Corona Gale, nightly build 2.2.1

Kate stood across from Sean in this kitchen, an island between them made of some kind of cherry wood, Maple? Didn’t really know for wood. She’d seen the books these kinds of things came in, the brochures and pamphlets around town, but had never found the prospect of putting together one’s own suburban house seductive. The entire seduction community surrounding pseudo-customizable suburban houses started well before Kate moved to Calgary and would likely continue long after she left. It was true for other cities, but perhaps no more true than on the perimeter Calgary, which was so much larger and so much more unrecognizable that was even 10 years before. And this is where Kate stood, across from Sean, out where there used to be a farm, in the house he handpicked, purchased with money, and would likely sell within three years.

But if there was a sort of suburban sting on a person, where living out there with so much more space and more commute time presumably actually changed a person’s personality, Kate couldn’t really tell with Sean. Then again, Kate’s idea of Sean was put together less by knowing him well and more interrupted his life every few years with her life, her problems, her disasters. In this room they had no privacy. The kitchen bustle with people getting drinks and food from Sean’s comically oversized fridge, the type they could only fit through comically oversized suburban doors, likely requiring three men with back braces, and could never feasibly be moved again by another mortal human. This was a party of sorts, one that Kate likely would not have been invited to under the normal circumstances, as she came without a partner, which was technically against the rules.

“She looks great,” Kate said. She said this of the house, quickly, to break the air. It did not make things less awkward. The fact is, Kate shouldn’t of been at this party. She’d been invited, the person who invited her was not there, had not told Sean, had not informed Kate of the particulars of this party, had not prepared her in the least are what you might expect, had all had not even told her the address.

Her compliment, if you can call it that, did not break the silence for long. Sean looked as if he was going to take the beer in his hand to another room. He looked it if he looked as if he was going to blink at her a few more times, turned into his pantry, which had the door that should have belonged to an old wardrobe, and disappear. His face was not one that seemed happy to see her.

“you look great,” she said, hoping that might help.

“you’re not funny,” told her. “And you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be in my life. We shouldn’t know each other. I don’t know why we know each other.”

“ We know each other because, well, you remember when we met,” She said.

“ I know why we met,” he said. “but that’s not the same thing as knowing why we know one another. Why you keep popping up in my life. Am I one of your projects? Am I someone you have to keep tabs on? Is there something about my life that’s interesting to you or your employers?”

“you don’t know anything about my employers,” she said.

Music played. Kate couldn’t see speakers but she heard music. Maybe all that she was just in the walls now, some easy up charge that put the stereo in one room and the speakers everywhere. Few people pay them any mind, with the exception of a couple of women who came in and fact Sean for putting this together, said they really needed it, and that he was the best.