8. Megyn
CHAPTER 8
MEGYN
I restrained a yawn for what must have been the tenth time that morning. I had taken Suzie’s interruption last night as a sign that I had gotten all I was going to get out of the party and had best head home before the situation worsened. I’d gone out by Maggie’s car, planning to call her, but she’d joined me on her own a few minutes after with the same idea in mind. Luckily for her, her sign was a better one. She’d met Brian Holt and acquired his number. She’d had no other reason to stay beyond that.
And I didn’t tell her why I had wanted to leave, not the whole of it anyway. I just told her that I didn’t want to be exhausted from staying up so late, especially when I had to work the next day. Maggie accepted that. So did I. It was a good plan.
The only problem was when the manager called early in the morning, asking me to come in several hours earlier because the girl who normally opened the shop had called in sick. That left me with no choice but to go in. It was extra hours and I couldn’t let the opportunity go while I had it, or else I might be skipped over in the future.
Therefore, I was tired, dead-tired, even though I’d tried so hard not to be. Making the whole thing worse was having to deal with Suzie when she came in. We were too busy to talk for a while, which was fine with me, but after the morning rush died down, she started jabbering.
“I had so much fun at that party last night. I’m so glad I got to go.”
I bet you are.
Suzie flicked a look at me to see if she’d managed to rile me up yet. I busied myself with cleaning the counter for the second time, swiping a rag a little too aggressively over the polished surface.
Suzie didn’t take the hint that I was ignoring her. She said, as casually as she could manage, “Actually, I think I would have gone even if the party wasn’t open to the public.”
“You would have snuck in?”
“No way. That’s for people like you.” She smirked. “I think Carter would have invited me.”
“Why?”
“Um, what do you think why ? Because he’d want to see if I’m wife material.” Suzie shook her head at me, like I was a child who didn’t know much of anything.
“Well, that’s not what happened.” I scrubbed harder at the already-clean counter, working at the same spot. My shoulders felt tense. I couldn’t believe I was getting drawn into this. At the same time, it wasn’t like I should let her get away with thinking like this, talking like this. I hardly knew Carter, but I was pretty sure I knew him better than she did. “The whole point of the party was for him to be anonymous.”
“And I found him anyway,” Suzie retorted.
I dropped the rag, jealousy pounding hard inside me. “He found me first. He was dancing with me.”
“And then he wasn’t, and I snuck in.” She shrugged. “Your loss, Megyn.”
“So, how did it go, then? Did you get his number? Is he going to marry you?” I challenged.
Suzie laughed and gave another shrug, deflecting me like she thought that would make me give up. Maybe a few days ago, it would have. I was kind of mad at her right now, though.
I pressed, “Did you get his number?”
“No.” Suzie grimaced at me. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and scowled. “He seemed a little mad that I replaced you, even though I was doing him a favor. You’re not his type. You’re not right for him. I am. And I’m going to show him that I’m not going to give upon this. Marriage doesn’t just, like, happen. It’s a commitment and I’m going to show him how committed to him I am until he sees that I’m right for him.”
Her words stung me, thrust poison into my heart. “Why wouldn’t I be right for him? It’s not like I went there because I’m desperate like you. He picked me out. He found me. Doesn’t that mean something?”
“Desperate?” Suzie’s voice grew shrill. She laughed right in my face, flecks of her spit landing on my cheeks. “Um, you’re the desperate one. Desperately in need of help. You’ve got bad vision, bad clothes, bad finances, bad blood.”
I flinched as she sank her barbs in deeper and deeper.
“Meanwhile, I’ve got everything I could ever need or want. My parents are rich. This whole coffee shop thing is just for pocket money.” Suzie put her back to me, ending the discussion, if it could even be called that.
“I wasn’t there to see Carter. I was there for Maggie!”
“Yeah, okay. You’re getting pretty mad for someone who doesn’t care.” Suzie sighed, like she felt sorry for me, like I was being defensive.
Maybe I was, but she had started it. Was I not supposed to defend myself?
