by Jason Zandri
Liz leaned in. “She pushed hard; someone who owed me a favor was in earshot and dropped a dime to me on the conversation she had with Marie the other day. It sounded a little more than facts, what was relayed to me, so I did some digging. Donna is coming across like this is all a done deal already; she comes back from vacation with her family after next week, and the two of them are back to being an item like they were before.”
Melissa stared blankly for a second, and then said, “I’m not sure what to say. When I talked to Matthew about it, the little bit that he would discuss with me, he said he was willing to talk to her about it and take things slowly
—to start over from scratch. So to me, that story doesn’t wash.”
“Exactly,” Liz said, and then took her hands out of her pockets and snapped her fingers. “That’s why I’m here. At the core of it, Matthew has the intention of trying to start over with her, and to be quite blunt, she doesn’t
deserve it.”
“First off,” Melissa said, crossing her arms in front of herself. “I have to ask you, why are you telling me this?”
Liz breathed in deeply. “There’s a part of me that’s not sure why, to be honest. My gut tells me to do something, and I’m not able to be as effective as would be needed.”
“I don’t understand,” Melissa said, unfolding her arms then rubbing her fingers on her forehead. “I’m trying to follow you but …”
Liz held up her hand, and then let it fall. “Okay, bottom line here; Donna is just going to put the moves on Matthew and rope him back in.”
“I can’t stop him,” Melissa said, raising the pitch of her voice.
“Ah, but see there, your voice going up like that … you know he deserves better.”
“He might … okay, he does. And I suppose you think that’s you?”
Melissa asked.
“The confident and arrogant side of me? You bet your sweet ass that’s what I think.” Liz backed off and pulled back her tone. “I’m also smart enough to know he doesn’t feel enough for me for any attempt of mine to be successful.”
“How can you say that?” Melissa asked, and annoyance tightened her jaw. “He stood by you with everything you had going on. He took all that on without telling a soul or leaning on anyone.”
“Think hard; as amazing as that effort was of him, that was just Matthew being Matthew. If it were Carrie or Alecia, he would have done the same if asked. They’re your friends, and they’re important to you—”
“I don’t know how much heat he’d be willing to take on for them,”
Melissa said.
“If you think on it, over some time, I think you’d agree. He might take more burden with me over them because he feels something for me, but even that only measures so much. He only cares so much for me. That’s why I know that if I try to drive a wedge, to keep him from making a mistake, it
won’t work,” Liz said and leaned in. “If you try it, though ...”
“Why would it work for me?” Melissa asked.
“Because it would be more about getting him than just driving a wedge. Your reasons are not to just keep her away from him, but to get him for yourself.” Liz stepped back to lean on Pam’s car.
“We’re just friends,” Melissa said in a quieter tone.
“Let’s just cut the pretense here, Missy; you’ve probably been in love with him since fifth grade. At the end of the day, you’ve gone out with other boys because you’ve never felt like you could measure up to Matthew or that he would ever like you in that way, and so you don’t even try. You date the others to keep Matthew off your mind. The minute they’re out of the picture, your mind goes back to Matthew and ‘what if,’ and you slope right back down to ‘he won’t’ and you date the next idiot.” Liz leaned forward. “I would give my tits for what you have.”
“And what do you think I have?” Melissa asked.
“His attention, all the time. You’re going to a wedding with him; you have all that intimate interaction with him. You will be working side by side with him all week. If you’re ever going to have a chance to take a shot, it’s going to be this next week.”
Melissa mulled over her words for a moment, and then asked her, “Do you think he’ll take a chance on me?”
“All you need to do is kiss him; really kiss him. You’ll know for sure for the both of you.”
“What do you mean?” Melissa asked.
Liz looked past her and pointed to Matthew, who was heading over.
“You’ll know what he feels for sure if he kisses you as well as you kiss him.”
“And how will I know for sure for myself?” she asked as Matthew opened the door.
“Your knees will go weak,” Liz said under her breath.
“Did you need more time, girls?” Matthew asked.
“We’re all set,” Liz said and slapped her hands together. “Thanks for letting me steal your girl.”
Matthew smiled and looked at Melissa. “Are you my girl now?”
“Well, I suppose I could be,” Melissa said with a smile and raised eyebrows. She looked at Matthew, who stood and stared at her.
Embarrassment washed over her. “You know,” she said. “Tomorrow, at the wedding …” She glanced at Liz, who shook her head. “Next week, I’m your girl here in the store all week.” She finished just before her nervousness showed in her voice.
Liz cringed.
“Ah, got it,” Matthew said. “Well, are you coming by the house now, Melissa, or did you need to run home first?”
Melissa stood frozen from her embarrassment and didn’t answer.
“You know, dinner … the last dinner at the house … before the wedding.”
“Oh!” Melissa said. “Yes. I’ll just run home, and then I’ll be there.”
“Okay,” Matthew said. “I’ll see you then. Bye, Missy. Bye, Liz; nice to see you.”
“Goodbye, Matthew,” Liz said, and then watched him walk away.
“Oh God,” Melissa said quietly. “That was a disaster.”
