Big Time

Twenty Two

It was Saturday night and Michael and Sarah had accepted an invitation from Barbara for dinner a month or so earlier. John wasn’t looking forward to it and would have much preferred a quiet night on the couch with a beer or nice bottle of wine with Chinese take out. Barbara hadn’t raised his late hours again, and John hadn’t gone back there unnecessarily, after all, he didn’t see his hours as a choice.

John was responsible for cooking and drinks, and Barbara had cleaned the apartment and set the table. He was trying a Greek dish, which was a departure from his standard Italian. He’d planned a feast. For entrée, they would start with small fillets of whiting in white wine sauce and garlic. For main, grilled lamb chops with lemon, garlic, and rosemary accompanied by a warm beetroot salad of mint, feta, Spanish onion, and olive oil. For dessert, he’d bought Baklava from a Greek delicatessen.

The wines were French, but John was confident no one would mind.

10 minutes before they were to arrive, John went into the bedroom to get changed and found Barbara pouting at the mirror.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She continued studying herself in the mirror from all angles.

“Something’s wrong. What is it?”

“I’ve put on weight.”

“What are you talking about? You look great.” John had noticed she’d put on a few pounds, but she was thin to start with and the little bit of extra padding just added to her hips and breasts.

“I don’t fit into my jeans,” she said.

John wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her on the back of the neck. “I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but you look fantastic and you’re wearing jeans.”

“I don’t and these are my fat jeans. I don’t fit my skinny jeans. Now leave me alone to get ready.”

“Not until you admit that you are one sexy woman with a great ass.”

“I’ve been eating so much chocolate lately and I feel awful.”

“You’re being silly.”

“I am not,” she snapped. “Now let me finish getting ready.”

“What about the sundress Annie and Hank gave you for your birthday?” John suggested. At the time, Barbara had said she loved it for being stylish and fun. Now it appeared girly and unsophisticated to her. “It does nothing for my hips or legs.”

John surrendered and left her in peace. It was so unlike Barbara to worry about her weight; or at least to confide about it in him. We’ve both been eating more chocolate of late. But so what?

After Sarah and Michael arrived, John quickly served up entrée. If he could engineer a relatively early night, he would.

“So how’s business, John?” Sarah asked.

“Good thanks. We’re starting to find our feet.”

“Have you started making money yet?” she continued.

“What do you mean?” said John, guessing as to what she meant, but not really appreciating the question.

“Well, how do you make money?”

“We earn management fees from the money we’ve raised.” Given Sarah’s education and business experience, John thought she should have understood this without him having to explain.

“You earn that irrespective of how you invest the money?” John recognized her focus without understanding why. While John was happy to bake in a little glowing attention on the business front, he tired of it pretty quickly and tonight, he was ready to move on. But Sarah wasn’t.