The Reunion

by Matayo, Amy

  I push myself up on my elbows and scoot back, mainly because my mom is sitting on my thigh, and I need to move it.

  “You just needed a place to hang out until he’s finished?”

  “No. I wanted to know your decision about the cruise. We need to finalize the head count tomorrow.” She reaches for an old Cosmopolitan magazine and opens it to the middle.

  There’s logic in that sentence somewhere, I think. “Your backed-up bathtub made you think about the cruise? Not exactly the best mental image, Mom.”

  She discards the magazine without even looking at it. “That girl was half-naked. I don’t know why you read this trash.” She sighs, loudly. “Honestly Dillon, can you please just go? It would mean a lot to your grandparents, and it’s only for a week. They’ve already paid for it, for heaven’s sake. It’s not like you’ll be out any money.”

  What my mother lacks in subtlety, she makes up for it in guilt trips. The worst thing is, she’s right. It’s my grandparents fiftieth wedding anniversary next month. To celebrate, they pre-paid a cruise for our entire family—that’s aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, a few random friends thrown in because my musician-cousin Teddy doesn’t travel without an entourage. The whole lot of us will be under the same swaying roof. If you’re the curious math type, that’s fifty-nine men, women, and children heading toward the same Caribbean destination while sleeping under a not-big-enough-for-me third-floor hallway.

  I don’t want to go.

  I don’t have a choice.

  “I’ll be there. Put me down as a yes.” I may as well have said, “I have poison oak. Buy me some ointment,” for all the enthusiasm in my tone. But I’m showing up, right? No one said I had to be happy about it.

  “You could be a little happier about it.”

  Except my mother, of course. It’s like she has a one-way ticket straight inside my brain.

  I roll away from her and bury my head in a sofa cushion. My boxers have ridden down, and I can feel some air on my butt, but I don’t move to pull them up. She came here without my permission, so she can deal with a little crack in my personality. So to speak.

  “I’ll get happy about it next week.” I won’t, but I keep that information to myself.

  “Honestly Dillon, pull up your pants. No wonder.”

  Wait just a gosh darn minute. I flip over to glare at her, tugging my shorts up because I want to and no other reason.

  “No wonder what?”

  My mother stands and shakes her head. Her sigh could be heard at the Grand Ole Opry if anyone craned an ear.

  “Nothing. Just…please take a shower and pack a bag before we leave for heaven’s sake.” She takes a few steps, then pauses to look back at me from the doorway. “And just for the record, no man is worth wallowing like this, especially covered in dried ice cream. Self-pity doesn’t look good on you, not when you’re that beautiful. Now get up and find someone who treats you better than Jonah or Kurt or whatever their names were. And brush your hair, for heaven’s sake.”

  “Judah and Kirk. Not to mention Dan and David, even though you did.”

  She tilts her head. “Two things about that. One, I barely recall the other men, but I still insist you couldn’t have looked at that horrible mole the rest of your life. Seriously, he needs to have it checked. I swear it has cancer written all over it. Someday it will probably spread to his actual eye.”

  As usual, we’re off track. “And two?”

  Her eyebrows pinch together. “Two what?”

  I swallow my sigh, feeling my insides explode just a little bit. “You said two things?”

  “Oh. In the Bible, Judah was a snake.” And with that, my mother leaves.

  I can’t help a tiny smile.

  That might be the nicest thing she’s ever said to me.

  Liam

  “And you’re sure she’s going to be there?”

  I’m holding a pair of Doc Martens in my hand and thinking seriously about chucking them at Chad’s head. Packing quickly and in peace was the plan, but that was nothing more than wishful thinking. After the crap day I’ve had, I’d really rather not continue this conversation. It’s been going on for ten minutes already.

  “Dude, if he says she’s going to be there, she’s going to be there. It’s a family reunion. Her family. Why wouldn’t she show up?” I drop the Docs in my suitcase and reach for a navy swimsuit.