“I thought you were going for bold with the comment, and if you hadn’t backpedaled, it would have been a nice hit. All you’d need to do from that would have been to follow through. That’s what I would have done,” Liz said.
“Yeah, well, I’m not you, Liz. I’m aggressive but not as bold as you are, and I missed the opportunity.”
“And that’s why you have the chance at this.” Liz opened the car door and jangled her keys. “This becomes more than just getting Donna away from him. You get you a chance to be with him.”
“You assume it’ll work in my favor,” Melissa said while waving to
Matthew’s van as he pulled it out of the lot.
“I don’t have a chance, or I’d try for myself for totally selfish reasons,” Liz said. “I don’t want him with her, and I do want him with me. If I have to go with option two, then it’s you.” Liz leaned into her sister’s car.
“You know, I once said to Donna that she doesn’t have what it takes to give Matthew everything he wants and needs. I told her I could offer him things she couldn’t.”
“That’s not true?” Melissa looked at her, wide-eyed.
“Oh, it is so totally true,” Liz said. “The last part, anyway. The real things that a guy like Matthew needs, or at least should want, is a kindred soul in the person who stands beside him. There’s only one woman today that he knows can give him that … and it’s not me.”
Liz dropped inside Pam’s car, started it, and backed away from Melissa. She looked up at her from inside the car, nodded once, and drove out of the parking lot.
Melissa watched the car disappear down Route 5.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Matthew walked through the rec room past Tim and Patti, who sat at the far end of the sectional sofa. He glanced over at John Cafferty, his wife Stacy, and Karen, Diane, and Mark, who all sat over at the wet bar on the near side of the room. Mark’s father and his new wife had seated themselves at the small table next
to the bar with Mark’s sister, Teresa, and her husband.
Melissa looked over to Matthew as he sat.
“That’s your aunt?” Patti asked Matthew.
“Yeah.” Matthew adjusted himself in the seat. “And her husband; they live in Rhode Island. My grandfather lives in Florida.” He motioned over to the older man.
“I hear Michael’s going with his parents to Aruba?” Tim said.
“Yeah,” Matthew said while he passed a soda over to Melissa. “I talked to him this morning; he’s going with Lesley and her mother.”
“The five of them?” Melissa asked.
“Yeah.” Tim sat forward. “I guess Lesley’s Dad’s out of the picture, and she wanted to go with Mike, but the mother got a little leery. Having her along solved that issue.”
“Funny how this is most of the wedding party,” Matthew said, looking over at the adults at the bar.
“Yeah,” Melissa said. “Who else is coming?”
“Well, there’s all of us, one of Diane’s old school friends and her husband, one of my dad’s friends from the club, and a couple of others—I forget. At the end of the day, it’s not many people.”
“I want a big fancy wedding,” Lesley said, waving her hands wide.
“White dress, doves, a couple hundred people …”
“Tom Cruise as the groom …” Tim said and laughed.
“Oh come on,” Lesley said. “It’s like every girl’s dream. Help me out here, Melissa.”
Melissa sat forward and looked past Lesley to Diane. “You know,”
she said, flipping her hair back. “I used to think that was what I wanted …
you know, if I was ever with someone who could afford it, because my family … well, we just get by. But I’ll tell you, watching Diane and Mark put this small, cozy little thing together; it makes me realize what’s important and what isn’t.”
“Oh stop,” Lesley said with a chuckle. “You’re a bigger romantic here than most of us.”
“Well that is true,” Melissa said, blushing slightly. “But I’m serious too. Look at Carrie’s older sister; they had this huge spread and over two hundred people. I heard her father say the wedding cost more than his first house. She and Carrie talked about it one day, and about how she had zero time to enjoy the reception afterward because of the ceremony, the photos, and walking around all the tables to greet everyone. It just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.” The four of them looked at one another, and then Melissa said, “Tomorrow, there’ll be this quaint little ceremony with the Justice of the Peace and about thirty family members and close friends. Mark and Diane will be able to enjoy the entire day, and it will be just as much about the two of them as it will be a day to remember for the guests, instead of it being this lopsided, expensive thing.”
Matthew leaned back. “Well, you do have a point when you put it like that.”
“So, Dude,” Tim said. “What’s going on with you and Donna?”
Melissa looked over at Diane, who turned her head a fraction.
“Yeah,” Lesley said. “Amy Paleson mentioned that the two of you are back on.”
“Not exactly,” Matthew said and held up his hands. “Donna came to the store, and we had a conversation. I was open to talking with her about it.
We’ve been off; it wasn’t like taking a break or anything. She broke up with me in no uncertain terms. I spent a lot of time getting over things, and all of a sudden she decided she wanted to give it another go.”
“You were so into her,” Lesley said. “And she’s made it sound like it’s a done deal already.”
“Well, I did tell her we could try to start over to see how things go.
But I mentioned I wanted to get through this weekend and everything. I have enough going on. Also, she’s away for vacation with her family. I told her that once she’s home, we could have more than a short discussion about it, which is really all we had as I locked up the store. If she’s serious, we have a lot of things to talk through so that we don’t have another misunderstanding.
