“Yeah. Whatever you want to talk about, Dad.” I nodded, looking up at Estelle, my father, then back to Kael.

Kael gave me a little smile followed by a nod. I shrugged. Barely a connection, but his tiny bit of approval felt so reassuring to me. This time with him was feeding the starvation of my loneliness.

Estelle clucked around my dad as he tapped his thick fingers against the table, ready to keep up the sparring match with me. She did this during every single meal. No matter what was happening around her. Even if we were going at it, or he was scolding my brother for getting pulled over for the fifth time. And even now, with a stranger watching, she was making my dad’s plate as he critiqued his only son’s failing in life. When he and I would raise our voices, she would just keep moving and serving the table. Kael accepted mashed potatoes from her, and I watched him as she scooted carrots onto his plate.

“Would you like some ham? Or are you a vegetarian, vegan? Everyone is something these days.” Estelle winked at Kael.

She was laughing at her own lame joke, and he sort of smiled at her to be polite. There was no way he actually found her charming.

Not that she wasn’t charming. She was, very. She was exactly what my dad required in a wife. Someone who could ignore everything except his needs. Someone who never broke her role, someone the exact opposite of my mom. My mom was a hurricane and Estelle wasn’t even a drizzle. Actually, Estelle might be the umbrella in this scenario.

“The glaze is a family recipe. Here, take some of this.” She held up a gravy boat full of dark, syrupy liquid. When she bought the thing off eBay, she told me it was “from a real plantation,” like that wasn’t a gross thing to say, let alone buy. I was thankful she didn’t repeat that story with Kael sitting here. And a family recipe? Come to think about it, I didn’t know a thing about her family.

“Karina’s always boycotting something. Whatever documentary on Netflix she watches, she’ll buy right into what they’re selling.” My dad was clearly doubling down. “She goes vegan for a month, then changes her mind again with the next one. Wants to save the whales. Hasn’t let me plan our annual SeaWorld trip in years.”

“Wow. How awful of me to care about the world.”

“I care about the world,” my dad said. “But I show it in a get-it-done productive way.”

I really didn’t want to get into a global-scale argument with my dad in front of Kael, or Estelle, or under any circumstances, really.

“Are you eating meat right now?” Estelle whispered to me, but everyone could hear her. Her voice was soft, with a condescending drip.