Page 74 of Songs of Summer
“Who’s Veronica?” Jason asked.
“My aunt.”
“Your aunt drowned?”
“Only in alcohol,” Matt joked, trying once more to lighten things up. It didn’t work. He and Maggie laughed without Jason again, whose expression conveyed more hurt than amusement.
“So, no one drowned, and no one is dead?”
She had never seen him so angry, and rightfully so. Still, she tried to take it down a notch.
“Nope, just my phone.”
“OK, ’cause if you don’t mind me saying, you’re weirdly, for lack of a better word…giddy.”
“I’m not giddy,” she objected with a blushing giggle that only bolstered his argument.
Get it together, Maggie, she scolded herself.
She looked back at Matt again, feeling she needed to defend Jason’s atypical anger. She explained the egregiousness of her actions.
“My phone is always charged. This may literally be the first time it had been left to die. So, Jason was legit scared that something happened to me.”
She put her hand on Jason’s arm. “I’m so sorry, but I did call you from his phone; you didn’t get my rambling message?”
“From some random unknown number? No.”
He pulled out his phone to look. There it was. In the middle of a long string of text messages and calls to Maggie’s dead phone.
“I should have tried again,” Maggie apologized, “but with everything to see in Manhattan, you can imagine I was completely distracted.”
“Manhattan?” He doubled down on his crestfallen expression.
“Yes, we went to the city to pick up the wedding cake. Anyway”—she changed the subject in a big way—“I’m so happy that you’re here! I missed you so much.”
As she said the words, she realized that she kind of hadn’t.
“Matt Tucker, this is my fiancé, Jason Miller. Jason, this is my new friend Matt. I’m sure you will be fast friendstoo.”
She emphasized “too” in a stern, factual way. As if she was clarifying her and Matt’s relationship status for both men.
They shook hands. Jason was now smiling, and it was Matt’s turn to look crestfallen. Maggie had already had about as much of this little threesome as she could handle. It felt as if the tiny room were shrinking before her eyes. She pulled open the rickety window, desperately needing air, and inhaled a few big gulps.
Seeing Jason felt like a jolt of reality. Like she had spent the past three days in a bubble and Jason had swooped in and popped it.
“I’m gonna walk Matt out,” she said, taking him by the elbow and nudging him out the door. She stood in the narrow hallway and did the best she could to dismiss him.
“You know what? Now that Sunburn Steve left, I know the perfect way to end this. Go back and tell everyone we broke up and I’m going home. Then you can enjoy the wedding with Dylan and your family, without my complicated agenda taking center stage.”
She hoped he would jump at her plan, but he didn’t look enthused. In fact, he looked even more dejected.
“What about Beatrix?” he asked.
“I’ll email her.”
“That will be some email.”
“I’ll figure it out. Go, have fun. You have been an amazing friend to me. Thank you!”