I’m open to it, but I want that talk first.”
“You know,” Tim said. “Maybe you should have locked it in; a lot can happen in the week she’s away. Some hot cabana boy …”
Lesley slugged him in the arm. “Pig,” she said.
“What? She’s technically free still; you heard the man.” Tim pointed over to Matthew.
Melissa took in the exchange and looked over at Diane, who got up from her seat and headed upstairs. Melissa got up to follow her.
“Hey,” Diane said and turned toward the cellar stairs. “I didn’t know you’d come right up behind me.”
Melissa smiled and stepped into the kitchen.
“What’s on your mind?” Diane asked, reaching to pull more glassware from the cabinets.
“Oh, nothing really,” Melissa said. “I thought you might need help bringing something back down with you.”
Diane set down the glasses and turned around. “Have I ever mentioned to you that you’re a terrible liar?”
Melissa tried hard not to change her expression, and then laughed.
“Sorry … it’s nothing that can’t wait.”
“It doesn’t have to wait at all; I’m asking. What’s on your mind?”
Melissa took a deep breath. “When did you and I switch roles?”
“What?” Diane asked.
“I remember back when Matthew and his dad first got here,” Melissa said, looking back to the cellar door. “You were the shy, unsure one, and I
was the one full of fire and decisiveness. Now you’re the one who’s so sure of everything, and I’m the one who’s gun-shy and questioning everything.”
“I remember,” Diane said while she leaned backward on the counter.
“There were days where I said, ‘when I grow up, I want to be like my little sister.’ I guess when you look at how I turned out, and the confidence that I have now, I got my wish.”
“You stole my moxie; can I have it back? I could use it,” Melissa said, stepping over to the kitchen table.
“Things with Matthew?”
“God, Diane,” Melissa said, and the exasperation showed in her voice, “I can remember a time in sixth grade when I used to laugh at how he stumbled and bumbled between Liz and me; I almost felt bad for him. Now I’m the one who doesn’t know how to act around him.”
“Because now it matters to you what he thinks. Over the years, you had just been friends and, at least with you, your interest in him waxed and waned in a cycle. He stayed steady with the things he felt and how he acted.
It always mattered to him what you thought and felt about him, so he grew on that and became strong and polished in his demeanor. You’re just coming into it now.” Diane paused for a moment and looked intently at her little sister. “Missy, Mark and I know something was going on with Matthew and Liz. We don’t know what it was—Matthew hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with all the information, and Mark’s been hard pressed to push him. At first, we thought he was seeing her and Donna at the same time.”
“It wasn’t that,” Melissa said. “I don’t even know if he could do that.”
Diane held up her hands. “First, you’d be surprised at what people are capable of, but be that as it may, we soon realized that wasn’t it. John Cafferty knows Mr. Epps, and the two of them had an interesting and intense conversation.”
“Matthew never told me about it, or Tim,” Melissa said.
“That’s because neither of them knew about it,” Diane said. “What John found out wasn’t much more than what you’d told me, and what Matthew had partly admitted to, which is that Liz had some things going on
at home and that he was helping her through them.”
Melissa lowered her head and leaned down on the kitchen table.
“I gave you some advice before regarding Matthew,” Diane said.
“I know, and that’s just it, I don’t know what to do. He’s considering things with her again.”
Melissa moved away from the table.
“At the moment, they’re not together,” Diane said.
“It’s more than that,” Melissa said and hated how desperate she sounded. “Donna said some things … some underhanded things. She seems as if she’s only considering going back to him now suddenly because …”
“You’re showing an interest in him?” Diane asked.
Melissa nodded. “It’s almost like, ‘I don’t want him … wait, you want him? I have him, or he belongs to no one.’”
“How much of all of this does Matthew know?” Diane asked.
“He doesn’t have all the details,” Melissa said.
“Then he can’t make an objective decision,” Diane said.
“Liz said that too.”
“Is Liz trying to show an interest in him beyond their friendship?”
Diane asked while she turned to get the glassware.
“Not exactly. She does have an interest, but she’s resigned to the idea that Matthew wouldn’t respond. He never has over the years of her passively trying, and I guess she figures he never will even if she were to try more seriously.”
Diane took the glasses and headed over toward the door. “She said this to you?”
“Yes,” Melissa said and opened the door for Diane. “She said that if I had any interest, now was the time to express it, before Donna has the chance to reinsert herself.”
“What do you think you should do?” Diane asked and stepped into the open doorway.
“I don’t know; that’s where I feel confused,” Melissa said.
“What do you feel? What does your heart say?”
Tears welled up in Melissa’s eyes. “Grab him and never let go.”
Diane nodded, said nothing further, and headed down the stairs.
***
The doorbell sounded. Matthew looked over to his father. “Were you expecting someone else coming over?”
“No.” Mark looked at his watch. “Not now; it’s after nine.”
“I’ll get it.” Matthew got up. He touched Melissa’s knee to step around her and walked away to head up the stairs. He glanced back before disappearing above the woodwork and saw that Melissa watched him the whole way.
