"But why are there so many sandwiches?" Tyreese asked, scooping four of the tiny little squares off the top of one of the platters and holding three of them in his palm while he ate one. Michonne rolled her eyes in his direction and continued cutting the crusts off the sandwiches she had lined up across the counter.
He chuckled at her facial expression.
"I'm not criticizing," he said, "but you're going to have what? A dozen? Maybe two dozen women here? Michonne you've got enough food here to feed the Marine Corps and you know those women aren't going to eat all of this. I tell you exactly what's going to happen. You're going to put all this food out and everyone's going to sit around looking at it and talking about their diets. You do the same thing. I saw at that dinner we went to last week when you spent all evening hardly touching your food and acting like you weren't going to eat half a box of Cocoa Puffs hanging over the kitchen sink when we got home."
Michonne looked at him again, this time chopping the sandwiches into fourths with a little more pressure behind her knife so that it would make a warning knock against the counter every time it made an impact. Tyreese chuckled again.
"Do you have something you'd like to say about my eating habits?" Michonne asked.
"Oh no, no, no…" Tyreese said. "I know a lot better than to skip down that little path with any woman, least of all you. "What I'm saying is that I think there's more than enough food here. We're going to be eating sandwiches out of Ziploc bags for a week."
"I want it to be nice," Michonne said. "That's all. I don't want anyone complaining about anything, and part of that is making sure that they can't say they didn't have anything to eat at the party."
"Michonne, it's going to be nice. You've made sure of that. You've got enough drinks to drown the town and there's every kind of finger food that any person could ever want to eat. I'm going to have to pass out doggie bags at the door if we don't want to eat ourselves into comas after everyone leaves," Tyreese said.
Michonne sighed and scooped the sandwich squares off the counter arranging part of them on each of the already overflowing platters. Tyreese watched her as she tried to figure out how to arrange the sandwiches, probably to make it more "presentable" to the women that wouldn't eat them anyway. He shook his head a little.
"Why don't you go and sit down? Everything is ready. The living room is arranged. The food is ready. I'll even bring it into the living room and set it up for you. Just go and sit down until the gaggle of hens gets here," Tyreese said.
Michonne sighed and he crossed the kitchen, pulling her against him and kissing her forehead. He wanted to laugh at how exasperated she looked over this tiny little thing that was going to be just as wonderful as any stupid little party like this ever was.
"I just want it to be perfect," she said.
Tyreese chuckled and tipped her head up, kissing her on the lips, his hands running up and down her back.
"It's going to be perfect. The food is amazing, the drinks offer anything that anyone could want, the seating is well planned, your dress is sexy as hell…this is going to be the best damn housewarming party that any woman in this town ever even dreamed of throwing," Tyreese said.
Michonne laughed at him then.
"You like the dress, huh?" She asked.
"I do. The dress is the main reason that I'm willing to stay here and listen to you ladies cluck while I spend my day off serving drinks to you. I'm going to spend the whole time looking at you in this dress and thinking about how damn happy I'm going to be when everyone wanders on out of her," Tyreese responded.
"You do realize Dean is bringing the girls back and they'll be back here probably about the time everyone clears out, don't you?" Michonne asked.
"I do…I do realize that," Tyreese said, squeezing her to him. "But I also realize that we have finger sandwiches that Anjelica is going to love and a brand new Mickey Mouse movie that they haven't seen yet, and if all else fails, I realize that I have a toothbrush over her and really no reason to go home before work tomorrow..."
"So you thought you were spending the night?" Michonne asked.
Tyreese pushed her away a little, raising his eyebrows at her.
"Now you didn't think you were going to taunt me with this dress all day long while I served your little lunch party and then just send me away emptyhanded, did you?" He asked.
"Of course not," Michonne said, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him back against her. "I would have sent you a baggie of sandwiches."
He laughed.
"You really have done a great job with it," Tyreese said, "and I know that Carol's super excited. It was really nice of you to do this for her."
Michonne pulled away, busying herself with moving platters of food into the living room. Tyreese took up one of the platters and followed her.
"It's just that Carol doesn't have a lot of friends around here," Michonne said. "Ed made sure of that. And she doesn't really have family either. I don't think she's ever had any kind of party like this before and I want it to be nice for her and I want her to get some nice things for her house, and she's not going to accept it if I just out and give her things, so I thought throwing her the party was something that I could do."
Tyreese knew it all. He'd heard the explanation about a dozen different times while Michonne was planning the party. First it had been to justify throwing the party in the first place. Then it had been to justify the fact that many of the women that were invited were, in fact, Michonne's friends and acquaintances, but not really all that close to Carol, and now it was being repeated in some final effort to justify everything involved.
