Track 41 Landslide
Track 41
Landslide
The Dinner Hour According to Maggie
Maggie was over juggling her real boyfriend and her fake boyfriend. Between that and the weight of tomorrow’s revelation, she needed a little liquid courage, until she saw who the bartender was. She didn’t need it that badly.
She’d never expected that a New York town, even a beach town, would feel as small as Chagrin Falls. But it did. In just four days, she already felt acquainted with half the people in the room.
“Hi, Maggie!”
“Hey, girl.”
“Save me a dance, Maggie.”
That one came from her grandfather. Her mind immediately drifted to the thought of dancing with him, arm in arm. She would control herself from taking off her shoes and climbing atop his feet, just one in a host of things she imagined she had missed by not growing up with him. She was still caught up in that image in her head when Matt arrived with two shots in each hand. He held out one each to Jason and Maggie while calling out to Dylan, who came running. Dylan grabbed her shot and downed it before anyone even had a chance to toast.
“This is gonna be a long night,” she laughed, post-shot.
“Don’t drink any more until after our speech, please. I don’t want a recurrence of the 2013 Labor Day Bar-B-Q.”
He turned to Maggie and Jason, eager to relay the coming-of-age story.
“The Labor Day Bar-B-Q here is BYOB, and Dylan got the big idea to collect all the leftover cups with remnants of vodka and gin and wine and mix them together like a milkshake. She ended up swimming out to the dock in her clothes and vomiting into the bay while the whole town looked on.”
“Every time we drink, you manage to work in that story. I swear it’s the last time I threw up from drinking.”
They already sounded like brother and sister.
“Maggie has a worse story,” Jason cut in.
“I do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do not,” she said, her lips turning downward, indicating he should keep it to himself.
They sounded like brother and sister too.
“You two are doing the toast?” Jason asked, kindly changing the subject.
“Yes, together. We practiced last night.”
“Luckily, it is happening soon, very soon,” Matt said.
“Yeah, I can never relax until after something like that is done,” Maggie agreed.
Dylan saw a tray of champagne flutes pass by and followed it as Beatrix approached. Maggie’s chest burned with heat. Her plan was to steer clear of Bea for one more day until the big reveal. Not one for scenes, she knew that leaving a letter for her would be the best approach, giving her space to reflect, and hopefully, forgive their subterfuge. Also, she was a wimp when it came to confrontation. She once dated an annoying guy in college for a year because he lived across the hall from her and she couldn’t bear the thought of the awkward interactions she would face if she broke it off.
“Hi, Maggie, you look beautiful,” Bea said, before leaning in for a hug.
“You look beautiful too,” Maggie said. She loved the way Bea dressed, smart and classic but not buttoned up. She still wasn’t used to seeing so much of herself in someone else. This was an everyday phenomenon she’d completely missed out on growing up, and she was surprised at what a punch it packed now.
“You know, ever since Maggie showed up, I get no love from you,” Matt joked.
Bea hugged Matt before looking up at him and sweetly declaring, “You look beautiful too, Matty.”
Maggie noted again that the older generation called him Matty. It was endearing to her. Matty was not a name for a grown man in the way that Maggie was for a grown woman. And it wasn’t even a nickname, since her parents had named her Maggie, not Margaret. She was happy about that. She was not a Margaret.
Again, thinking of her parents made her feel guilty about the situation that was about to unfold. She uncharacteristically linked her arm through Jason’s. He smiled at her gratefully. Maggie knew that she was a little too big on autonomy for Jason’s taste; he had a real need to be needed.
“Let’s get our table cards,” she suggested, yearning for an escape. As they walked away, she let out a huge sigh.
“You’ll be fine. Just go with the flow,” Jason whispered in her ear.
The flow felt more like a landslide.
“They would want you to have family, Maggie.”
Of course he read her mind.
“You’re my family,” she replied, and meant it.