Page 64 of Songs of Summer

“My phone. I forgot about my phone again. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“We don’t have time to get it and make the boat. Here. Use mine and I’ll get us breakfast.”

A few minutes later, she was back next to him at the deli counter.

“It went straight to voicemail. I left a crazy-long message,” she said, returning his cell with a sad expression.

“You’ll try him later.”

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bacey?” the guy behind the counter asked.

“Yeah—two BEC SPKs, please,” Matt specified.

“What’s that?” Maggie questioned.

“She’s not from here,” Matt told the guy, then explained to her, “Bacon, egg, cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup.”

“Ketchup?”

“Trust me.”

They ate their sandwiches on the ferry, seated up top on the most coveted bench: a single row facing the others, behind the captain’s deck, which doubled as a block from the sun and wind. Today there was no competition. It was just them. Friday ferry traffic, which packed the boats from port to starboard, was mostly reserved for coming, not going.

Matt watched Maggie take the inaugural bite of her Long Island Bacon Egg and Cheese, her closed-mouth smile signaling total satisfaction. He couldn’t wait to introduce her to more delicious things in the city, and hoped she would be equally enamored. The wind took her hair, leaving a few strands adrift on her lip, where a remnant of yolk sat, imitating glue. Matt gently pushed the strands aside with his finger, suddenly aware that he was using any excuse to touch her.

Long-distance, engaged, and extremely comfortable with lying.

He repeated the roadblocks in his head before committing to keeping his hands to himself.

“Wow, what a good combo,” she gushed.

“Told you!” he said, patting her knee.

He hadn’t made it thirty seconds.

“Speaking of good combos,” she said, “I never asked you how you feel about your mom marrying Jake.”

“I’m cool with it. I mean, it was hard to wrap my head around it at first. If anyone was marrying a Finley, I wouldhave bet on me marrying Dylan. But now, when I see my mom so happy, I’m happy too.”

“They seem perfect for each other, from the little I saw.”

“They are. But when you see how different the city is than Fire Island, you’ll know why I was worried at the start.”

Track 31

The 59th Street Bridge Song

Matt

By the timeMatt pulled his car out of the ferry terminal parking lot, Maggie was already fading.

“You can close your eyes,” Matt suggested.

“No sleep till Brooklyn!” she yelled, channeling the Beastie Boys song.

Matt laughed, and they sang a few verses as she sat up straight, intent on taking it all in.

She was asleep by the first traffic light.

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