Page 49 of Dire Straights

During the halftime break, we got up for a stretch and Maddy took me out to the backyard to show me around. They had a trampoline, and a really cool and well-made tree house. When we circled around to a quaint little gazebo, we both froze.

Missy stared at us from her seat, an open book in her lap and a steaming mug on the table next to her. We’d barely seen her at all the whole day. I was pretty sure she was avoiding us. Well, she was avoiding Maddy. She probably didn’t care about me.

“Oh. We’ll just go,” he stammered out, jostling me with his elbow to get me moving. Before I could, she stood up, shaking her head.

“No, I’ll go. It’s fine.”

“No,” he insisted. His elbow jab into my ribs was harder this time, and I had to suppress a yelp. “You were here first. And we were just taking a walk during halftime.”

We turned around, ready to hustle out of there, but we stopped when she spoke.

“Wait,” she said. “I’m 27.” I watched Maddy slowly turn around to face her, but he didn’t say anything. “I never answered you, when you asked before.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said quickly. “I shouldn’t have said that, or the thing at the party. I’m an idiot.”

“No. I get it. Really,” she said. “I completely get it. I tried to get him to tell you over the phone, or when you first got here, but… Well, I guess you know how your dad is.”

“Yeah,” Maddy agreed. “He’s, uh… Yeah. I know.”

Missy looked kind of wistful for a minute, before lowering her eyes to her coffee cup. “I know what people think when they see us together, so I don’t blame you. But for what it’s worth, I’m not with him for his money.”

“I didn’t think that,” Maddy answered, but I was pretty sure he was lying. Not that Mr. H was a bad looking guy or anything. But also he wasn’t super rich either, so maybe she was telling the truth?

“I probably shouldn’t say this,” Missy continued, “But the guys I’ve dated before Manny…” She paused, looking thoughtful. “I didn’t have many great experiences. But your dad treats me so well, and we really have a lot in common. We have fun together. That’s why I’m with him. But I’m sorry that you found out like that.”

“It’s not your fault.” After a long pause of no one saying anything, Maddy cleared his throat. “Well, we’ll get out of your hair, then…”

“Um, wait,” she piped up. She looked like she was still debating whether or not she wanted to say something, but she said it anyway. “I just wanted to say one more thing, if that’s alright.”

“Okay.”

“People do give us weird looks when we’re out. And it is annoying to feel like I have to explain myself sometimes. But even if people think our relationship is strange or they don’t get it or they judge us… To me, it’s worth dealing with that, because I get to be with him. Do you get what I mean?”

Clearing my throat, my eyes darted over to Maddy without me even wanting them to. The look on his face made it clear hewas thinking the same thing as me. Was Missy kind of hinting that she knew about us? Maybe she’d heard us doing it? I hoped not. That would have been seriously embarrassing.

“Sure,” he answered carefully. “That’s great… For you.”

“I just wanted to say that it’s worth all the drama to be with the person you want.”

Maddy’s eyes narrowed a little bit, like he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about her speech. “Okay. That’s good to know.”

“I hope we can be friends,” she added, tilting her head a bit.

“I’ll be around for part of winter break, along with the twins, so…” He trailed off. “We can all do some stuff then. If you want.”

“I’d like that,” she said.

Maddy gave her a nod before elbowing me again, which I took to mean it was time to go back inside.

The rest of the afternoon was peaceful. Missy came inside to finish watching the game, seemingly no longer avoiding us, and Mr. H was happy about his team winning.

When he dropped us off at the bus stop, he shook my hand and this time it actually felt genuine. Knowing a few football terms seemed to have come in handy, in a way other than just making Maddy happy, which is all I’d originally planned for it to be.

On the bus, we were lucky enough to get the same spot in the back corner, away from everyone.

“Hey, I’m sorry that this weekend was so… Crazy,” Maddy said. “I didn’t plan on it being like that.”

“That’s okay,” I said honestly. “I had a really good time. And not just because of, um… You know.”

---