Dinner Disasters: Sebastian and Layana Novel – First, I caught him with her in a restaurant on the anniversary of the day we met. He explained it all. Then, he came home with lipstick by his ear. He explained that, too. I found a secret phone with texts between them. He denied it was his and explained it away. But when I found out something he had lied about. That he couldn’t explain.
We used to have this running joke in college where you wait ten minutes for an assistant professor to show up to class before leaving; fifteen for an associate professor before ditching; and twenty minutes for a full professor before it’s safe to leave. But how long do you wait for a husband? I’d been waiting over an hour for my husband to arrive home to eat the beautiful meal I’d made for us to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the first day we met. Prime rib, smashed potatoes, asparagus, side salad, and a luscious dessert of chocolate lava cake. All of his favorites. I’d never thought to celebrate an anniversary of meeting someone, but that first year, when I’d seen how big of a deal he made out of it, I’d made sure to remember the date.
“Why wouldn’t I celebrate the day the world shifted and I met the woman of my dreams?” Sebastian had asked me. My husband never forgot the date, and always came home with flowers or chocolates or both, and then we shared a meal and had a couple of rounds of hot…dessert. But tonight, he hadn’t walked through the door at exactly 5:48 like he always did. I’d had dinner ready to be on the table promptly at six. Now it was seven. I called him again, but he didn’t pick up. Since I was getting worried, I finally gave in and tracked his location with the app we had active on each of our phones. I got out of work late many nights and he liked to be able to track me when I left the hospital. I looked at his location and looked again.
What? That couldn’t be right. He was at a restaurant not too far from our home. Calling his phone again, I wondered if I’d forgotten some work thing he’d mentioned after hours, but I didn’t think I had because the date would have registered. I texted him, but it didn’t get read after it was delivered. Then a thought struck me. Maybe he’d mentioned he wanted me to meet him at the restaurant and I’d forgotten? Worried that I’d completely blown it, I grabbed my coat and headed out, snagging the tiny bag from his chair where I’d carefully left it. I was at the restaurant in no time. The hostess smiled at me and I took a shot in the dark.
“Reservation for Varon?” She looked confused for a minute before her face smoothed out, then pointed toward the back. “Yes, ma’am. Just back there and to the left behind the fireplace.” Oh. How could I have forgotten this? I must have let it totally slip my mind. I wondered how late I was as I hurried back and then stopped dead. My husband was seated across from some woman, his back to me. The two of them tapped their wine glasses together, and I heard her say with a seductive smile, “To the beginning of us. It’s about time you stopped resisting me, Seb.” Really. Really? Really! One of my superpowers, in addition to my red hot temper, was my ability to think fast. Gathering myself, I walked up to their table. “Hi. My name’s Layana and I’ll be your server tonight since my husband left me waiting at home on the anniversary of not only the day we met, but now the anniversary of your beginning, too, apparently.” Sebastian’s face drained of color and he started to stand but I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back down, hard.
Really hard because Sebastian was the size of a small mountain. “No, please, I don’t want to interrupt your new beginning. Enjoy it because when you get home, you’re going to have a huge ending. And here’s a little parting gift for you.” I tossed the gift bag on his lap. Inside was something he’d been requesting for a while, so I’d bought a pregnancy test kit and put a Post It note on it: I’m ready to start trying for Baby Varon! Then I turned and hurried away, and in seconds, before I even made it to the doors, Sebastian was calling my name from right behind me, telling me to stop. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have picked up a half empty plate from the nearby table that was about to be bussed and thrown it at Sebastian, but I felt that was a fitting way to celebrate the day we met. Without waiting to see if it connected, I stormed out and headed for home, ready for a showdown. I didn’t have long to wait at all. Sebastian was right behind me.
