Chapter 19 Marsh
Marsh
“How are you?” Julia asks as we enter Oliver’s office. Even though it’s eighty degrees outside, she wraps her arms around herself like she’s cold.
“Don’t do this, Jules.” I shake my head. We haven’t seen each other in a year, and I’m not about to play catch-up now.
“Do what?” Her eyes become wide.
“The small talk. What did you want to say that you couldn’t say out there?”
Her posture suddenly changes and her arms drop. “Is that her?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” I say.
“Is that the girl you were with when you ran into Dani?” she asks.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, more amused than anything. “Yes, Lucy is the woman I was with.”
“And you brought her here? To meet the family?” Her expression flickers. “Is it that serious?”
“I don’t see why that’s any of your concern,” I say.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit fast?” she prods.
I let out a laugh. “I’m not the one getting married a year after we broke up.”
She frowns. “That’s different, Marshall.”
“I don’t see how it is.”
“She’s a sex writer,” Julia whispers as if someone could hear us.
I look around the empty room. “So?”
She lets out a huff and then takes a step closer. “I just didn’t know things were that serious…that she would be here today.”
“It actually makes more sense for her to be here than you,” I say, and Julia’s mouth drops. “Why are you here?”
“Excuse me?”
“We haven’t spoken in months, and you think here, in my brother’s home, on my niece’s birthday, is the best time for us to have our first conversation?”
“They’re still my family too, Marshall.”
“I think you technically lose those privileges after a breakup.”
“I’m not the one who decided to break up—”
“I’m done here.” I walk past her and straight for the door. “Great to see you.”
When I get to the hallway, I turn my head both ways looking for Lucy who’s nowhere to be found. I scan the different rooms, and then I see her on the floor with Sadie in her bedroom.
“You should really be back outside.” Lucy watches Sadie rummage through the toys on her shelf. “You have a lot of guests who came here to celebrate you.”
“I will,” Sadie says. “I just want to show you Midge!”
“Okay, okay, and then we should go outside,” Lucy says.
Sadie turns around and pulls out a doll of some sort. It has giant eyes and blue hair, a sparkly rainbow tattoo on its cheek, and no clothes.
“This is Midge!” Sadie says very proud of herself and puts the doll in Lucy’s hand.
“Well, Midge is very cool.” Lucy carefully takes the doll and admires it.
“She looks like you!” Sadie smiles. I frown and cock my head, trying to get a better look at the doll.
Lucy laughs. “I think I see the vision?”
“You’re very pretty like Midge!”
“Well, thank you, Sadie. Not as pretty as you, but thank you.”
“Guess what I asked Mommy and Daddy for my birthday,” Sadie whispers loud enough that I can hear.
“Um…a new tooth?” Lucy guesses, and I smile.
“No!” Sadie laughs. “I asked them for a puppy! I find out tomorrow because that’s my real birthday.”
“I had a puppy growing up,” Lucy says, and I’m intrigued by this little detail.
“You did?!”
“I sure did.” Lucy nods. “His name was Casper because he was a little pittie that was all white. He looked like a ghost!”
“I’m afraid of ghosts,” Sadie says.
“Oh no.” Lucy eases up. “Casper is a friendly ghost! The friendliest. He’s just a little boy.”
“A little boy ghost?” Sadie repeats. “That’s sad.”
“Why is it sad?”
“Because he’s dead,” she says, and I can’t help but let out a laugh. It causes Lucy and Sadie to look over at me. “Are you spying on us, Uncle Marsh?”
“Yeah”—Lucy raises an eyebrow—“are you spying on us, Uncle Marsh?”
“Never!” I step inside and sit on Sadie’s bed. “Also, Dee Dee, you have a whole party happening outside. What are you doing in here?”
“I wanted to show Lucy Midge!” she says like she’s in trouble.
“And that’s very thoughtful of you,” I say. “But I think you should get back outside. It’s rude to leave your own party.”
“Okay,” Sadie says. “Can I give you a hug, Lucy?”
“Of course you can!” Lucy smiles and opens her arms. The two of them embrace and my chest tightens.
Once Sadie lets go, she runs out of the room, and I hear her spring down the hall.
“You okay?” Lucy leans her head back onto my leg and looks up at me.
“Yeah,” I say, admiring her face from upside down.
“Are you ready to go back out there?” she asks. “Should I be worried?”
I pull Lucy up from the floor and watch her adjust her dress. “No, you just keep being you. You’re perfect.”
We walk to the backyard, and there are more kids than I remember and a ton of faces that look unfamiliar.
