“Are you ever going to tell me what the big deal is about you going to Chicago?” I asked finally, unable to take the silence anymore. We’d been getting things ready for the party, and while she wasn’t giving me the silent treatment or anything, the way she was talking about completely irrelevant topics and flitting around from one subject to another was giving me the beginnings of a migraine.

“I already told you,” she said finally, after looking at me as though I had two heads for a few seconds.

“No you didn’t. Not all of it. Why did you think I’d be upset about it? You’re going because of your job, Al. Unless you’ve got a girlfriend there or something, there’s nothing for me to be upset about.” She didn’t look like she was going to answer me, and I sighed, exasperated. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s really that uncomfortable, okay? I just wish you would so I could understand, that’s all. Because I could never be mad at you about your job, Alice.”

“You don’t know that,” she said quietly enough so I could barely hear her.

“What are you talking about? Of course I know that…I just don’t know what the hell’s going on,” I sighed. To be honest, I was getting a little pissed off by her refusal to tell me what was really going on. What she’d said before had made sense, but it was as if I’d done something and she’d forgotten to tell me what.

“Look, Dana, it’s really nothing. I just want to get this place ready so our friends don’t think we’re complete and total slobs when they come over, all right?”

“Why would they think that in the first place? We just moved in, Alice. I’m sure they’re not going to hold that against us…” I muttered, now completely confused.

She seemed to sense how upset I was, because she looked directly at me for the first time since that morning. “I promise it’s okay,” she said softly, taking the dusting cloth I was still holding away from me and touching my arm for a second. “Hey, Shane and Jenny are coming over before everybody else gets here. Jenny wants to try to make some kinda stir-fry thing with our new kitchen stuff. I figured she’d be better at breaking that crap in than I will. But we’re still probably gonna order out for something too.”