"I think you think I'm criticizing or something," Tyreese said, "and I'm really not. I understand why you're doing it and I genuinely believe that it's a very nice thing to do. Carol's going to be thrilled."
Michonne put one of the platters down and Tyreese put his beside it.
"Now, would you please just relax until they get here?" Tyreese asked, putting his hands on Michonne's shoulders and squeezing.
"What about the other food?" She asked.
Tyreese shook his head.
"I'm serving, aren't I?" He asked. "I'll bring more out when it looks like we need it. End of discussion. Sit on the couch before I go and get something to tie you there."
Michonne laughed and nodded at him, finally looking like she might take at least a short break before the women started filing through the house.
"I haven't brought the gifts in yet," she said.
"Guest room?" He asked. She nodded.
"Fine," Tyreese responded. "I'll bring those in too, just sit down."
"There are four, all of them are piled up in the corner," Michonne said.
"Four?" Tyreese asked.
Michonne went to the couch and sat down, chewing on one of the carrot sticks from the vegetable tray. She shrugged a little.
"One from me, one from you, one from the girls, and one in case someone didn't bring a gift," she said.
Tyreese tried not to laugh.
"Fine, I'll get them," he said. "Just stay put before you come up with anything else that needs to be done. We don't have time to carve ice sculptures or anything."
"Is the punch ready?" Michonne asked suddenly, as though she'd just remembered the most important detail ever.
"In the fridge, chilling. You get yours first, and I may or may not be spiking your glass with a shot of "please calm down"," Tyreese called as he headed down the hall to get the gifts that he hadn't even seen before they were wrapped. "I can't wait to see what I got Carol," he called out.
"You picked it out," Michonne called back.
Tyreese came back down the hall then with the first of the loads. There may have only been four boxes, but one of them was heavy enough it needed to be moved on its own.
"That's yours," Michonne said as he heaved it down in the corner.
"What did I pick out?" He asked.
"The stair things for Lincoln. Remember? We saw them that day and you said it would be a good idea for him since he's so short? The step things so he could get up and down on the furniture?" Michonne said.
Tyreese shrugged. He vaguely remembered something of the sort taking place on one of their outings.
"Is Carol going to like them?" He asked.
"Carol's going to love them," Michonne said. "You don't know it but you picked out the ones that match the wood in the house."
"Then I have good taste," Tyreese said, turning around and starting back down the hall.
"You have very good taste," Michonne called after him.
"Especially in women," he retorted, collecting up two of the lighter boxes and returning to the living room with them.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Carol didn't know half of the women there except for by name. A lot of them weren't women that she'd ever had much to do with, even in school. They were married to a lot of the well to do men in Sweet Junction, and most probably knew Michonne more through her parents than through any real affection for the woman. It was especially evident since they sat together and hardly spoke to Carol.
It was a little strange to see so many people at her "housewarming" party that barely seemed to know her, yet they knew a lot about the situation with Ed. She knew that it was town gossip, but she was a little embarrassed to think that they'd probably jumped at the well-meant invitations from Michonne just to gawk at the town's resident battered housewife and sit around talking to each other so they'd have more to discuss at the Country Club.
Still, Carol knew that the entire thing had been something Michonne had worked hard to put together and she couldn't blame her for the guest list. It wasn't like Carol had a lot of friends. Andrea had come, Jacqui, and Donna from Lula's, but other than that there really wasn't anyone that she had in her life that would come to something like that. Ed had kept her from keeping old friends and from making new ones. Michonne had wanted her to have a nice party, and she was appreciative of that. So she grinned, answered their questions as pleasantly as possible, thanked them for their gifts, and spent the social part of the party talking to the few women who wanted to talk to her and watching as the other women talked to each other and Michonne worked to make sure that everything came off as the grand event that she probably saw it as in her head.
The women brought nice gifts, nicer than the things that Carol would have bought for herself, but she was really just as thankful for the simple things that her friends had brought her. She knew that they couldn't afford nice gifts, and what they gave was what they could afford to give, and it was given with sincerity instead of steeped in curiosity over what had become of the woman that the town talked about because she was known for wearing her shades inside the A and P.
The longer the party went on, and the more that here and there someone leaned around to ask about the situation with Ed, if Carol had any contact with him, when was the last time she'd seen him, if it was true that he had attacked her at the bar, and other questions like that, the more that Carol was finding it difficult to keep the smile plastered on her face.
Michonne hadn't seemed to overhear any of the questions, probably too preoccupied with making sure that everyone had everything they wanted and that there weren't too many lulls in the conversation. Carol wanted her to know how thankful she was that she'd thought of doing this, but she really hoped that there was never any occasion for anything like this to happen again. She hated being trapped around people like this.
