karen could feel the rosiness start to rise to her cheeks at frank’s flattery. she could feel a bashful smile slowly start to tug at the corners of her lips, and her first instinct was to wave him off. a hand rose to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, teeth raked over her bottom lip momentarily. if she had been all too aware of this, she would’ve stopped herself before it could even happen. she could HARDLY feel the eyes of her son or husband on her, tawny eyes bright and fixed on frank. “ oh-- no, it’s-- it’s nothing, really. it’s the, um, you know, it’s the neighborly thing to do. ” the words came tumbling out before she could help herself, resulting in rosier cheeks, and she cleared her throat. “ i just hope that everything TASTES as good as it looks. ”
that’s when she finally caught herself, and busied herself with helping holly. all the distraction in the world couldn’t help her though. she wasn’t sure WHAT it was, but she knew that it was DEFINITELY something that she should try to ignore. this was just a friendly dinner to help welcome frank and eddie to the neighborhood-- funny how she still hadn’t heard anything about a WIFE. it made her curious, and made the warm feeling in her gut churn a little. she shouldn’t be feeling ANY of this and she KNEW that. even if frank technically wasn’t with his wife -- karen still didn’t exactly know -- SHE was MARRIED. she needed to quell the feelings now. nip them in the bud. this was nothing. she was looking too far into it----- and then she made the mistake of subtly glancing up and catching him interacting with holly and was hit full force once again.
FINALLY, karen got the chance to make her own plate, giving frank’s response a small nod, and then being unable to keep from smiling again at his reaction to her food. it made goosebumps prickle across her skin-- the pesky warm feeling in the pit of her stomach returning. it had been SO LONG since she’d actually SEEN someone show just how much they’d enjoyed her food. with holly being so picky, and mike usually only PICKING at his food -- only scarfing it down these days when she got on him about it -- and then TED, who usually ate in silence... no ‘it tastes great, dear,’ ‘thank you for dinner, hon,’ NOTHING. it was...different... NICE to have someone express their pleasure. even if frank hadn’t outright SAID anything, the look on his face was enough.
karen nodded again as frank went on to explain where they were from, eyebrows pulling together slightly as she tried to wrack her brain to see if DERRY rang any bells. it didn’t. but before she could open her mouth to comment on that, frank was already moving along. annnnnnnnd then he mentioned his wife and for SOME reason or another, it made karen’s heart squeeze momentarily, and then she saw his hands. it wasn’t like she had PURPOSELY been looking at his hands -- that’s what she told herself, at least -- but she DEFINITELY noticed the lack of a wedding band. she tried to quell the HOPEFUL feeling that started to blossom in her chest, and failed.
“ oh really? that’s great! isn’t that great, michael? ” her eyes flitted over to her son, smile faltering slightly at his noncommittal shrug and offhanded ‘yeah’. she quickly tried to mask it, however, as she looked back over at frank and eddie. “ michael here actually just started high school. it’s his freshman year, ” she informed the two of them. “ what will you be teaching? ” she asked frank before her attention settled on eddie. he SEEMED to be about michael’s age so she couldn’t help but ask, “ are you in high school, too, eddie? ” it would definitely do mike some good to have more friends, and with eddie being around his age, he seemed to be the PERFECT candidate. and besides that, she was sure that EDDIE could use some friends as well. it was a win-win.
" if you are, i’m sure michael wouldn’t mind showing you around, ” karen supplied after a moment and she could feel mike’s eyes boring into her. “ would you, michael? ” she fixed him with a stare that DARED him to say ‘no’ but continued smiling nevertheless. so, mike muttered out a “yeah, that’d be cool,” and she could feel her smile widen and this time it reached her eyes.
“ good, ” she replied, casting a glance at her otherwise SILENT husband. “ isn’t that good, ted? ” he OBVIOUSLY hadn’t been paying attention. she could see that from the look on his face. but he’d been so QUIET, so in his own world, that karen felt that she should at least TRY to get him involved in the conversation. there was no need for him to be RUDE. and besides, it was the LEAST he could do for her after all the times he’d sprung dinners on her at the last minute. it was always him telling her that so-and-so from work was going to be joining them and she would have to scramble to have anything half decent made. she did so much for him ( even if he didn’t deserve it ) and she thought it was only fair that he could do this ONE THING for her.
but, per usual, karen didn’t get what she wanted. ted had responded, yes, but not before asking, "what?" and then an offhanded, “oh, yeah. sure.” she just stared at him for a moment, smile managing to fall COMPLETELY from her lips but he didn’t seem very phased by it, if at all. after another moment, karen seemed to remember that they had GUESTS, so she quickly snapped back into ‘hostess mode’ and when she turned back to frank and eddie, the smile was back on her lips once more.
“ ah-- anyway, ” she cleared her throat, idly prodding at her food, “ i’m sure that hawkins is quite a bit different than derry, right? hopefully you two are still able to enjoy your time here. " she reached over to take a sip of her wine.