Sebastian came storming into the kitchen just a minute after I did, and I noticed that his shirt was stained from the plate of spaghetti I’d thrown at him. Looked like the plate had connected after all. I was pretty sure there was still a single noodle sticking to his shoulder. “Layana, what the –” He didn’t get much more than that out because I was ready for him. I already had the prime rib roast held in both hands over my head and the second I saw his face, I launched it right at his head. It’s hard to throw a six-pound roast with accuracy, and although I missed his head, I hit a perfect bullseye on his chest. It might not have been as satisfying as his handsome face, but I’d take it. “Layana, stop!” he said, but I just grabbed the smashed potatoes, one after the other and kept up a steady barrage throwing them at him. He batted them away as he advanced on me, and when I ran out of those, I started throwing the little lava cakes. All the Oxiclean in the world wasn’t going to be able to save his dress shirt.
“Enough!” he said, taking ahold of my wrist, but I managed to smash the last lava cake in his face with my unsecured hand. “That’s enough!” He made the mistake of letting go of my wrist to wipe the gooey, dripping mess off his face. Excuse me? Sebastian didn’t get to decide when enough was enough. That was my prerogative as the wronged party here — and as the one who had just been forced to waste perfectly amazing chocolate lava cake on him, I was now even more wronged than I had been at the restaurant when I’d seen him with that woman. So, to drive that point home, I swung at him, trying to push him back, but he wrapped me up in his arms, whispering into my ear.
“Settle down, Layana. I don’t want you hurting yourself.” “Oh, only you can hurt me, is that it?” He blocked my knee to his balls and then picked me up in his arms, bridal style, effectively trapping my arms and legs. Unfortunately, I was part wolverine, honey badger, Tasmanian devil — take your pick — and I was so enraged by his move that I snapped my pearly whites at his face. Admittedly, not my proudest moment. He held me away from him just in time to avoid rabies, and then sat me down on the couch. “Are you ready to listen? I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “Sure. Let’s hear it.” I could always kill him after he told me his little story. “She’s a partner on a new project. That’s it. We just inked the deal today.” “That’s it? That’s your explanation?” “Yes. It was two colleagues celebrating a new partnership. Nothing more.”
My father had always told me I should have been a lawyer. That profession never appealed to me, but I couldn’t deny I loved poking holes in people’s stories. So, full steam ahead. “So why haven’t I heard about her?” “I don’t talk about all of my new partners with you.” OK, fair, that was the truth, but his answer wasn’t good enough. There was more to this. I sensed it in my gut. “Why were just the two of you having dinner together?” “We’d just signed the deal today and wanted to talk about the new partnership.” “Do you have dinner with all your new partners one on one? Drink wine with them in an intimate setting to discuss a new partnership? Discussions that would be more appropriate in an office setting during normal working hours.” The first crack in the wall. Sebastian looked like he realized he might have made a mistake.
A huge mistake. “No –” “Then why were you having dinner with her? Why have dinner with a woman by yourself like that? Why not invite me to celebrate with you? Invite her husband?” “She’s single, and I didn’t think –” “No, you sure didn’t think. So, she’s single. We’ll come back to her marital status and why you weren’t thinking. Why weren’t you answering my texts or calls?” I saw something I didn’t like on his face. “I thought it’d be rude to answer while –” “You thought it’d be rude to ignore this other woman you’re wining and dining to take a call from your wife?!” “Layana. You’re making this sound like more than it was.” “Really? I’m the bad guy here when my husband is the one who was out with another woman on our anniversary and decided she was more important than I was and ignored my calls and texts? Is that really how you’re going to spin it Sebastian?” “I shouldn’t have ignored your calls. I’m sorry.” “No, you shouldn’t have been having dinner with another woman, Sebastian. You should not have been toasting new beginnings with her.
