Chapter 5
Chapter five
MAGNOLIA
Idecided to hire one of those traveling karaoke setups for a Friday night, hoping it would pull in a crowd of SCAD students or maybe a few wandering tourists if they heard “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasting out of our walk-up to-go window.
Kasey, the only staff member I hadn’t let go, was having a blast behind the bar, reliving her nineties wild child days and busting out her best moves. I gave her the heads-up that I was heading out for the night.
“Go, boss lady,” she cheered, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “You need to let loose. Have a great dinner with your guy, then go hang out with your weirdo brother. It’s not my kind of night, but you’ve been burning the candle at both ends. You deserve this!”
I watched as she unwrapped a CrunchWrap Supreme from Taco Bell, her twin top knots bouncing with every move as she threw up a peace sign when the DJ switched from Journey to Whitesnake.
She belted out the tune between bites, occasionally garbling the lyrics as she crunched through her food, completely unbothered by the crumbs sprinkling across the bar.
“Anyway!” I shouted over the music. “I’ll be back around 11:00. You’ve got this?”
She waved me off with a smirk and another bite. “Seriously, do you think I can’t handle the eight people who’ll stroll in tonight? Go on. Have fun. Just go.”
I trudged up the back staircase and into my apartment, rifling through my closet for something that didn’t scream ‘disaster.’ This was our fifth official date, not counting the group hangouts, and I knew it was time to seal the deal. I was looking forward to it, but…
Just as I pulled out a sleek, low-cut maxi dress, my phone blared with the obnoxious siren of “Party Like a Rockstar,” a throwback to high school days.
“Hi. I really need to change this ringtone. What’s up?” I tossed a few more dresses onto my bed and sank into my desk chair, flipping open my laptop to check the camera feed from the bar below.
“Where are you guys heading tonight? I’m wrapping up this engagement party, and I’m itching for a drink. Are you hitting up Jordan and Doyle’s?”
I scrolled through the camera view, watching the five patrons at the bar. They were just sitting there like statues, not moving, not drinking, and definitely not paying any attention to the two hundred dollars an hour karaoke DJ I’d hired.
“Oh, well, excuse me, let me check my itinerary for the evening.” I said, jumping back into the conversation. “It was emailed to me around noon.”
“Someone’s definitely his momma’s son,” Sutton mused. “Speaking of, let’s hit the shops tomorrow for the party! We’ll start with a nice brunch at Clary’s, get a little buzz going, then hit the stores on Broughton. Maybe swing by Pence’s before I head over to the Wilders’ place. Sound good?”
I made a rather loud sound of disgust, and I could all but hear my best friend’s blood pressure boiling from the other end of the line.
“Magnolia, don’t even start. What were you planning on wearing?
Leggings? A t-shirt from that one time you ran that road race with me and walk-slash-cried the whole time?
That was just a one mile fun run, by the way.
Can we please get you a dress? Maybe something you don’t wear with your beat-up Chuck Taylors? ”
“First of all, I ran that whole mile! I only cried when we got to the end and they had run out of finish line beer.” I smirked while digging further into my closet.
“And second of all, for the record, I have a nice top and a pair of jeans ready to go. Besides, I’m just going to sit on the veranda and get drunk until you’re done working. What does it matter what I’m wearing?”
“You can’t run races just because there’s beer at the finish line.
You own a bar—you can drink for free whenever you want.
And honestly? What if Lee does decide to show up?
You wanna wear your same old jeans from twelfth grade?
Who, by the way, can still fit in those clothes besides you?
And hi! We need to be showing off our new boyfriend and our banging body. We need a dress.”
“So then, go get a dress,” I counter-offered.
She huffed on the other end. “I have to wear a chef’s coat, you ass.
And probably a hairnet.” I could hear her chopping up something in the background, her telltale sous chef soundtrack of Shania Twain blaring around her.
“Come on, Magnolia. This is a big deal to Eunice, and she loves you more than her own children. Besides, I’m so bored.
This is my fifth party in a week. I don’t want to think about flambé or gluten-free crusts. Let’s shop!”
I groaned and pulled out a pair of dark-purple denim pants and my jean jacket from my closet, shoving the revealing maxi dress back in its spot. We weren’t dining upstairs at The Olde Pink House tonight, so I didn’t need to get too dressed up.
