Getting uninvited to dinner

Thursday night Elena texts, " Do we have frozen beef?" Teri asks why. Elena replies, "Matt is coming over and I'm making tacos." Now from that you'd assume and you know what they say about assume... that she was making dinner for everyone considering that I do most every night.

Teri comments that if she’s cooking maybe we will stay home. I comment she should prepare for tacos tonight by taking the meat out of the freezer and to take out four pounds. I still think I’m eating tacos on Friday.

Earlier in the night I stumbled over going out to dinner on Friday with Teri. We talk about it and afterwards we are eating at home. No problem, it’s tacos. Elena asks me, in her own unique way, to take the meat out of the freezer. I take four pounds out of the freezer. I still think I’m eating tacos Friday.

The next morning I’m eating breakfast when Nastia comes down. She, I think, brings up tacos or going out to dinner. I tell her I’m staying home and Elena is making tacos, you know, I’m eating tacos, Friday for dinner. She say, to my surprise, “ My sister wants to make dinner for Matt and Sean and I are going out. She wants you two to go out too.” I say, “She didn’t say that.” and I pull out the texts she and I and her mother were writing last night. Stuffed away at the top of one page is a line from Elena, “Nahh, you guys stay out. Immma make dinner for matato” and then a question about 4 lbs of meat. I missed the message and only saw Why 4lbs, which I answered as if I was eating tacos Friday night, but I wasn’t invited to have tacos for dinner on Friday night.

I texted my wife and we re-established our plans for dinner on Friday. A BBQ joint in New City. I’m not having tacos for dinner Friday night, I’m having BBQ. Elena is cooking dinner for Matt all by herself. Meanwhile later Friday, sometime in the afternoon I get a text from Elena, “How many taco seasonings am I using for 4lbs of meat. My reply will not fit the screen as the subsequent messages on how to make taco meat with the seasoning mix. You’d think I like to type with the length of my replies, And you’d think I was having tacos Friday night, no BBQ. Elena will be completely on her own making a dish that isn't really hard to make, if you have cooked on your own before, you know flying solo. She should do fine. She’s eaten it many times and seen it made several. I bet she wishes she’d spent less time in her room while I make dinner.Your right, no she wouldn't.

Teri and I go out to the new Bailey’s place in New City. We came back several hours later to a spotless kitchen. Matt is nowhere to be found. I ask Elena later on how things went and she gives a very detailed, “fine.” I haven’t seen Matt since that night, so until I do I’ll reserve judgment as to how it went. If he comes over and is dead, I’ll know it didn’t go as well as she said it did. Nastia and Sean went out to dinner too, but I never found out where they went.