"A young couple buys the waterfront home of their dreams. After years of rehab to their home, they find it was all in vain. The government is going to take it from them. Feeling robbed of his liberty, Jeff is left hopeless and is willing to lose it all."
Excerpt:
The running joke in the Wilson family went: after the Wilsons spent so much on Kendra’s college education, they would celebrate her wedding rehearsal dinner at Taco Bell. For a while, they’d considered it. In the end, though, Kendra decided she wanted a nice dinner at a steak restaurant. Since according to tradition the groom’s parents took care of the rehearsal dinner, but Jeff didn’t have any contact with his parents, Jeff and Kendra saved up some money to pay for it.
When Jeff and Kendra arrived at the restaurant, the host took them back to their table. Lex, Isaac and Adrienne (Jeff presumed) were already there. Lex and Isaac each had a draft beer. Adrienne, who looked like she was still under twenty-one, had an icy soda instead.
Jeff recognized Adrienne as one of the hostesses at Cloverfield’s. She was a beautiful girl, but she didn’t seem to know it. Though tall, she seemed embarrassed about her height. She slouched. Her blunt haircut didn’t flatter her heart-shaped face. Her thick makeup, punctuated by green eye shadow, didn’t match her light blue dress, or her blue eyes.
“Jeff, Kendra, this is Adrienne Newton,” Lex said as they took their seats. Kendra sat at the head of the table, and Jeff sat to her right, across from Lex.
“So you’re the new roommate!” Jeff said.
“Yeah,” Adrienne said. “I’m so excited. We’re getting our apartment next week.”
Kendra glared at Jeff. “What?”
“We’re moving in together,” Lex said.
“I didn’t even know you two were dating,” Kendra said when she’d recovered from a coughing fit. She’d almost choked on her ice water. Jeff patted her back gently.
“We’re not,” Lex explained. “We’re going to the wedding together as friends. We are going to be roommates, though.”
“Oh,” Kendra said. “Congratulations.”
“Congratulations to you, too,” Adrienne said back. “Do you guys think we should order an appetizer, or should we wait until everyone else gets here?”
As she said this, Candace and Wade arrived. Wade sat beside Jeff, with Candace on the other side of him. “I’ve never eaten here before,” Candace said as she hung her purse on the back of her chair and sat down.
“I have,” Wade said. “Order the prime rib and you’ll be fine.”
“What if I want lobster?”
“Then order lobster,” Kendra told her.
The last two members of their party, Ellis and Marie, along with Ellis’s boyfriend Sun, joined them shortly after Wade and Candace arrived, taking the last three seats at the far end of the table. Wade took the initiative in ordering appetizers.
At her turn to order a drink, Kendra asked the server, “What goes good with red meat?”
“How about a glass of the house burgundy?” he suggested.
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’m going to eat steak like you’ve never seen me eat steak before,” she warned the table.
Jeff ordered a Guinness and told the server to keep them coming.
As they looked over their menus, Ellis said across the table to Kendra, “Did I tell you Sun and I had to get rid of Princess?”
“No way,” Kendra said. “But you loved that crazy little mutt. Why?”
“I have allergies,” Sun told them. He looked around the table and paused for a second before adding, “What, no one’s going to make the joke about the Korean couple eating their dog?”
Lex and Isaac‘s laughter sounded nervous. Wade responded, “I ate some dog while I was in Korea. This was ten, fifteen years ago, while I was in the Air Force reserves. You know, it wasn’t half bad.”
“You buy dog, make good soup,” Jeff joked. Everyone laughed.
Kendra said, “I’m not sure how to follow that up. Let’s change the subject. I think I’ll have the prime rib. Anybody else know what they want to order?”
Most of them ordered prime rib. As she waited for everyone to finish eating, Kendra looked at Lex and whispered, “Do Mom and Dad know you and Adrienne are moving in together?”
Lex smirked. “Of course,” he said. “There’s nothing to hide, because we’re just going to be roommates…unlike you and Jeff. They don‘t have a problem with it.”
“Touché,” she said.
As they got up to leave, Candace came over to Jeff and Kendra’s end of the table. “You know, Kendra, you could spend the night at our house. That way, Jeff won’t see you before the wedding.”
“Candace, I’ve seen Kendra every day for the past two and half years, and I’m going to see her every day for the rest of my life,” Jeff said. “I’m not superstitious about things like that. I want to see Kendra’s face when I wake up tomorrow morning, to remind me why I want to get married in the first place.”
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