“Alice, this is not what is looks like,” I said jumping up so quickly knocking the chair over.

“You sure about that. It looked like you were making out with my niece here.”

Alice walked over to us.

“Hey you… wake up sleeping beauty,” she snapped her fingers at Evan.

“Aunt Alice.”

“Yeah kid, it’s me. Mind explaining what I walked in on?”

“I, uh, there’s was something in my eye.”

“More like your mouth,” Alice dead panned.

“Alice, it just happened. I didn’t mean for it happen,” I explained holding my hands out.

“You didn’t mean for it to happen?”

I turned to Evan’s question. Her brows were knitted together in a hurt expression. I knew right then those were the wrong words to say.

“Evan-” I started to say but she walked around me and back down the hall.

“Evan, please, that not what I meant,” I shouted after her.

“So what did you mean?” Alice asked me.

‘That was stupid Serena. Very stupid,’ I thought to myself.

I ran my hand through my hair trying to formulate an explanation that would satisfy both Alice and Evan. I drew a blank.

“Hey Alice,” Tina’s voice floated through the front door.

*****.

“Oh hey Tina.”

“What’s with the serious faces?” she asked walking past us depositing the her two bags onto the counter.

I shot my eyes at Alice pleading with her not to say anything.

“Serious faces? We don’t have serious faces. Serena and I were just talking about a newspaper article she read yesterday,” Alice dismissed.

“Oh. Is Evan up?”

“Uh… Yeah, she’s awake. Her head was beginning to hurt so I told her to lay back down and I would uh fix her a sandwich,” I answered.

“But sense you’re home, Tina, I’m sure Evan would prefer one of your special lunches.”

“Special lunches, Al?”

“Yeah you know the ones you make. And we don’t want to hold Serena back from something important.”

“Uh, yeah. I should be going anyway,” I said heading toward the door.

“Let me walk you out,” Alice offered.

“Thanks, Serena for watching Evan for me,” Tina yelled after us.

“No problem.”

“You did more than watch Evan,” Alice muttered.

The air was anything but cool as the fall season began to kick in. It was stiff and unrelenting as I stepped onto the porch. Or maybe that was just me not being able to breath. Alice walked with me down the stairs and to the end of the drive before laying into me.

“This is so Ashten and Demi.”

“What?”

“I know plenty of people who date someone younger than them. Shane, case in point. So is Bette for that matter. But I know for a fact that they would never go for someone who isn’t even able to buy their own beer.”

Silence.

“Alice, I know there is nothing I could say right now that can, I don’t know, justify what you saw but…”

“Look, I don’t want explanation from you. Just don’t let it happen again. She is to young and to vulnerable. Or maybe that’s what you preyed on.”

“Preyed? No, I didn’t prey on her. I would never… That’s not me.”

“Save it. If I see anything that suggest you are continuing this ‘thing’ with her… I’ll kill you. Then I’ll unleash Bette.”

‘She threaten me,’ I thought.

Could I blame her? No.

Before I had a chance to acquiesce, she walked away.

*****

I revved the engine of my thunderbird as I sat at a light waiting for it to change. After my ‘talk’ with Alice, I needed to get away. Away from the neighborhood and away from Evan. My self-imposed blinders quickly formed as the light turned green. I pushed the peddle to the floor and sped off down the street toward the expressway.

*****