Page 78 of The Weekend Crashers
Had she somehow pushed her daughter into a career she didn’t want? Had Piper felt that the only way she could justify quitting was to mess up so badly she didn’t have a choice? If so, she knows she owes her an apology, but she doesn’t know where to start. She can only trust that once they start talking, she’ll find the words.
Maggie interrupts Piper’s conversation with Lexi and Dove, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Can I talk with you for a minute?”
Piper pulls one of her nervous ticks, yanking the ponytail holder out of her hair and then redoing it with a quick twist of her hands. But she agrees and follows her to a quiet corner of the room.
“I owe you an apology,” Maggie says.
“You’re apologizing?” Piper crosses her arms.
“Yes. It wasn’t my place to come down on you over what happened with Gretchen. It’s your career. Your life.”
“Well, thanks for saying that,” Piper says, unsmiling. Unhappy.
“I honestly never imagined you didn’t love the work. It never crossed my mind.”
Piper sighs. “There were times when I did. Just not enough to give up certain other things.”
“But what did you have to give up? The plan was always that you’d go back to school later if you wanted.”
“I’m giving up my time. I could have had my undergrad degree by now. I’d be that much closer to a long-term career.”
“Okay. Like what?”
“Like... animals. I think I want to go to veterinary school.”
“Veterinary school.” This shouldn’t be such a surprise, not if she really thinks about Piper. Piper is not an extension of herself. “Okay. I get it. But I still don’t understand what I did or said to make you feel pressured to go into fashion. I mean, I told you it was a great opportunity, and it was. But I’m getting the feeling it’s more than that. Is it my shopping habit?” She gives a smile to lighten things up, and Piper smiles back.
“It wasn’t somethingyousaid. It was something Birdie said.”
Birdie? The minute she hears her own mother’s name, she knows this won’t be good. And sure enough, Piper tells her about the time when she was a kid that she told Birdie she wanted to be a veterinarian, and Birdie told her she better not get pregnant and drop out of school like her mother.
Maggie shakes her head. Leave it to her mother to say such a thoughtless, destructive thing. It was exactly the type of cruelty Maggie ran away from in the first place. A reason she maintains distance from her mother still.
“I wish you’d told me about that when it happened,” Maggie says. “It’s not true. I didn’t lose my career because of you. I chose you because what I got out of being a mother was more than a career in fashion could offer me. It gave me unconditional love and a best friend. It wasn’t even a contest. I guess fashion meant as little to me as it means to you. Because I walked away from it for something bigger and better.”
Piper steps closer and Maggie folds her into her arms. Piper tightens her arms around Maggie’s back, and she can feel her mother’s heart beating against her own.
“We’ve been so busy with my drama, I never got to hear about your night,” Piper says as she gently pulls back from Maggie’s embrace.
“Whataboutmy night?” Maggie says, trying to keep a straight face but feeling her expression betray her with a mischievous smile that tells Piper all she needs to know.
“Uh-huh. So the wild animals weren’t so bad after all?”
“Let’s just say I’m a bit of an animal lover myself these days.”
“Mom! So you like him!”
The sound of the party gets markedly louder. Even from their secluded spot, it’s clear the bachelors have arrived.
“We should go back in,” Maggie says. She starts to turn, but Piper grabs her arm.
“Mom, I just want to say how much I love you. You’re my best friend. Thank you for this weekend.”
Maggie’s eye tears up. They hug again as someone clangs a utensil against a glass for attention. She didn’t realize how loud it was until the room falls silent. The only thing left is the music, an Ed Sheeran song. And then Barclay calls out, “All right, ladies and gents. It’s the moment of truth.”
“I guess we should go back in,” Maggie says. Piper throws her arm around her shoulder.
The mother-daughter retreat was exactly what they’d needed.
