Jon

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This is one of several successors to Six Sentence Sunday. I also post it as part of Snippet Sunday:

As mentioned before, I have a new release coming out around April 30th called Purely Relative (The P.U.R.E., #1.5). Weekly eights from that story between now and release date!

Setup: Gayle survived the Thanksgiving meal at Jon’s parents’ house—barely. There was a sort of unfortunate finale in the powder room caused by Gayle’s snooping in the cabinet over the toilet. To her horror, a crossword puzzle magazine fell out and into the toilet. But something slipped out of the book and fluttered to the floor—a receipt from a jewelry store. Gayle has just confessed about the puzzle book to Jon on the way home, but he’s assured her it was no big deal because the book was his. She has not mentioned the receipt to anyone.

On the other hand, if it really was his puzzle book, and the receipt fell out of it, did that mean Jon ordered the ring? OMG, OMG, OMG! I stole a glance at his expression. He didn’t have one. What a time for a poker face! Fine. I’d just have to sniff around the edges a little.

“You do crossword puzzles in your parents’ powder room?” I asked, my arms crossed.

Finally! Not a ‘poor Gayle’ moment, but it’s still a typical nosy Gayle moment.

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This is one of several successors to Six Sentence Sunday. I also post it as part of Snippet Sunday:

As mentioned before, I have a new release coming out around April 30th called Purely Relative (The P.U.R.E., #1.5). Weekly eights from that story between now and release date!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared Gayle’s angst prepping to meet Jon’s family for a Thanksgiving meal. Last week we read about her initial impressions upon arrival, including a not so nice remark she overheard. This week, everyone has finally settled down at the table for the meal. To give context for a few of the names and references in the snippet: Scott is Jon’s sister’s fiance, who has already pinged Gayle’s skeeve radar. Sophia is Jon’s ex-fiancee’s mother. Jon currently works for the FBI, though his family does not know. Got all that?

Scott insisted on delivering a long-winded prayer itemizing all we were thankful for, including friends, family, and new acquaintances. I peeped at him through my eyelashes and caught him watching me as he spoke. We repeated, “Amen” and started passing around the dishes.

All the food moved in a clockwise fashion, I discovered, when the corn I attempted to pass counter-clockwise smashed into the gravy boat Sophia held. The viscous sauce sloshed over the edge and onto her hand, then to the tablecloth. A large tan Rorschach blot took shape. It looked like an uncircumcised penis or the Washington Monument, one or the other. What did that say about me other than I was a G-man’s klutzy nympho?

Heh-heh. Altogether now: “Poor Gayle”.