“Auggie! I have to start getting ready! Stop messing around! Give me that phone!”
“Yeah,” he said into the phone he was not giving me. “So now I don’t know whether to be terrified of the chick Lots has lined up for me or jump the gun and just walk into the dressing room and ask her to marry me. But after the Lego argument, where Evie essentially threw down in a goddamn Target about her right to buy a sick kid a present, I’m leaning toward terrified.”
The Lego argument was not my finest hour.
People stopped to watch.
But he’d actually thought he could tell me I couldn’t buy something, stating he’d buy it and I could say it was from me.
Of course, he was right. I should save my pennies to buy a new mattress, so I had somewhere to sleep.
But he’d actually thought he could tell me I couldn’t buy something…
And I’d listen.
And obey!
I stared at his perfectly angled, perfectly stubbled jaw.
“Sure,” he said then offered his phone to me. “Mag wants to talk to you.”
I snatched it out of his hand, pulled out of his hold and walked two paces away before I put it to my ear and said, “Auggie doesn’t get any more of your pancakes until the end of time.”
Mag’s laughter spilled into my ear.
Okay, that made me feel better.
Slightly.
Reminders of his bodacious pancakes made me feel even better.
Though not enough.
Auggie had shared all my secrets with Mag!
“And, you know, since we’re spilling our hearts out to each other, either directly, or through intermediaries, you should know that Gert’s my only friend. She’s seventy-nine, is an aficionado of Olive Garden and her children don’t live close. Girls my age never got me. I would say this is a boon for you, since you don’t have to pass some girlfriend test. But Gert loves me and she’s gonna look you over with a keen eye. And if you aren’t on your best behavior, she’ll begin a campaign to surgically excise you from my life.”
Through chuckles, Mag said, “I can win over a seventy-nine-year-old woman.”
“You don’t know Gert. She’s very opinionated. The first words she spoke to Auggie were, ‘God, I hope you’re not Evie’s new boyfriend. You’re way too pretty to be good for any woman.’”
Mag burst into laughter again, through it forcing out, “Fuck, I wish I was there to see that.”
“I do too,” I replied, turning my eyes to Auggie. “It would serve him right.”
“Baby, three things,” Mag said.
“What?” I asked.
“First, girls didn’t like you not because they didn’t get you. But because they saw all the guys wanted a shot at you and they were jealous.”
“That’s what moms are supposed to say. My mom just told me to stop being so weird.”
I heard a sucking void of sound over Auggie’s phone and rethought sharing that with Mag.
“Second,” he eventually said, his voice sounding tighter, but he was persevering, “stop buying Legos for people’s kids. You got somethin’ like that you wanna do, you tell me. I’ll swing by Target, get it, and you can do the giving.”
Hang on a second.
What?
Not Mag too!
“Last, you can tell Aug he’s off duty. I’m headed to Smithie’s right now. I’m on you and I’m your ride home.”
I stood stock-still.
“Evie,” Mag called.
I remained standing stock-still.
“Evie,” Mag growled.
“Hey,” Auggie said softly, suddenly standing close.
“You’re off duty,” I said stiffly. “Mag’s on his way.”
The phone was out of my hand, I heard Auggie mutter, “Evie’s having a moment. I got it. See you soon.”
Then Auggie’s black eyes were so close, nothing else existed.
“Talk to me,” he urged.
“He’s on his way,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he said.
“He can’t watch me dance, Auggie,” I told him. “He can’t see me dance.”
“Hey,” he said then grabbed my neck on either side “Hey, hey, hey,” he repeated, and I knew why.
The damned tears were building in my eyes.
“My boy thinks you’re the shit, babe,” he said.
Another “babe.”
Yeesh.
I didn’t have it in me to get into that.
Mag was on his way and he was going to see me dance.
“I gotta get out of my head, you know, to do it,” I shared. “I gotta be like, a different Evie in order to be able to go out there. I’m not like Lottie. She’s talented and she’s proud of her abilities, of her body, she understands the world where this exists. She puts things in boxes. She uses them to get what she wants and she’s at one with that. I’m not…that’s not me.”
“I can get that,” he replied.
“I won’t be able to get out of my head if Danny’s watching.”
He kept his hands on me even as he straightened and declared, “I’ll stay.”
I shook my head. “No, no, no. You spent all day with me. You need to go home or do something you want to do.”
“I’ll stay, look after you, drive you to Mag’s after.”