The kind that comes when you finally know something no one else at the table expects.
“Perfect,” I said. “I’ll be traveling this Christmas. You and your family can handle it.”
Ashley froze.
Her pen stopped in the middle of a word.
Fred finally looked up from his plate.
“I’m sorry,” Ashley said.
Her voice was sharper now, as if I had missed the line in a script she believed I knew by heart.
“What?”
“I’ll be gone December twenty-third through New Year’s Day,” I said evenly. “So you and your family can do whatever you like.”
The dining room went quiet.
Not angry quiet.
Not even hurt quiet.
Shocked quiet.
The kind of quiet that follows the sound of a dish slipping from someone’s hands and hitting a tile floor.
Ashley blinked at me. I could see her waiting for me to soften, to laugh, to explain that I was only joking.