You should not have been with a woman who smiles at you seductively and makes dirty insinuations about you no longer resisting her.” “She’s been after me for a while to combine forces. That’s what she was referring to. That’s all.” “So you say. But I’m a woman, and there was a lot more than that being conveyed, and you were going right along with it. So how long have you known her?” “A year.” “A year. You looked pretty comfortable for having resisted her for so long. Is this the first time you’ve shared a one-on-one meal with her?” And there it was. The second crack in the wall. “No.” “Please give me more. Have you had lunches with her?” “Yes.” I leaned toward him. “Sebastian, if getting information from you continues to be like pulling teeth, I’m actually going to start pulling teeth. How many lunches?” “Five or six.” “And dinners?” The third crack was appearing. “Three or four. But it was all about working together. That’s it.” “Really? But you weren’t working together before today. So what could have possibly necessitated dinners and lunches by yourselves?”
The fourth crack appeared in the wall. “Layana –” I sensed it was all about to come tumbling down. So I might have helped when I grabbed the lamp from the table beside me and threw it at my husband. Sebastian caught the lamp, then he hurled it to the ground. I actually couldn’t believe I’d done that; I was not feeling like myself lately and that was something I never would have done. “Whatever you’re trying to make out of this, it’s not what you’re thinking.” “Really? And what am I thinking, Sebastian?” “That I’m having an affair!” he yelled. “You’re thinking I’m cheating on you! You, Layana! You think I could ever cheat on you?” I shot up from the couch and went nose to nose with my husband. “Given the evidence? Yeah, I think you could cheat on me. In fact, I think you have been cheating on me and you finally got caught tonight — on the anniversary of the first day we met, as a matter of fact. How ironic is that?” Right before my eyes, his shoulders slumped and a look of such anguish crossed his face that I thought Sebastian was going to start crying.
This man who never cried looked seconds away from dissolving into tears. “I feel bad about that, Layana. The best day of my life and I missed it because I was so caught up in finally getting this deal done. I’m sorry for missing our anniversary.” “Save it, Sebastian. You just admitted to having dinners and lunches with her and you looked guilty.” “That doesn’t mean guilt, Layana!” he shouted. “It means as you asked about I realized it looked and sounded bad to you. It means I was maybe guilty of bad judgment, but in no way was I having an affair with her. So don’t even try to turn it into that.” “Me? You think I want to turn it into that? That I’m the one trying to turn it into something because I’m suddenly so bored with my life that I need a new hobby? You’re the one going out with her behind my back!” “I told you every time I had a business dinner. And I never, not once, lied about it.” “You also, never once, told me all those business dinners were with a hot, single female who looked like she wanted to lick you up faster than ice cream melting down the side of a cone on a hot summer day.”
“I also never told you when I had dinner with single men. Am I all of them, too?” “And why do you even know she’s single?” “Because I talk to the potential partners as we work on deals!” he exploded, thoroughly frustrated. “Renee’s single. Yes, I know that. So is Avery, so is Tom and so is Paul. Roger’s married. So is Arnie and so is Millie. I’ve got a busy social life if I’m all of these people I’ve been working on deals with whose marital status I happen to know because it comes up in the course of conversations.” “So, do you drink wine with all of them? Toast new beginnings? Do they all know your marital status?” “Yeah, they all know I’m happily married and crazy in love with my wife. I sometimes have one glass of wine if we celebrate a new deal at dinner. Never more. Not a fan of wine, so I rarely even finish it but I think that’s better than drinking whiskey so I can keep a clear head and never embarrass myself in front of potential partners or partners. And if they raise a toast, I’ll toast. It’s part of doing business, Layana.” “How about ignoring my texts and calls?”
