Page 103 of Songs of Summer

A big smile crossed his face, and he made his best attempt at crooning the B-52’s hit single “Roam.”

“Roam if you want to, roam around the world. It’s perfect, Maggie.”

“I’m going to miss you so much, J.”

“Me too.”

They went in for a hug that lasted until the reindeer bells rang again. A fit man in jeans and Timberlands, bags and boxes piled high in front of his face, backed into the store, pushing the door open with his cute butt. Maggie and Jason went to assist him. Maggie was glad for the interruption. She had felt her mood shifting and had promised herself she would not go there. Jason would be leaving for Europe in a week, traveling the continent before beginning his postdoctoral studies in Leeds, and selfishly, she was sad. She would miss him terribly, though she was happy that he had waited to celebrate their birthdays together as usual before taking off.

They both grabbed boxes from the struggling man, the top one, the cake box, revealing Matt’s beautiful smile. His grin disappeared when he recognized the melancholy in Maggie’s eyes.

“What’s wrong? You’re sad that young Jason is off to see the world and you’re stuck here with me?”

“Exactly.”

He kissed her lips sweetly and she melted. She wondered when that would stop, this heart-jumping-at-the-sight-of-him and melting-at-his-touch thing.

“Hey, Matt.” Jason shook his hand and went in for a half hug.

“Happy birthday,” Matt said in return.

“Thanks, I gotta run, but I’ll see you both later at the big shindig.”

Everyone would be coming that night to a special birthday seating at the Maggie May Records Listening Room andSake Bar, which was heading into its sixth successful month. Everyone included her mother and Paul, who she was beyond excited to show it off to. She hadn’t seen them since Christmas, when she and Matt had flown to England to visit them on their year abroad. It was the first stamp on her passport, and while she was happy to go, she was equally happy to return to her Chagrin Falls home on top of the record store that she now shared with Matt.

After much back and forth and meeting in the middle, mostly at concert venues, Matt had officially given up his apartment in Manhattan and moved in with Maggie that February. They were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, amazed by how every love song seemed to be written just for them.

Matt ponied up to the counter to check out the pile of unwrapped records that Maggie had picked out for each of tonight’s guests. She had told him all about the tradition; he had never heard someone so excited to give out presents on her own birthday. He tapped on the top one—“My Way” by Frank Sinatra.

“I bet this one is for Shep.”

Shep, her grandfather, was coming too. Even Aunt Veronica had enthusiastically accepted the invitation that Bea had suggested. She was bringing her husband, Larry, whom Maggie had never met and was having a hard time matching to a record album. It would be the first time that the ratio of Jason’s family and Maggie’s bordered on equal.

Matt began to lift the first album to peek at the rest, but Maggie stopped him.

“Wanna guess yours—without looking?”

“Sure, but it’s gonna annoy you when I get it on the first try.”

“It’s gonna annoy you when you don’t.”

She knew he would go with the song that was attached to his big romantic gesture back on Fire Island. Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” fromSay Anything.

“Peter Gabriel, ‘In Your Eyes,’ ” he said, with the confidence of Lloyd Dobler holding a boom box over his head.

“Nope, one shot only, close your eyes.”

“One shot only? That’s BS!”

She put her hands on his knees and planted butterfly kisses on his eyes, closing them.

“My game. My rules. Keep them shut,” she instructed.

“You’re very bossy on your birthday,” he complained sweetly.

Maggie took the record by The Proclaimers out of its sleeve, placed it on the turntable, and dropped the needle to play. He knew it by the rousing first notes, as most people would. It was “500 Miles”—the exact distance from Fire Island to Maggie May Records in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, an homage to the fact that Matt had picked up his life and moved five hundred miles to be with her. Yes, she had calculated it as well.

He was so touched that when he opened his eyes again, she could see that they had tears in them.

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