“Were you humiliated when Serena called me a credit card?”
He looked away.
“Were you humiliated when you took our anniversary money?”
“Natalie, please.”
“Or did it only become humiliating when you had to answer for it?”
He looked away.
Serena shoved the folder toward the middle of the table.
“I wouldn’t have ordered all that if I’d known.”
“That’s the point,” I said. “You ordered it because you thought the money was mine.”
“You set us up. I can’t afford this.”
“Neither could I. I just kept covering it.”
“That’s the point.”
One relative asked the waiter to remove an unopened bottle. Another canceled dessert.
Henry reached for his wallet.
“I’ll pay for myself and your mother.”
“Your meals are my gift, Henry,” I said.
He paused. “Because you want them to be, Nat?”
The question caught in my chest.
“Yes.”
“I’ll pay for myself.”
“Then thank you, darling.”
Tarryn looked at me. “I thought you and Chris had offered.”
“I did at first. Then everyone stopped asking.”
“We should’ve noticed,” she said.
Henry looked around at his children. “We should have.”
He didn’t take over the bill. He simply stopped pretending not to see the problem.
“We should have.”
***
Outside, Chris caught up with me near the car.
“You embarrassed me, Natalie.”
I unlocked the door. “I gave you three chances to tell them.”
“You showed everyone the tickets.”
“You let them think my money belonged to them. Why?”
“You embarrassed me.”
Chris looked back at the restaurant.
“I wanted them to think I was doing well.”
“You let them laugh at me because it made you look successful.”
“I didn’t see it that way.”
“No. You didn’t see me at all.”
“Tell me how to fix it.”
“You didn’t see me at all.”
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