Chapter 34 #2
There was a gasp to my left and I looked over to see my sister standing there holding a towel. “Maybe take this more than ten feet from the back fence, Maggie?” She tossed the towel in my direction and left.
I was quiet for several deep breaths, tears burning hot behind my eyes. I didn’t want to let them out because I didn’t want Rob to think they had anything to do with him. I picked up the towel and wrapped it tightly around me. “Leave,” I was finally able to say.
He didn’t leave, just nodded to where my sister had disappeared.
“Is she going to go public with this?” He knew my sister had a popular channel.
He knew a lot about my family. I wished I’d told him nothing over the years because then he wouldn’t be standing here now, overstepping huge boundaries.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was really good at stepping over boundaries.
“Leave,” I repeated.
Again, he stayed where he was.
“She said leave.” That was Oliver’s voice, and both Rob and I turned toward it.
He was standing on the sidewalk, his car, I could now see, parked across the street. In his hand he held a fruit tray, a nice one. He must’ve realized I’d forgotten it at the same time I had.
Rob let out a grunt. “This isn’t some lover’s quarrel, so no need to come up here in a jealous rage. You can have her. This is strictly business.”
Oliver took three large steps forward and Rob squared off with him, as if daring him to do his best. Oliver’s free fist was clenched tight and his eyes were full of rage.
“Don’t!” I screamed, stepping in between them. “Don’t.”
Oliver stopped, his hand going limp at his side.
“Leave,” I said to Rob again. “Now.”
He let out a huff, but headed to his car. “This isn’t over,” he said.
“It is,” Oliver replied.
To that, Rob didn’t respond. He got in his car and drove away.
The tears that had been burning behind my eyes ran hot down my cheeks. Oliver took a step toward me but I took a step back, clutching the top of my towel tightly.
“You dated my sister? She was the one who cheated on you in college?” I pointed toward the backyard even though she was no longer standing there.
I wanted him to deny it. To say, Who’s your sister again? And realize in real time the horror of our shared past. But the look on his face let me know that he already knew this fact.
“You can leave too,” I said, my blood running cold.
He didn’t move. “Can I explain?”
“Now!” I screamed.
He held out the fruit and I took another step back. He hung his head, turned, and walked to his car. If it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t have a car here, I would’ve left too. Fled the scene. Not had to face my family. Had they all heard me? What was my life?
My sister was waiting in the side yard, out of view of the rest of the party, which meant she heard not only my interaction with Rob but also with Oliver.
“I didn’t know,” I said. What else was there to say? I felt empty. Defeated.
“Are you… are you dating him?”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about Rob or Oliver, but the answer for both was a most definitive “No.”
“How could you not know it was him? You saw pictures! I posted him online.” She was talking about Oliver, then.
“For what, like, six months? Eight or nine years ago?” I said, remembering that Oliver had said he hadn’t been with his college girlfriend long but how it still hurt when she was unfaithful.
The lies and secrets were the most hurtful, he had said.
How could he have said that all while lying to me?
The lump in my throat grew even bigger. “I was eighteen or nineteen. You weren’t living at home.
I didn’t pay attention to who you were dating. ”
“Not surprising,” she said.
“You’re right. I’m a horrible person.”
She sighed. “You’re not a horrible person, but your boss, Maggie? My ex? You’re on a path of self-destruction.”
“Not just a path, Audrey. I’ve completed the goal. Run face-first into it.” With those words I walked past her to see if there were other relationships in the backyard I could blow up. Apparently, I was on a roll.
“I don’t want you dating him,” she called to my back.
I lifted my hand in the air, turned, and said, “Don’t worry. If you’ve had him, I don’t want him.” I knew that was mean, hurtful, even. But she hadn’t thought about my feelings once in anything she’d said. It was time to stand up for myself.
“You always want what I have.”
I took two steps closer to her. “What?” I may have been jealous of my sister at times, but I didn’t want what she had. I looked around, looked her up and down, then said, “There is nothing about this life I want.”
“What is happening over here?” Mom asked, joining us. “What happened with your boss?”
“He left,” I said. If she was asking, maybe she hadn’t heard my shouting match in the front yard.
“She was sleeping with him,” Audrey spit out. “That’s why he won’t hire her back.”
I sucked in some air and shot my sister a look. Obviously, my comments had hurt her and she was lashing out.
“Margot, is that true?” Mom asked.
“It’s not her business, and I love you, Mom, but it’s not yours either.” I’d never said anything like that to my mom before, and it made my shoulders tighten with tension that spread all the way up my neck.
“If you’re going to ask me for money to fund your life, I think it is my business to know why you’re in this situation.”
“You asked Mom for money?” Audrey said. “Nice.”
“A loan. I asked for a loan. But I’m fine. It would’ve been helpful, but I can live without it.”
Audrey, her arms crossed over her chest in a defensive manner, said, “I might’ve been able to help, but there’s nothing in my life that you want. Except my ex-boyfriend, apparently.”
“When did you become such a judgmental bitch?” I asked.
Mom gasped.
“I’m going,” I said. Halfway to the back door, I remembered again that I didn’t have a car.
I pulled up a ride app on my phone only to see that it would be more than a hundred dollars for the hour-long drive home.
My parents lived two miles away. Inside, I grabbed my overpriced fruit tray and my suitcase and started down the sidewalk for the twenty-minute walk to my childhood home.