I’m assuming they’re all parents of Sadie’s classmates.
I see Julia and my mom sitting together at one of the tables chatting, and a part of me feels annoyed, maybe even betrayed.
It’s a beautiful afternoon filled with the sound of music and children’s laughter.
Everyone around us has ice-cream cones and lemonade and I so badly want to forget that Julia’s here.
Then, I remember why Lucy’s here. Why it was so crucial for her to be here today.
I did what I needed to do: show everyone I’m in a new relationship.
I did it. I showed everyone I’ve moved on.
I’ve been anticipating this moment for an entire year, practically losing sleep over it.
Now that I’m here, I care more about how Lucy’s doing being in this unfamiliar environment than how anyone else feels.
I catch up with Lucy who’s watching Sadie get her face painted like a butterfly.
Slowly, I wrap my arm around Lucy’s shoulders.
She keeps her focus ahead of her and moves one of her arms around my waist and places her head on my chest. It’s an unfamiliar comfort.
Almost like nothing in the world matters except me and Lucy.
Like for the first time in a very long time, surely more than the past year, I feel happy.
Lucy gives me a squeeze and nuzzles her head in deeper to the crook underneath my arm.
I kiss the top of her head, and it feels a little too natural. I’m not quite sure if I’m doing it for show or because I just want to touch her any way I can. “Do you want anything?”
She looks up at me, her arm still around my waist, and I don’t want her to leave. Lucy and I don’t touch like this. There’s been no conversation of PDA and what that would look like. I have to believe this is just as effortless for her as it is for me.
“I’m getting a little hungry,” she says.
“Let me get us some food—”
“No, no, stay here.” Lucy slips out from under my arm. “I’ll grab us some stuff.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” She smiles, and our arms slowly slide against each other and our fingertips linger for a second before I’m watching her walk away.
The subtle sway of her hips, her long hair bouncing along her back.
She’s the most beautiful person here right now, and everyone has to notice it the way I do.
“Marshall.” My mom starts walking toward me.
“Mom,” I say.
“Lucy’s nice,” she says, and I feel her inching toward something that I don’t want to hear. “Very attractive…I get why you like her.”
“Sadie adores her,” I add, watching Lucy now talking to Oliver at the buffet table.
“Why did you bring her here?” she says.
I look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I get that you’re having fun, Marsh, but Julia’s here.”
“So?” I frown.
“So, it’s embarrassing. Chad couldn’t make it so now she’s by herself having to watch your display of affection with someone new.”
“You’re joking,” I scoff. “She’s getting married in a few weeks!”
“If you’re so mad about it, why did you break up with her?”
“Mom—”
“Come on, Marshall.” My mom clicks her tongue. “Enough of this. You know how Julia feels about you. Why are you being so stubborn?”
“I’m not having this conversation again, Mom,” I say.
“I know you love Julia and she’s ‘the daughter you never had,’ which, I might add, is incredibly insulting to Quinn, but it’s over, okay?
It’s over and I’m with someone else now.
So, instead of trying to play matchmaker, why don’t you play the role of supportive mom and leave it. ”
My mom just looks at me. “You are just like your father.”
I’m only like my father in moments of disdain. “So you’ve told me,” I say.
“If that’s how you want to behave, then do what you want. You’re a grown man.”
“Exactly, I’m an adult—”
“You go ahead and let Julia get married because you wasted all those years with her and never proposed. Now go ahead and do the exact same thing with Lucy. See how she likes it when you start working those late nights.”
I look at her and sigh. “Are you done?”
“I guess I am.”
“Great talking.” I walk away.
The rest of the birthday party is as good as a six-year-old’s birthday party can be. Lucy and I stay clear of Julia for the rest of the day, and my interactions with my mom stay sparse. Oliver and Quinn beg for Lucy and me to come back in the next few weeks, to which we reluctantly agree.
A part of me should feel bad about introducing my family to Lucy.
Knowing that after the wedding we’ll be going through a “breakup” and they’ll never see her again.
But then I think of how we all invested nine years of our lives into my past relationship and I no longer feel bad.
Relationships start and end and that’s life.
“Do you want to go to the hotel first?” I turn to Lucy as we start driving. The sun is beaming through the window, casting an auburn hue around her hair, and I take a mental snapshot.
“Are you tired?” she asks.
“Surprisingly, no.”
“What would you say if I proposed having lobster rolls at Fisherman’s Wharf during sunset?” She smiles.
“I’d say it sounds like you’re trying to curate the most romantic date.”
“Sooo, is that a yes?”
I put my sunglasses on. “That’s a yes.”