Member-only story
Guacamole
A self-satisfied wife sees her husband talking to her friend’s teenage daughter.
“He doesn’t even realise he’s being inappropriate, that’s how thick he is! The idiot sends out all the wrong signals cos he’s so eager to be liked,” Janet was complaining about her husband Dan. Grace noticed how much her friend’s mouth reminded her of her dog Ripper defending his bone. Janet’s eyes were as wide as saucers, her nostrils flared, and Grace caught sight of some spit flying through the air, hopefully not into the guacamole they were making. Grace suppressed a rising giggle. She thought it was ridiculous how her usually unflappable best friend always turned into a crazed banshee whenever jealousy got the better of her.
Grace and Janet have been best friends for more than thirty years, since they were flat-chested middle-schoolers nursing crushes on high school boys they watched from a distance. On nearly all accounts, Grace considered Janet one of the most even-tempered and sound-minded people she knew. The two ladies understood each other well, but there were certain things about Janet that still puzzled Grace, like how she could be so suspicious about her husband Dan and other women. From what Grace observed, Janet and Dan, who’ve been together for almost thirty years, look like a loving couple, and Dan certainly seems devoted to Janet. She couldn’t quite understand the rationale behind her friend’s anxiety.
