Page 83 of Man Cuffed
I’m not sure where she’s going with this. And neither is Morris. “Come on, Julie, let’s go down. I want to dance with you,” he pleads.
“And I want this bullcrap to end!”
I honestly don’t know what she’s talking about. The cop part of me is measuring the distance between Julie and the edge of the roof. And does it slope downward at the edge? Yikes.
“You don’t like this party?” asks Morris. “We can leave as soon as we dock. I’ll make it up to you! I’ll take you to a pancake house!”
I am getting a very real glimpse into their relationship. And all the envy I’ve been feeling for years is starting to slide right off me.
“No!” Julie screams and then inches ever closer to the slippery edge.
Morris and I both say, “JULIE!”
She tosses her hair and sighs, complete with an eye roll. She could compete with any teenager right now. “You two need to stop this shit now and talk to each other. I am sick of this constant tension. I want our little boy to grow up in a healthy family with his dad and his uncle there and you two are acting like little toddlers. AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!”
She wobbles a little, and the audience gasps.
“I’m fine!” she calls.
Someone from the crowd yells out a question. “Why aren’t they talking to each other?”
Someone else calls out, “I’m a therapist that specializes in family counseling. I can give you my card!”
Julie takes a deep breath and I can just feel what’s about to happen. She’s about to become a living, breathing geyser of words. This cannot happen. We don’t need to talk about this. Not now, on a pitching rooftop in front of the whole fucking world. Not ever. I start to move forward but Morris stops me. “Let her say it,” he says.
I stop.
And wait.
“I slept with my fiancé’s twin brother just after Mac proposed to me. And then I married Morris.”
There’s a pause, until someone below yelps, “Holy shitballs!”
“I know, I know!” Julie says. “It was wrong, but it was also inevitable. Look, I have a certain type. Big guys who are strong and ruggedly handsome. So when I met Maguire I was like, oh this is nice. And we were dating pretty steadily and things were okay and good and I just felt like...okay. Good. This is what love is supposed to be like and I guess this is enough. AndthenI met Mac’s brother. He looked the same, sounded the same, but there was something significantly different.”
“Did he have herpes?” some wiseacre calls.
“No!” We all yell in unison.
“He hadchemistry. With me. Crazy, make you do stupid things, make your brain shut down, make your body light up chemistry.”
I swear to God the whole crowd sighs.
“I tried to ignore it. Tried to go with the flow with Mac because I really did love him. I just loved him...like a brother.” Julie says the next thing directly to me. “I’m sorry, Mac. I really am. I did my best to love you the way you deserve. But then you went to school and we weren’t even talking and you weren’t around and one night Morris came over to help me put together an entertainment center and then…”
“Chemistry,” Morris breathed.
“What can I say? Love makes you do stupid things. It makes you crazy. It makes you set aside all the I shoulds and you just focus on what you want. No. Not what youwant. What you NEED. And I need Morris.”
“I need you too, sweetie.”
The crowd sighs again.
Julie isn’t done yet. “But I want you to know, Mac, that I understand how you feel. It must’ve been terrible for this to happen. Heart wrenching. And then to have your parents support Morris and me must’ve felt like everyone was freezing you out…”
Suddenly my allergies are kicking in. My eyes are all teary.
“And I’m sorry all of this happened the way it did, but I’m also not sorry it happened, because it led me to Morris. My other half. My puzzle piece. And it also left you open to find that person who makes you defy logic. Who makes you raw and open and vulnerable with emotion. The person you need.”
