somewhere.

Dan felt very alone—even abandoned. There was the strained relationship with his wife and the growing troubles with his daughter… and even Cosmo had sent him a message saying that he would not be attending the annual meeting tomorrow, and for Dan to host the meeting himself.

Has it really been a year already? he asked himself. Most of the annual meetings before it ran together in his mind, but he remembered last year’s as vividly as if it had taken place a week ago. A year ago tonight he’d flown to Validator’s ranch—and had missed this annual private dinner with Annabelle. Now he wished he could have swapped that night with this one.

He knew his wife felt that way, too. It wasn’t just her anger; it was also her distrust of their daughter. Annabelle had kept Aidan under lock and key ever since she’d had been picked up by police in a public park near her high school in the company of a suspected drug dealer. There was no evidence she’d done anything illegal, but the cop had recognized the family name and drove Aiden home, rather than to the station. Aidan had denied everything, of course, and accused her mother of not trusting her, being a terrible mother, wishing her father was home because he’d believe her, etc.

To her credit, Annabelle hadn’t bought any of it. She grounded Aidan indefinitely, even driving her to school in the morning, picking her up in the afternoon, and calling her at break-time and lunch. Aidan was furious and did her best to make life in the house a living hell. But Annabelle refused to break.

As relentless and steely calm as she was with her daughter, Annabelle conversely made no attempt to restrain her anger and resentment with Dan. The days when he was home from the road, the Crowen house was like an armed camp: Aidan slamming doors, screaming at her mother, and threatening all manner of self-destruction once she was set free; Annabelle answering her daughter through gritted teeth, then retreating to the kitchen or bedroom to bang dishes or cry; and Dan caught in the cross-fire, blamed by both sides, and plotting his escape with yet another business trip.

And now it was time again for the Validator annual meeting. There was no question that Dan would be home for it. There would obviously be no sales meeting this year. And as the event approached and he hadn’t heard from Cosmo, Dan assumed he wouldn’t be fired, either. But most of all, there was Annabelle’s insistence that their annual dinner go on as planned, if only to maintain some continuity in their home life—despite Aidan’s attempt to sabotage it.

But Annabelle seemed to realize too late that to have this dinner, she would have to let Aidan out of the house to spend the night with a friend… and Aidan made no secret that she planned to take full advantage of her temporary freedom. From the moment Aidan had left the house with a triumphant smirk on her face, Annabelle had been on edge… and obviously fighting to resist a desire to call every ten minutes to check up on her.

“Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes,” she said flatly as she appeared in the doorway, still in her apron, with a martini glass in each hand. “I’ll have to go in a few minutes to put in the pasta. And I’ll have to turn the meat then, too.” She handed Dan his glass and pointedly took her own place on the far end of the couch.

He smiled wanly and reached out with his glass. “Another year, another annual meeting.”

Reluctantly, she tapped her glass against his. “Let’s hope it’s your last… unless you’ve found you prefer life on the road with your young assistant.” Taking a long sip, she sat back and stared at the far wall.

Dan looked at the same spot. “I don’t think that kind of talk is called for, do you?”

“Only if I’m wrong,” she replied. She turned to stare at him. Her eyes were puffy and her face drawn. “Am I wrong, Dan?”

“Of course you are,” he said, still avoiding her eyes. He already hated himself for what he was about to say. “I can’t believe you’d even make such an accusation. Especially tonight. I think you’ve been stuck alone with Aidan for so long that your imagination has run away with you.”

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s pretend that’s the real problem. Just exactly whose fault is it that I’ve been left here alone with our troubled daughter?”

Dan finally turned to look into her eyes. “Do you really want to go over this again?” he asked. “Do you think I don’t understand my responsibility in all of this? Christ, Annabelle, you’ve reminded me of it every day I’ve been gone, in emails, texts, phone calls, and any other way you can think of to reach out and kick my ass. I haven’t heard a friendly word from you in two months. Do you really think I haven’t got the message?”

“Given your behavior, apparently not. I told you I needed you to be here. That I needed your help with this. And instead, you’ve betrayed me.”

“I’ve done nothing of the sort,” he said, stalling. “I warned you not to let Aidan get to you like this. It’s affected your thinking. You’re not yourself.”

“And you are?” she demanded. “I told you Aidan was heading for trouble, and that we needed you here. And you didn’t believe me.”

“And I still say that you’ve over-reacted. I stood by you, of course. That’s my job. But there’s no proof that Aidan’s been anything but a typical teenager testing her limits.”

“Do you really believe that, Dan? Or is this how you rationalize the selfish decisions you’ve been making lately?”

He put down his drink and leaned back on the couch, folding his arms. “Okay, fine. Do you really want to spend our special evening making accusations and fighting?”

Annabelle downed her martini and stood up. “All right. We’ll just make believe that nothing has changed. I’ll get dinner on.”