“I think you were there hoping you’d meet him and he could solve all your problems with his money.”
“Shut up,” I snapped, finally losing control of my anger. “You’re insufferable!”
I hated to be mean, but damn. I had never done a single thing to her to deserve to be talked to like this. All I wanted to do was make money. She couldn’t understand that. She didn’t need to work for money. This was all just a game to her.
I didn’t care about Carter Bryant I’d known who he was as soon as he came over to talk to me. The mask had been a good disguise, but he hadn’t changed his voice any. I could have called him out on it at any moment and I hadn’t because it was none of my business. I didn’t care about him. He was just some guy.
So then why did this hurt so much? Everything Suzie had said hurt me deeply.
The door leading to the back of the shop opened. Our manager poked her head through the crack, peering back and forth between us. “Did I hear arguing?”
She knew Suzie and I didn’t get along.
I saw no reason to start something over this, though. I shook my head.
Suzie smirked at me and rolled her eyes, like she thought this meant she had won. I still said nothing, even though I really wanted to tell her that she couldn’t win anything when Carter clearly had no interest in her whatsoever. She might beat me, but that battle was one I was pretty sure she’d lose.
Luckily, the lunch rush came not much later, occupying us both. I grabbed a quick break when another employee finally arrived and texted Maggie.
“This day sucks.”
She didn’t reply until an hour before I was due to leave. I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I couldn’t answer it without getting in trouble, so I finished and clocked out as usual. In the break room, I removed my apron and grabbed up my purse, and finally looked at my phone on my way out of the coffee shop.
“Come by my place? Deacon’s out for once. I’ve got your favorite ice cream.”
I hadn’t eaten since I’d grabbed an apple during lunch. My stomach growled at the mention of ice cream; Rocky Road would taste even better when I didn’t have to pay for it.
I went to Maggie’s house and let myself in. “Mags?”
“Coming,” she called. I heard the refrigerator door shut. She came around the corner, bearing two bowls loaded with Rocky Road ice cream, plus sprinkles, mini marshmallows, and chocolate syrup—all of my favorite toppings. She held one of the bowls in my direction. “Take this. I’m freezing my hand off.”
I grabbed the bowl and shoved a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth, swallowing the sugary-sweet goodness before I could even taste it. “God, I needed this.”
“I could tell.” Maggie flopped down on her couch and looked up at me, cradling her bowl of ice cream in her lap. “I know your days usually suck, but you don’t often come right out and say it like that.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I like to try and stay more positive than that. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, geez, don’t apologize.” Maggie pointed her chocolatey spoon at me. “You can tell me anything. I just know you, is all. So what happened?”
I pointed at my ice cream. “I want to eat this before it melts.”
“And I like mine very melty. So, I’ll talk first. Is it rude of me to tell you my day has been fan-tas-tic?”
I laughed. “No. I’m happy for you. Why? Is it because of Brian?”
“Yes, it’s because of Brian!” she squealed. “Oh, my goodness, Megyn, he is everything I ever could have hoped for and more.”
“I’m happy for you,” I repeated. She had clearly been harboring this crush for a long time. Had I known or was I too busy with my own things? It could be hard to tell what I didn’t know and what I knew, but had forgotten. Small details tended to get lost when I was busy trying to stay afloat.
Either Maggie sensed I was in the dark or she felt like gushing. Maybe both. “I’ve been into him for years, way back when he was still a lawyer and not Carter’s assistant. I found out about him because he was in the paper, some quote of his. That was back when I used to watch for my articles to appear, back when it was all still really new to me.” Maggie waved her spoon in the air and then licked it, thinking. “I always wanted to ask him about that quote.”
“What quote?”
“Honestly?” She shrugged. “I can’t remember. Before the party, I could recite it word for word, right down to the punctuation. And then I met him and I asked him about it. He told me he couldn’t even remember what he might have meant. He had no clue. He told me he never liked interviews, since you can’t prepare for them like you can court cases. He bullshitted his way through a lot of them. So now I don’t remember the quote, because it doesn’t matter anymore. Maybe it wasn’t really that important. It was just a way to meet a guy I really admire.”
