Page 116 of Townshipped
“Pizza.” Shannon points to Laura who holds the box up in front of her as if she’s a game show model.
“Kleenex,” Shannon says as she points to Lexi.
Lexi shakes her head a little as if to say she knows her friends are over the top. Then she shrugs her shoulders while lifting the box of tissue I only now notice.
“AndLegally Blonde.” Shannon points to Jayme who holds the movie up with one hand while doing a flourish with the other hand, under and beside the film to show it off.
“Let us in, MacIntyre,” Laura says in her usually bossy tone.
It’s the one she uses when she intends to get her way no matter what objections anyone throws at her.
“Lexi pumped and Trevor’s with Poppy, but we’re on a timeline here. You’ve got us for two and a half hours flat.”
“Thank God for small mercies,” I mumble the phrase my mom has used for as long as I can remember.
“Ha, ha,” Laura says. “You need this, and we’re awesome enough to bring it all the way out here, so step aside. We got you that veggie pizza you’re so crazy about. Pop told us which one.”
These women really are awesome, but I’m not about to tell them that. I’ve readFrankenstein, and creating monsters doesn’t only happen in fiction.
Granger is nearly coming out of his skin with excitement over the pizza or the company or both. I swing the door open and make the gesture of a butler, waving them in.
“You really didn’t have to do this,” I tell them. “I was reading.”
“Pathetic,” Laura says with mock disdain as she marches straight into my kitchen as if she owns the place.
I sigh, but beneath this feeling of being overrun against my will is a surge of gratitude. This is Bordeaux. We don’t let each other suffer alone. Em once told me I’m lucky to live in a town where people are over-involved in one another's business. I balked at her observation, but she’s right.
I let out a deeper sigh. Missing her doesn’t simply end because a gaggle of overbearing friends shows up at my door. Nothing will fill the space meant for her. That emptiness is hers alone to fill.
The women stay until ten thirty. We eat pizza and watch the ridiculous movie. Needless to say, I don’t use the Kleenex. And I flat-out turn down their offer of couch-dancing, using the sleeping children as my out.
Laura tries to talk me into calling Em, and Shannon backs her up until I explain why I haven’t reached out. They realize I’m right. I can’t impose myself on Em while she needs this time to reunite with her family and her old life.
It shouldn’t make me feel better when the defeated resignation of every woman in the room matches mine. But, somehow, it does give me an odd feeling of validation.
Surprisingly, I feel better when they leave.
Legally Blonde.Who knew?
Once they drive away, I let Granger out the back door. On the way back in through the hallway that leads past the guest room, Granger always pauses at Em’s room and sniffs at the closed doorway.
“I know, buddy,” I tell him quietly. “She’s gone.”
39
MALLORY (EM)
Gabriela and I sit on the concrete steps of her parents’ side of the old colonial-style duplex where she grew up in Dorchester. She’s the solitary bright spot in my life now that I’m back in Massachusetts. I try not to ask too much of her.
The last thing I want to do is to make Gabriela feel responsible for me and my happiness. I also don’t want to contaminate our time together with stories of my broken heart and the incessant pull of a life I only lived for three short weeks.
Memories come easily to me now. Something about being immersed in the sights and smells of Boston affected me like a shot in the arm.
Even though I should be glad to be back in Massachusetts, my mind and heart seem to have stayed eight hundred fifty miles away on a small farm in the middle of nowhere. I miss Aiden with a chronic and indescribable ache. It’s as though he died and I’m going on in life without my other half—which I know sounds ridiculous, but apparently the heart can be completely ridiculous.
“So, tell me, why did you come home to Boston?”
Gabriela’s question takes me off guard. I look over at my best friend. I know I can say anything to her and she won’t even flinch.