  “She bailed on Easter and no one’s seen her since then. Sue me for not trying to get my hopes up again.” He eyes me with a modicum of contempt. “Can you put on a shirt or something? I’m getting a little tired of looking at your obnoxious abs.”

  I shrug but make no move to accommodate the request because he can suck it.

  “I keep asking you to come to the gym with me. And also, are you a fourteen-year-old-girl or a grown-up insurance adjuster who drives a Lexus? Dillon will be there.” I enunciate each word straight in his face, hoping this will be the end of it. “Now go pack your bag. We’re leaving in less than an hour.” Sometimes I wish I could afford my own apartment, but until I finish law school I’m stuck here. Not that this is a bad place to live. It’s great, actually. A three-bedroom two bath in the best part of Nashville with fantastic views of the city—affordable since I only have to pay a third of the rent. My friend Teddy pays most of it since he’s rich and can afford it. No, the apartment isn’t a problem. Nor are the roommates.

  The problem is Chad has a major crush on Teddy’s cousin.

  The other problem is that Chad is my brother.

  But the main problem neither one of us is addressing is this: since we were young, every girl Chad has ever liked…wound up liking me. That’s what is really on his mind, though he can’t bring himself to directly say it. Truthfully, I’m a little sick of it too, even if I did provoke the tiniest bit of it in high school. But in reality, I didn’t ask to be taller. I didn’t ask to be the athlete. I didn’t ask to be popular. I didn’t ask to be prom king. And I didn’t ask for Chad to be the opposite of all those things. It hasn’t been an issue in a decade, because I moved away and effectively removed myself from his personal life. But now I’m back, and the situation is ripe for repeating. At least in Chad’s mind.

  As for me, I’m not interested in Teddy’s cousin or in anyone else this cruise might produce. I’ve been studying forever, and right now all I want to do is sleep.

  Teddy is our other roommate, arguably the only normal one in our group despite his insane travel schedule and career. He’s a country singer, one of Nashville’s newest and most popular; just last month he was the opening act for Kenny Chesney. Every week his popularity rises a little higher, coincidently at the same rate as my law school debt. Funny how that works.

  I sound bitter, but I’m not. Teddy is one of the best guys I’ve ever met, never hesitating to help out a friend when they need it. Case in point, me. I applied to transfer to Vanderbilt School of Law last year and came back into town without telling anyone to be on the lookout for an apartment, just in case. No sense in getting anyone’s hopes up, especially not my brother’s. Chad had been bugging me to move here for years. When Teddy ran into me at a downtown coffee shop and heard I was apartment hunting, he asked if I wanted to move in here with them. Whether you believe in God or the stars aligning, that wasn’t a coincidence. For the record, I think God was involved.

  “You almost ready?”

  “Speak of the devil.”

  Teddy walks in and gives the room a slow perusal. “Were you talking about me? Because there’s no one else here.”

  I give him a look. “No, I was thinking about you. About how I’d like to strangle you for introducing Chad to Dillon. She’s all he’s talked about all afternoon.”

  Teddy slides both hands down his face with a low groan. “He’s going to drive me crazy on this trip, isn’t he?”

  “Correction, he’s going to drive us crazy on this trip. And it’s entirely your fault. Could you just convince the girl to marry him and put us out of our misery? If
they could find a Justice of the Peace on board the ship, even better. Then maybe I won’t have to hear about her anymore. Of course, then he’ll probably fill me in on their sex life twenty-four-seven, so…no. Don’t do that or I’ll definitely kill you.”

  “I have a lot of fans who would be sad about that.”

  “They’d get over it.”

  Teddy laughs and sits on the edge of my bed. He looks tired, but then he’s just wrapped up the first leg of Brad Paisley’s latest tour in time to go on this cruise. A week off is all he gets. He looks like he needs the rest.

  He glances at the door and lowers his voice to a whisper. “He’s not her type, but I can’t get him to see it. Plus, she’s a serial dater who hasn’t had a serious boyfriend since ninth grade. She broke up with another guy last week. You’ve met her. Do you see the two of them working out?”