I kept eating my ice cream while listening to her, watching her face while she talked. I’d never seen her like this before.
“Brian said he felt like he was letting me down and said he wanted to make it up to me. I told him I respected his honesty. And then he wanted to know more about me. Let’s be honest, not a lot of people are interested in lawyers. So we got to talking. He’s such an intellectual and so hot. Way hotter than in his pictures. And in his Spider-Man costume, literally drool-worthy.”
“Did you know he was going to go as Spider-Man?”
“I have my sources,” Maggie said vaguely. “I heard a rumor. Anyway, I gave him my number and he called me this morning. We’ve been texting all day. I’ve gotten no work done at all and I couldn’t care less.”
Wow. A huge difference.
Maggie stirred her ice cream, whipping it to a milkshake consistency. “That’s enough of me jabbering for now. Did you at least have some sort of fun at the party last night?”
“It was okay.”
“Just okay?”
“Parties really aren’t my thing, Mags. Once you found Brian, that was kind of it for me.”
“I ditched you.”
“No! We found you Brian! Like, what was I supposed to do? Stand there and make announcements about how you two were bonding, like it was some kind of sports match?” I laughed. “Anyway, I guess I didn’t just stand around. I danced.”
“Great! With whom?”
“Carter.”
Maggie dropped her ice cream bowl, which thumped to the ground, landing as neatly on the carpet as if it had been set there with care. “Please tell me this isn’t the Carter I think it is.”
“Carter Bryant,” I confirmed.
Maggie almost dropped her bowl for the second time. “I can’t believe you! You danced with Carter! When were you going to tell me this?”
“It was nothing,” I said, even though, looking back, it had certainly felt like something. The way he looked at me, the tender way he touched me, as if he thought I might break—or maybe sensing how shy I was. “We talked and it was fun, even though he stepped on my foot when we danced.” I filled her in on what had happened with Suzie after that, making it clear that her intervention was another reason I’d wanted to go home. I didn’t say so aloud, though. Maggie knew I was timid. She didn’t require an explanation.
Maggie put her hand to her head. “Megyn,” she said, disbelieving whatever it was that was on her mind. “Megyn, you’ll never believe me, but Carter was looking for you!”
You’re right. I don’t believe you.
“It must have been after Suzie interrupted. Carter came over to Brian and was asking about a princess! I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t really paying attention, but now I know it had to have been you. He didn’t want Suzie. He wanted you. Maybe he was going to choose you to be his wife.”
My heart skipped. He’d been nice and pretty charming too, but that he could potentially have wanted more hadn’t occurred to me. Could it be that my infatuation with him was reciprocated?
I thought about what Suzie had said and scolded myself for being so dumb to even entertain the thought. A man like that wouldn’t be interested in a pauper like me once he found out that’s who I really was.
A lump lodged in my throat.
Maggie sat up straight and exclaimed, “I have to tell Brian.”
I jumped and grabbed onto her. “No! You can’t.”
Maggie stared at me. “Why not?”
“The party’s over! It was fun to be a princess for a night, but that’s not who I am. You can’t tell Brian, and you can’t let Brian tell Carter.” I clasped my cold hands together. “I’d rather Carter remember me the way he did at the dance, than as the poor person I am.”
“You’re not poor… ”
“Maggie!”
Her expression crumpled. Her disappointment was so severe I almost changed my mind just to make her happy. “I can’t change your mind?”
“Please don’t even try? Life is stressful enough.”
“Okay,” she promised, grudgingly. “But only because it’s you. If you were anyone else, I’d make the choice for the greater good.”
“I’m not sure we have the same definition.”
“Oh, we do. Just different perspectives.”
I clapped. “That’s the most profound thing I have ever heard anyone say.”
“My crowning achievement,” Maggie said sarcastically.
Deacon came home, interrupting us. I had never been more glad to see him in my entire life.
Once Maggie managed to shoo him away, conversation returned to normal. I was relieved—and disappointed.