Dinner Conversation

“…everything is fine until this giant fish swims past him. All I see is bubbles and frantic arms as he claws his way back to the surface. I follow him up to check on him. In his panicked state, Toby grabs on to me. Now, he was a lot bigger back then, so I have this two-thirty muscular guy holding little old me in a **** grip. Needless to say, poor little me is now underwater with little air as this big oaf holds me under. Luckily, the boat was nearby and his flailing got the attention of the guide who proceeded to save my life.” Lisa grinned as she looked over at her embarrassed husband. “And that one of the many times your father nearly killed me on our honeymoon.”

“Okay, I just want to put out for the record that snorkeling was your idea knowing I am terrified of deep water. Also, that ‘fish,’ was a shark.”

Laughing, she rested a hand on his arm. “Honey, it wasn’t a shark.”

“It was. I looked right in its eye and knew it was targeting me for its next meal.”

“It was the size of my arm!”

“Clearly you are misremembering. Its teeth were the size of my fingers.”

Rolling her eyes, she lifted her wine glass, pausing right before her parted lips. “It wasn’t even a predator fish,” she said before taking a sip.

Toby made an indignant noise. “You were twenty feet away. You have no idea the danger I faced.”

Kaylee was giggling, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth. “Sounds like Dad was rethinking the marriage and was speeding along the, ‘Till **** Do Us Part,’ bit.”

“Okay, she makes me sound bad, but why don’t we tell them about you driving us around Hawaii?”

“Or we can not,” Lisa said with a serious tone, setting her wine glass down.

He smirked. “Let’s just say we both came to the conclusion that I would be the one to do the driving in the family.”

“You make it sound like I’m a horrible driver.”

“I mean…”

Her mouth opened in mock outrage. “I’ll have you know, I am an excellent driver.”

“Of course you are. You are extremely good at off-road driving… especially when there is a wonderful paved two-lane highway thirty feet away.”

“That happened once, and it was a very convincing dirt road.”

Toby looked at Kaylee and I. “It wasn’t a road.”

“It was too!”

“For ATV tours, sure.”

That was pretty much the theme of dinner, with Toby and Lisa sharing their near-**** experiences from the early years of their marriage. Frankly, I was impressed either of them had made it this far. All their adventures abroad ended with at least one brush with ****. It also convinced me that traveling was dangerous and should be avoided at all costs, as it tended to vastly increase the chances of your significant other murdering you by accident.

Lisa let out a long sigh. “Ah, I miss traveling for pleasure. Now it’s always work, work, work. I’m all over the world, but I never get to enjoy the places I visit.”

“You do know you can take Dad with you, right?”

“And leave my teenage daughter home alone? I don’t think so.”

Kaylee gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m eighteen Dad. In a year I’ll be off at college…”

“Then I still have a year of taking care of my baby girl.”

“Hardly a baby anymore,” Kaylee said with a smile.

“Aww. You’ll always be his little girl,” Lisa said, resting a hand on Kaylee’s.

The moment was interrupted by the waitress returning to get refills and take dessert orders. Altogether, it was a nice dinner. Most importantly, Kaylee and I were able to hold a normal conversation without the lingering awkwardness.

Arriving back at their house, Lisa snaked her arm through her husband and pressed herself close to him. Kaylee and I followed them inside when her mother glanced over her shoulder.

“I’m going to go take care of your father and work off some of that delicious dinner. You two have fun,” she said before dragging him off upstairs towards their room.

The awkward atmosphere returned as we stood next to each other. Kaylee glanced up at the stairs. She looked torn. About what, I didn’t know.