She thought that Andrea, at least, understood. The women hadn't spoken to her at all, and they cast more than one glance in her direction before turning to whisper more at each other. Andrea handled it with dignity, though, and remained beside Carol wearing pretty much the same plastic Barbie doll smile that Carol was trying to pull off.
Finally the party began to draw to a close. One or two women took their leave first with some obligation or another, and Carol allowed only the slightest of sighs to escape her lips at the thought that they'd all be filing out before long. She was right, and once the ice had been broken, they left almost in a wave of snobbish goodbyes and false well wishes.
Carol's actual friends were the last to leave, with Andrea lingering behind since she'd actually ridden with Carol. They waited until everyone was gone and then offered to help Michonne clean up.
"I've got it," Michonne said. "Really, it's not that big of a deal.
Carol ignored her protest and least started putting her dining room chairs back in the dining room. Andrea followed suit, picking up the still loaded platters of food and carrying them into the kitchen.
"You don't have to clean up," Michonne protested again.
"Michonne," Carol said. "It was a beautiful party and I appreciate it so much. The least I can do is not leave you with this mess to clean up."
"Carol you're not supposed to clean up after your own party," Michonne said with a sigh. "And it wasn't a beautiful party at all. It was a terrible party. The only way it could have been worse is if I'd tied you to a tree in the back yard and let people hit you with sticks under the false assumption that candy was going to come out of you eventually."
Carol chuckled, but she felt bad seeing the expression on Michonne's face. The party had not gone at all like her friend had envisioned it.
"It's OK, Michonne," Carol said, pulling Michonne to her in a hug. "I know you meant well and that's all that matters. Those women weren't my friends and you did the best you could to give me a great party. I'm thankful for that."
Michonne sighed and carried one of the trays of sandwiches into the kitchen. Tyreese was busying himself with carrying all of the presents to the guest room where Carol was going to be storing them for the week until she finally moved into her house.
"I didn't realize it would be necessary to put it on the invitation that the women shouldn't talk about Ed the entire time they were at your house warming party," Michonne said. "I'm so sorry, Carol. I didn't mean for that to happen."
Carol smiled at her.
"I know you didn't, and it's OK. They didn't have anything else to talk about and let's face it, Ed is the most exciting thing about me if you ask just about anyone in this town," Carol said.
"Well right now Daryl's the most exciting thing," Andrea offered. "Remember, everyone around here loves a good possible scandal almost as much as a good confirmed scandal."
"This was a mess!" Michonne declared. "Jesus! What was I thinking? They were all over you the whole time and I invited them here to do it!"
"Michonne, seriously, it's OK," Carol said. "We'll just laugh about it and say I got their money and they got yesterday's gossip. It's not your fault that people don't know how to act."
"That's right," Andrea added. "You got some really nice gifts, so the jokes on them. They could have talked about both of us for free."
Michonne smiled a little, but Carol suddenly realized that for as miserable as she'd thought she'd been, and for as miserable as she imagined Andrea might be, it was Michonne whose feelings had really been hurt. She looked like she felt worse about this than she had about anything before.
Tyreese came into the kitchen where Carol and Andrea were standing while Michonne shoved sandwich squares into bags and looked like she was trying not to cry. She turned around after a second and handed each of them a sack of sandwiches.
"Here," she said. "You might as well take these home and have dinner on me to go with inviting you to spend the day being gawked at and humiliated."
Carol looked at Andrea and Andrea looked back at her. Carol glanced at Tyreese who was apparently trying very hard to ask a question without using his actual voice. She realized, though, that as a man he'd probably paid very little attention to the overall cattiness of the party goers and had probably thought the party was a huge success.
"Michonne," Carol said, "I promise, it's not that big of a deal. I'm really happy with the party and I really do appreciate you throwing it."
Carol elbowed Andrea who had taken on the facial expression of some kind of fish because she kept opening her mouth like she wanted to say something and then closing it, apparently because she wasn't sure what to say.
"It really was nice, Michonne," Andrea offered. "It was nice of you to throw the party and do all of this. It was nice."
Michonne chuckled a little and turned around, sealing up another baggie of sandwiches and tossing it at the counter.
"And here you two are, staying after the party, trying to make me feel better about something where both of you were treated like bastards at a family reunion," Michonne said.
Carol smiled at her and stepped in, hugging her again. Carol waved at Andrea and Andrea smiled.
"Well, OK…" she said, hugging both of them.
"Some days there are just too many women in your life," Tyreese said suddenly.
Carol broke up the hug, laughing a little at him.
"Did you want a hug too?" She asked.
Tyreese chuckled.