“Actually, Eunice and I saw some dresses when we were out getting silent-auction donations last week. I think she may have something up her sleeve, per usual. She liked me in this periwinkle dress I tried on. You know her, it’s probably going to show up any minute.”
I poked around the top shelf of my closet for my black cowboy boots, pushing aside bins, when a shellac-covered shoebox fell to my feet, covered in photos and clippings from magazines.
“Well, Lord, would ya look at that?” I said, mostly to myself, but I had my best friend in the world on the phone and she knew exactly what it was.
“And just like the black sheep of the family himself, the memories fall from the sky.”
“I used a lot of glitter nail polish to shellac this bad boy. You can still smell it. I really can’t even remember what’s inside.”
“Don’t open it now, you boob. I don’t think it’s best to potentially let your mind get all occupied by your ex an hour before you meet your new boyfriend for dinner.
And especially since we don’t know if this man is going to come swinging back into our lives, strumming his stupid guitar, sometime in the next twenty-four hours. ”
“You’re right. Okay, off I go. It’s date five, so you know what that means,” I said, jimmying off the top of the bourbon and taking a generous slug for liquid courage.
“Well, have fun. It’s finally starting to feel like fall, so maybe you can crack open a window while you guys finally bone for the first time.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, my heart banging against the walls of my chest. “Why do you insist on saying stupid shit?”
“Because we both know if that man doesn’t get a piece of you soon, he’s going to dry hump your leg like a teenager just so he can get off somehow and still have you involved. Besides, it’s so fun to get you all crazy-like. It’s pretty easy, too.”
“I just never thought for a second that he’d be into me now or that I’d be into him. It’s so awkward,” I bemoaned, running my fingers across the sticky, shiny surface of the box.
“What’s so awkward?” Sutton asked. “The fact that you guys have been friends for over ten years or the fact that Dane just happens to be the love of your life’s older brother?
For what it’s worth, Dane was always into you.
He pretty much never stopped. Lee just locked it down before Dane even had the chance. ”
I gave in to temptation and lifted the top of the box, barely stifling a gasp when I saw the first picture on the pile.
It was a snapshot of Lee, Dane, and me, arms slung around each other’s shoulders as we grinned for the camera.
The beach at Tybee Island sparkled in the background, the sun catching the waves just right.
“Let me guess, I’ve lost you to memory lane?” Sutton asked, as I held the picture up to get a closer look. We all looked so young, so tan, so happy.
“Uncle Cole always said that Dane couldn’t handle me since I was too feral and sassy. But Lee could—he said that he matched my energy like no one else. Wonder what he’d think of me now…”
“Cole also said that you have a bad habit of living in the past and not being able to let things go. I think that was the more accurate statement,” Sutton groaned.
“Put the pictures down, Magnolia. You know what your uncle would really think? That he was happy for you because you are happy. Doesn’t matter which man is on your arm. ”
I sighed, closing my eyes and as I tried to remember what it felt like when we were young and carefree. I knew Dane had feelings for me back then. I just pretended I didn’t have a clue. He was my friend and a good one. He still was.
Sutton’s voice ripped me back into the present. “That man sat at the bar for almost two hours last night, hanging on your every word. And that’s a huge feat, believe me. You’re kind of boring.”
“Speaking of boring,” I said, putting the photo back in the box, “I must go now to be wined and dined by my prestigious litigator beau. I’ll see you at Cheese, Please! later, yeah?”
“That’s not boring, Magnolia. That’s adulting. Letting a fine man take you out to dinner to yap your ear off about discovery, pleadings, and case law? Sounds like a blast to me,” she released a light, teasing sound.
After we hung up, I went to close the box of photos but couldn’t resist peeking at the top few.
My heart skipped a beat when I found a selfie of Dane and me from my first Fall Formal.
We were grinning ear to ear, laughing with our eyes squinted from the joy.
The happiness practically leaped off the picture.
Maybe what people always said was true—sometimes the strongest relationships began where the deepest friendships had already taken root.
***
“It’s really good to see you, Magnolia,” Dane said, as he nursed a Magner’s cider, watching me closely as I tidied up behind the bar.
“It’s good to see you, too. It’s been a long time, and I always appreciate it when an old friend stops by.”