Page 62 of The Encounter
“That you two are insufferable together.”
Seth and Haley looked at each other, obvious confusion written across their faces.
“We are?” they asked in unison.
Jace’s mouth dropped open. “Are you being serious right now? You honestly don’t hear how you speak to one another?”
The three friends all stared at each other and Maddie realized they were going through something that she had no part in.
“I’m going to go pour myself a drink. Anyone want anything?” she asked.
“No thanks,” they all said.
She raised an eyebrow and mouthed the word ‘okay’ before walking out of the room.
She went into the kitchen and found a corked bottle of red wine sitting on the counter. Looking at it, it said it was a red blend, so she grabbed a wineglass out of a cabinet and filled her glass a little extra full. Maddie was realizing why Jace told her she’d see what he meant about Seth and Haley’s dynamic. The small glimpse she had already seen told her they had a love-hate relationship. As far as she could tell, they relentlessly made digs toward one another, but there was still a friendship there. Or at least some tolerance, since they both hung out with Jace at the same time and worked together.
Maddie looked around the kitchen, which was completely bare. No food lined the counters except her tray of cookies. The oven was off. Nothing was on the stove. As far as she could tell, there was no food in the kitchen.
When she went back out into the living room, the three of them were back to chatting animatedly as if they hadn’t all been in a standoff a few minutes before. Jace pulled her to his side as soon as she was within reach.
“Hey, where’s the food?” she asked.
“I’m ordering it in,” he said.
Maddie looked at him incredulously. “You’re ordering in a Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Yeah, I don’t trust these fools in my kitchen, and I’m not the greatest cook.”
“Hey,” Seth said. “We are great in the kitchen.”
He threw his arm around Haley’s shoulders, and she looked as if she would shove it off, but shrugged instead and took a long drink of whatever was in her glass.
“Yeah. Setting a paper towel on fire will not burn the place down,” Haley said.
“Wait, what?” Maddie asked. “I feel like there’s a backstory I need to hear.”
Jace laughed. “These two said they wanted to cook last year. They had the entire kitchen covered with different dishes they were attempting to make.”
“Attempting to make?” Seth asked. “No. Wedidmake them.”
“Yeah!Onemishap withonedish doesn’t mean we ruined everything,” Haley added, and then she looked directly at Maddie. “Jace has a habit of exaggerating.”
Jace rolled his eyes. “Oh please. Let’s let Maddie decide. So these two were making dishes. Of course, they got into an epic fight because that’s what they do.”
Both Seth and Haley gave exaggerated eye rolls, and Maddie giggled.
“So what happened?” she asked.
“Before you know it, there was food being thrown, gravy was boiling over on the stove, a paper towel was on fire, and the smoke detector was going off.”
“It was his fault,” Haley said at the same time that Seth said, “It was her fault.”
“I was in the other room and came running in with a fire extinguisher and put the fire out.”
Seth gestured at Jace. “This guy blew fire extinguishing goo all over the food on the stove. Even if we hadn’t boiled over the gravy, he would have ruined it.”
“Oh please!” Jace exclaimed. “There was a FIRE!”