"I'm good, I'll get mine later," he said. "Is there something I should know about, though, because I thought everything went well?"
Carol shook her head.
"It's just small town garbage," Carol said.
Michonne nodded.
"You know how you said this was such a cute place because it's so much like a movie?" Michonne said.
Tyreese nodded.
"Yeah, I did say that," he said.
"Well, sometimes there are characters that you just want to see hit by busses in movies, and it just so happens that a lot of them were here today," Michonne said.
Tyreese nodded his head a little.
"OK," he said. "I get that."
"Women are catty as hell," Andrea said.
Tyreese chuckled.
"I could have told you that shit was going to happen. Anytime you get that many women together in one room there's bound to be someone misbehaving," Tyreese said.
"That's putting it mildly," Michonne scoffed. She sighed.
"Listen," Carol said. "Just put it out of your mind. It was the best that you could do. Now it's over. No big deal. And…you get to help me get the house put together in a week!" She grinned.
Michonne smiled then.
"I'm going to be excited to help you get the house put together," Michonne said. "You can leave all that stuff here and Tyreese and I can help you move it once you're ready."
"Sounds great," Carol said.
"Michonne said you've got some furniture to move in too," Tyreese said. "I'd be more than happy to help you out if you need a hand getting it moved."
Carol thanked him.
"I know Daryl's going to pick it up," Carol said, "but I'm sure he could use the hand. We don't know yet if Merle is going to help."
"Merle can be an ass," Andrea said, flashing a smile and using her best mom voice. Carol couldn't help but laugh at it.
Tyreese chuckled as well.
"I see Merle nearly everyday," he said. "I can only believe you're an amazing woman for living with him. And I'd be more than happy to help Daryl or both of them if they need it. Just let me know."
Carol thanked him again and after a few minutes she thanked Michonne again and left the house with Andrea.
"Is it bad that I feel sorry for her?" Carol asked, crawling into Andrea's car.
"No," Andrea said. "I think it's been a long time since Michonne really got a good view at how people act around here. She caught a bit of it after Dean, but when you're one of the only lawyers in town people tend to overlook your downfalls and then they put on a different face for you. Today was probably harder on her than it was on us. I'm used to it, at least."
Carol sighed.
"Yeah, I'm pretty used to it too. It was nice of her to throw the party though," Carol said.
"She meant well," Andrea said. She pulled the car out of park and backed out of Michonne's driveway so they could head back to the apartments. "She's a sweetheart, even if her plans don't always come out the way she saw them happening."
"Does it ever really work out for any of us?" Carol asked. Andrea chuckled.
"I don't know about you," Andrea said, "but I've told you before. I'm living the dream."
Carol chuckled and rolled down the window letting a little air into the car.
"You got some nice things, though," Andrea said.
"That's true," Carol responded. "A lot of it I would never have spent that kind of money on."
"You got a really nice coffee maker," Andrea said, glancing at Carol. Carol nodded. "Can I have your old one?" Andrea asked.
"Sure," Carol said with a shrug. "I thought you had one, though."
"I did," Andrea said. "But about two days ago Merle and Daryl were roughhousing in the kitchen over some stupid shit and the glass thing got broken. I was just going to go down to the salvage shop and see if I can find a new glass pot, but now I can throw the whole damn thing out and start fresh."
Carol laughed.
"It sounds like you have kids," she said.
"It feels like I have kids," Andrea said. "You're taking one of them with you when you go, though, right? I mean we're at least sharing custody?"
Carol shrugged.
"I don't know. I mean I don't want to push it on him, but I'm going to ask him to spend the first night with me there and I guess we'll see where it goes from there," Carol said.
"I've already got him a new toothbrush and a small bag of clean clothes packed that I'm going to suggest that he leave over there," Andrea said. "You know, just in case he wants to stay the night."
Carol laughed.
"Are you serious?" Carol asked.
Andrea nodded.
"Playing him like a violin…" She said. "Daryl knows what he wants, Carol, whether you believe me or not. The only problem is that he doesn't actually know he wants it until he sees it. You've just got to make it easy and stress free for him to see it, and he'll fall right into it."
"Why do I feel like you're as interested in my relationship as I am?" Carol asked.
Andrea smiled.
"Because I am. Your relationship is one that actually has a chance of being something decent. Mine is more like that accident on the highway that you can't look away from. It's more fun to set up your little wonderland than to take pictures of the crime scene," Andrea said.
Carol laughed and sighed.
"I appreciate the help," she said. "I really do. Maybe eventually we'll figure out how to make yours less like a crime scene."
"I already know how," Andrea said. "Unfortunately it involves a very nasty head injury for Merle and some form of lifelong amnesia."