“I normally have my phone on silent when I’m doing business, Layana. The one time I haven’t, you weren’t feeling well, so I kept it out in case you called and needed something. But most business people I know don’t take calls during negotiations or business dinners and I consider it rude. If you’re reading this anywhere but on Wattpad, this book has been stolen from the author, groveltohea. If they constantly take calls or answer texts or even look at their phones while we’re talking business, that’s a sign that I might not want to do business with them.” “What if I’d needed you, Sebastian?” “Did you?” he countered. “That’s beside the point! I could have needed you! And you were so busy wining and dining new beginnings Renee that you ignored me!” He threw up his hands. “Then I’ll always keep my phone out and on whenever I’m doing business if that’s what you want, no matter who I’m with. Problem solved.” “So why all the dinners and lunches with her?” “Over a year? It’s not that many when you consider I’m trying to negotiate partnerships or deals. Some potential partners I have twice or three times as many dinners and lunches with. You know I have business dinners four or five times a month, and I have business lunches at least three times a week.” “I did not like the way she said it was about time you stopped resisting her. That was suggestive and completely unprofessional. What does that even mean anyway?”
“She’s been trying to get me into a partnership for a year, but nothing she pitched was a good fit for the company until this recent deal. That’s what she was referring to by me resisting her for so long.” “I don’t like her, Sebastian. I don’t like that you were out with her. I don’t like that she took your focus from our anniversary.” “Layana, I’m sorry about that, but this is a huge deal, the biggest yet for the company and I simply forgot. This deal is going to get me noticed by some bigger clients and put me into the next level of play. It’s also going to provide the company with some serious stability for the next three or four years so we’re not struggling any longer. It basically buys me some time to look for bigger and better deals and partnerships.” “I don’t like her,” I said stubbornly. “I don’t want you out alone anymore with single potential business partners or partners. Not even lunches.” “Are you kidding me? You really don’t trust me?” “Not with women like her!” “What am I supposed to do, Layana? Tell people my wife doesn’t trust me so I can’t do business with single women?” “Do business in the office! Don’t go out for cozy dinners with someone who clearly wants you.”
“She doesn’t want me, Layana! And what do you suggest I do when Renee and I have an overnight business trip in a month to pitch a deal to a potential vendor? We were discussing that tonight.” “You’re going out of town to spend the night in a hotel with her?” Was there another lamp to throw? “No, I’m going on a business trip with a partner, and she’ll have her own hotel room and I’ll have my own hotel room, and that’s it. Strictly business.” “Send someone else, Sebastian, because I can just see some more cozy dinners and toasting happening. Maybe you’ll venture into some more new beginnings.” “The vendor expects to meet the owner of the company, Layana. We’d have dinner with him. Nothing cozy about it.” “I don’t want you to go. I’m telling you no.” “Well, I’m going to have to disappoint you because this is part of the deal I signed. Renee has the contacts with some serious vendors and we have to do the work to bring them on board.” “No.” I was digging in my heels because I didn’t trust this woman, and I didn’t like that Sebastian had been out with her. Maybe it was innocent, but I felt like there was more to uncover. For the first time in our lives, I was questioning Sebastian. He read my face. “I can’t believe you don’t trust me.” “I can’t believe I don’t, either.” “This is nonsense, Layana.
I’ve never once cheated on you or even thought about it. No other woman has been, is or could be what you are to me.” “Well, it certainly felt like that when I walked in on your dinner.” Then a thought occurred to me. “Did you even look at the gift I got you?” His face softened. “Yeah. At the one red light we were stopped at. I pulled the test kit out and read the note and despite the fact that you’d just nailed me with a half-eaten plate of spaghetti, I was thrilled. I wanted to get out of my car and run up to yours I was so excited when I saw it.” “Well, with the way I feel and with the way you’re ignoring how I feel, forget you ever saw that note because it’s off the table.” “Are you kidding me?” “No. I’m serious. In fact, I’m so serious that you can sleep in the guest room tonight.” “I’m not sleeping in the guest room. I’m sleeping in our bed.” I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll sleep in the guest room, then. We can talk more about this later when I’ve calmed down and thought some more about you forgetting our anniversary — the anniversary that you’ve always made a big deal over — because you were with another woman toasting new beginnings.” I walked out of the room and seconds later, I heard a loud! and then the lamp hit the wall.