Chapter 36 #2
Oscar turns us to the doorway. “They’re gonna love you.”
I don’t know what I expected, if there was going to be some record-scratch moment where everyone turned and stared, but nobody seemed to notice us enter. There’s music playing from a portable speaker and the smell of something incredible coming from the grill.
Maybe fifteen people litter the patio in small groups, most of them dressed in the same dark trousers and t-shirt that Oscar’s wearing.
This must be the fire crew. I recognize a few of them from the Open House, one or two who I knew growing up, and in the corner I see Ryan, who came by my store with the flyers.
“Murph!” someone calls to us, I look to see Oscar’s captain making his way over. “You made it!”
Oscar releases me to give the man a back-slapping hug. “How’s it going?”
“Better now that you’re here. I need someone to help me with the burgers.”
“I’ve been here ten seconds and you’re already giving orders?” Oscar chuckles. “Thought we’d left work?”
“Aah, well, you can take the captain out of the firehouse, I guess.”
“Sure.”
He turns to me with a warm smile. “Freya, it’s good to meet you under better circumstances.”
My face flushes, remembering him catching me and Oscar in the parking lot.
“I’ve got shoes on this time,” I say, wincing internally. Very natural.
“So you do!” He chuckles. “And has Joni seen you yet?”
“She met us at the door,” Oscar replies.
“How was she?”
“About how you’d expect,” Oscar says good-naturedly.
Mack turns to me. “My wife has been hell-bent on getting this guy set up with someone for the last two-or-something years?”
“About that long,” Oscar grumbles.
“She’s been beside herself since hearing about you two. I’m surprised she hasn’t been down to your store, the way she’s been wanting to meet you.”
“Oh.” Oscar said a similar thing earlier.
My cheeks burn and I’m not sure how to respond.
Everyone’s acting like he and I are this established couple.
Is that what he’s told them? I feel a twinge of apprehension, thinking back to the way Aaron just started introducing me as his girlfriend, as though it were a foregone conclusion.
“Jesus, Mack.” Oscar huffs. “Way to make a first impression.”
Mack laughs, rolling his eyes. “Sorry to steal your man, Freya, but he’s the only one of these knuckleheads I trust not to wander off and burn everything.”
“It’s okay.” I step back, pulling out of Oscar’s hold. “I’ll just be…” I trail off, looking around. My heart starts beating fast as I realize that I don’t know a single other person here.
“She’s going to come hang out with me and Bird,” Joni singsongs. I turn to see her approaching, Birdie in her arms. “That okay?”
“Yeah.” I sigh, relieved not to be faced with the horror of mingling. “That’s perfect.”
Oscar steps close, his back obscuring me from Mack and Joni’s view. “You sure you don’t mind?” he says, too quietly for them to hear. “I can tell Mack to get fucked and we can stay together?”
“No, it’s all good.” I’m trying to reassure myself as much as I am him. “Go help Mack, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” He leans down to kiss my forehead. “Come find me if you need anything, yeah?” He turns back to Mack and Joni. “Let’s get to it.”
I don’t miss the meaningful look he gives Joni as he passes her, or the way he mouths look after her. Joni just chuckles and shoves him after her husband, rolling her eyes.
“I remember you.” Birdie points at me from Joni’s arms.
“Yeah?” I ask, making a shocked face. “Have you got your axe this time?”
“She does not,” Joni chides, smoothing down her daughter’s hair. “This young lady lost her chopping privileges after she gave her daddy a bruise the size of a football.”
“Oh no!” I gasp, “Well, that’s not very nice, is it?”
“It was an accident.” Birdie shrugs. She brings her thumb up to her mouth and starts sucking it. “And Daddy says accidents happen.”
“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that you get your axe back,” Joni says firmly. “Come on, let’s go sit.”
We head closer to the house, where a cluster of Adirondack chairs are huddled around an unlit fire pit.
Joni sits back in one with Birdie between her legs.
I perch on the side of another and have to smooth the fabric of my skirt under my legs so that none of my skin touches the cold metal.
I feel a little overdressed for a backyard BBQ, in a black turtleneck and circle skirt under my coat, but it’s not like I had any notice.
“You need a drink or anything?” Joni asks.
“No, thank you.” I pull my coat tighter around myself, feeling awkward. In the last half hour, I’ve gone from closing the shop, planning on a quiet night in with Oscar, to attending a party in a stranger’s backyard.
A thought occurs to me. “Did Oscar tell you I was coming?” I don’t know what I’ll do if it turns out I’ve just crashed.
“I asked him to bring you.” Joni doesn’t look at me, focused on re-braiding Birdie’s hair.
“Why?” I blurt out.
She looks up, eyes warming. “Because we wanted to meet you.”
I look down, twisting my fingers in my lap. “Has Oscar talked about me?”
“From what Mack’s told me, he never shuts up about you.”
“Really?”
“When they were up in the mountains I was getting texts, being all ‘who the heck is this Freya?’, ‘I’m getting sick of hearing about this girl’.” Joni puts on a faux-deep voice, doing a bad impression of her husband.
“You said heck,” Birdie pipes up.
“Did I?” Joni gasps. “Did I really?” She starts tickling her daughter, Birdie’s loud squeals echoing through the garden and drawing stares from all around. Birdie thrashes in her mom’s hold as she tries to get away. Joni eventually releases her with a few hard kisses to the top of her head.
I watch the two of them, trying to will away the band of tension starting to tighten around my chest.