At Family Dinner, My Sister Introduced Her New Boyfriend — And For Some Reason, They All Kept Staring At Me. When He Asked What I Do For Work, My Mom Cut Me Off: “Don’t Embarrass Us.” Everyone Laughed. My Sister Added, “Maybe Lie This Time, So You Don’t Sound So Pathetic.” I Just Smiled… Until Their Faces Went Pale.

“Drinks before dinner,” my mother interjected, already moving toward the bar cart. “Jackson, another scotch. Sheldon, we have that beer you like.”

By “that beer I like,” she meant the only beer brand she considered acceptable in her house. I accepted the bottle without correcting her.

The seating arrangement came as no surprise. My father at the head of the table, my mother at the opposite end, Amanda and Jackson along one side in the positions of honor, and me across from them, where my father would have to turn his head to acknowledge my existence.

The first course arrived—some elaborate seafood appetizer that Maria had undoubtedly spent hours preparing under my mother’s exacting instructions.

“Jackson was just telling us about the revolutionary procedure he’s developing,” my father said, pointedly not including me in the conversation that had obviously been in progress.

Jackson launched into an explanation of some neurosurgical technique that had my father nodding with approval and my mother watching with the expression she reserved for people she deemed worthwhile. Amanda kept touching his arm possessively as he spoke, occasionally glancing at me to ensure I was witnessing her triumph.

I nodded at appropriate intervals while studying the dynamics around the table through the mental viewfinder I’d developed over years of observation. If this were a wildlife documentary, the hierarchies would be clear: the dominant male, my father; his chosen successor, Jackson; the female reinforcing social bonds, my mother; and the junior female securing her position through an advantageous mate selection, Amanda.

And then there was me, the outlier, the one who didn’t strengthen the pack.

“And what about you, Sheldon?” Jackson asked suddenly, breaking my anthropological reverie. “Amanda mentioned you’ve been working on some projects recently.”

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