Free Reaction by Jessica Roberts

three at the table.
    While both Creed and Peter took off their jackets and hooked them around their chairs, I rested my hands on the edge of the table and took a deep breath.
    Eventually Liz whispered in my ear, “If looks could devour, you my friend were the main course just now.”
    “You saw?” I whispered back.
    Liz nodded, her eyes glistening.
    “So?” I said excitedly.
    “So,” Liz muttered back, “The outfit? A grand slam.”
    I couldn’t stay there with her like I wanted to and analyze every little exchanged look because Creed had wrapped his arm around the back of my chair. “Heath?”
    I turned into the crook of his body.
    But it was Peter who spoke. “Sweetheart, you might want to put the napkin down before there’s nothing left of it.”
    I had no idea what he was referring to until I looked down and noticed several various-sized pieces of torn black cocktail napkin on my plate and in my lap.
    “She’s making confetti,” Creed defended. “It’s a party, isn’t it?”
    At first I stared dumbly at Creed. Then I released my fingers from the mutilated black napkin and swiftly began cleaning the mess. The older man and his grad-student daughter were staring at me like I was a mental case. The mom seemed a little less judgmental, looking away and pretending not to notice the scattered black shreds on the table. Liz must’ve caught the looks I was receiving, because her hand went to her mouth. Unfortunately, the nose laugh came like a rake across concrete. That rattled my nerves even more and consequently got me started. And Creed was never one to be left out of a good laugh. Fortunately, we weren’t raucous enough for more than our table and a few people nearby to hear. And there were worse things a person could do than shred their cocktail napkin and break out in nervous laughter in front of a few strangers, right? Even if the three onlookers were likely thinking we were a bunch of loonies who decided to crash the party.
    Though their opinions weren’t of much concern, I knew I needed to get control of myself. Nick could be watching at any moment. And I would at least have to act half sane.
    After a few last little giggles, Liz and I righted ourselves and I curved toward Creed. “Fine, I might be a little uneasy,” I admitted. He leaned into me and put a comforting hand on my knee while I gathered the remaining napkin pieces and quickly tossed them under the table. I didn’t bother explaining my confession to Peter and Liz since I suspected Peter knew the whole story, and Liz definitely knew.
    “Thanks,” I said while looking up at Creed, forcing my stressed face into a smile.
    “For what?”
    “Coming with me.”
    Creed leaned in even further and gave me a light kiss on the cheek, a habit he’d taken up since I’d been out of the hospital. He grinned, nodding his head toward the family across the table. “I think you’re making them uncomfortable. That girl keeps staring at you.”
    Now that he’d mentioned it, he was right; the girl hadn’t stopped staring at me. She was still staring at me.
    I felt a sudden tug on my arm and turned to Liz. Liz’s eyes were beyond and she whispered quickly, “Incoming.”
    My face must have turned an off-shade because Liz began staring into my face as if helping me to breathe.
    I turned just as he approached the table.
    Hi,” he said, and I beamed. He would never know how much that meant to me, for him to go out of his way and greet us, without her . The thoughtfulness was instantly written on my heart. I was angled upward and leaning over my chair, watching his every move, eating every word, eager to see what he’d share next. A compliment? Another devouring look?
    But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.
    Nick made his way to the opposite side of the table by the girl who kept staring, and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Everyone’s met?”
    Wrong, wrong, wrong.
    First, we had not met. Second, the couple was not her