Later on in the night, Shawn and I prepared dinner. We recreated the same meal he made for me the first time - chicken fajitas, bell peppers, and white rice.
"You know who I ran into the other day?" Karen speaks up.
"Who?" Manny asks.
"Courtney Smith." She smiles.
Everyone, except Karen and I, groans at the table.
"Wait, who's Courtney Smith?" I ask.
"Courtney Smith is the wife of one of dads lawyer buddies." Shawn tells me.
"Also, she throws these parties that everyone hates." Jack adds.
"You only hate them because we have to dress up and there's no beer." Liam replies.
"Still. Her parties suck." He replies.
"Why?" I ask.
"It's a bunch of lawyers, their children, and a stupid, silly little fundraiser." Scott informs me.
"A fundraiser? That sounds like a good thing, though." I say.
"Oh, it is." Karen nods.
"But it's boring." Daniel sighs. "They auction off the kids to dance with the highest bidder."
Suddenly, it all adds up. I start to laugh once I realize the connection that I've made. "You mean to tell me, that you all get auctioned?"
Shawn nods and I laugh harder.
"We have to dance with moms friends." Scott sighs.
"It's really not pleasant." Shawn says. "They all smell like smoke and partially undress you with their eyes."
At this point, my laughter has stopped and I have a goofy smile on my face just knowing that they get auctioned off.
"No they do not!" Karen says.
"You don't smell it cause they're your friends," Liam says. "But we do. We smell it."
Karen kisses her teeth. "I meant the undressing you with their eyes."
"They do that, too!" He replies. "Mom, I swear that at the last auction, Susan Garner squeezed my ass."
"Language," Manny says as we laugh at Liam.
"Dad, that's a court case right there!" Liam says.
After dinner, Karen and I wash dishes while the guys went to set up the bonfire pit again.
"Shoot." Karen says as she rummages through the pantry. I shut off the water after drying the last plate.
"What?" I ask her.
She sighs. "We're all out of marshmallows and graham crackers."
"Shawn and I can go get some." I reply.
"Oh, no. I don't want to trouble you."
"It's no trouble at all. I insist."
"Thank you." She smiles before heading out to the back porch. "Shawn!"
"What?" He calls back from far away.
"I need you and Jasmine to go to the store and get some supplies for s'mores!" She replies.
I look out the window and see Shawn running from the dock up to the house. "Where're the keys?"
