Nosey Ray

In the middle of their conversation, Ray leans across the table and injects himself into the story. Kerri stops short, caught off guard. She takes a moment to assess the situation, read Ray's tone, decipher his intent and decides against a defensive response, which is generally a wise choice. Lara'a oblivious to Kerri's sudden freeze out and gives Ray the floor. Kerri's new here; these people are not yet her people. A sprawling mass of  tables jammed together in a long row to celebrate a birthday of a new mutual friend where everyone seems to know each other intimately. She gets a sense of long term relationships, private jokes, battles fought and won and histories stamped in the ground. Boisterous, loud, rambling conversations and anecdotes overlap, cancelling each other out. Kerri's private conversation with Lara about her peripatetic childhood and father's journey in the service prompts an invasive and unsolicited query from Ray. He peppers her about her father, their connection, his work; it's twenty questions on a firing line. Lara levitates from her seat as Kerri kicks her shin hard under the table, desperate for an intervention or some sort of symbiotic connection between best friends. Kerri can feel her rage building. Her father is no one's business; how he lived and fought and carried on is of an entirely different world no one here is privy to, nor may they ever be. Just as suddenly as he began Ray disappears from the conversation and ingratiates hmself into a discussion surrounding gluten, peanut sauce, pad thai and space travel at the table four seats to his right. Kerri feels her body coil up, stacked with tension like a spring ready to explode. Breathe it out or swallow it down and digest, either or; same outcome in the moment. Do not take it on, she thinks to herself. It's about knowing the boundaries. What's safe and what's off limits. Ray clearly has different ideas regarding who's information is up for public interrogation. Kerri tunes him out. Be direct, be patient, be kind but most of all, be clear: this is none of your business. How's the wine?

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