  I toss my toothbrush into a plastic bag and zip it up. “Actually, I don’t see her working out with anyone. I mean, she’s hot. But she’s also a little…much.”

  I want to take the words back at the look on his face. “What do you mean, much? She might be a little flighty, but she’s also my best friend. And cousin. Be careful dissing her to me.”

  I stuff my swim trunks in the bag and zip it up. “Okay maybe much is too strong a word. She’s just…kind of opinionated. She’s a counselor, probably too analytical to ever settle down with anyone. She’d no doubt make a pros and cons list so long that romance would be more of a business arrangement for her. And there’s also the matter of what she said about lawyers on the Fourth of July. You’re lucky I didn’t shove her into your parent’s pool for that comment.”

  She called lawyers “money-grubbing slime balls who only follow the law when it works in their favor.” Never mind that I’m currently finishing up law school, and she knows it. The memory of that comment still makes me mad. Teddy, on the other hand, just laughs again.

  “That was pretty funny, especially when I saw the look on your face. But you two haven’t liked each other since you met at that party. I’ve never understood why…”

  Because we met before that actually, and she didn’t have the courtesy to remember it.

  I ran into Dillon in a grocery store on the bread aisle that same weekend I was apartment hunting. I stopped by to pick up sodas to take back to the hotel, she dropped a bag of chips out of her overloaded arms in front of me, and after I handed them back to her we wound up talking for ten minutes about the Steelers/Bears game and debated the merits of college football over professional. I said professional was better; she said college, and it was at that moment I knew I’d found my soul mate. Any woman who can argue football with me is a woman I want to keep forever.

  So, I asked her if she wanted to continue that discussion at the coffee shop across the street. She said no because she had a boyfriend, one that had broken up with her by the time that party rolled around—the same party where she didn’t recognize me at all. I’ve seen her at least half a dozen times since then, the last of which she insulted my impending profession. By then I’d already learned about my brother’s obsession with her and backed the heck off. That is a road I will never walk again. So much for soul mates.

  Nowadays as far as I’m concerned, Chad can have her.

  Probably best anyway since the guy has had it bad for her for several years now and I’ve only met her a few times. And now we’re going to be stuck on a ship where Dillon will undoubtedly prance around in a tight little swimsuit while Chad continually whispers his secret undying love and lust, and I’ll have to pretend that none of it affects me.

  It will affect me. Everything she does affects me. That’s why I try real hard to stay away from her. I tried for three days to find a valid way out of this trip, but after a few years of being undecided for what to do in life, I’m almost finished with law school and Chad wanted me to come. When you shun a career in basketball and subsequently tick your father off, it’s a bit hard to find your footing. Especially when basketball was the only thing you were groomed to do. Law school is where I finally discovered a passion outside of sports, but the schedule is grueling. This might be the last week Chad and I can spend together before the real world invades my life, so there wasn’t a good reason to say no. Besides, it’s for Teddy’s grandparent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. What kind of person would ignore that? Short of coming down with the Asian flu or needing an emergency heart transplant, there is no gracious way out of it. And honestly, it’s a free trip. Might be the last thing I can afford for a while.

  Even thoughts of Teddy’s grandparents and my brother don’t manage to get the image of Dillon in a swimsuit out of my mind.

  “Dude, did you hear what I said?”

  I blink at Teddy now standing in the doorway. When did he move off the bed?

  “No.” I was busy mentally lusting after your cousin. I keep that part to myself and heave my suitcase to the floor.

  “I said Brad Paisley’s backup singer is hot. You should come out on the tour and meet her.”

  I shrug as if it isn’t the best news I’ve heard all day.

  “Count me in.”

  How’s that for a distraction? I smile, kinda pleased with myself. Until Chad pops his head around the corner again and looks at Teddy.

  “Dillon is coming on this trip, right?”

  I pick up a dirty sock off the floor and throw it at Chad’s head at the same time Teddy hits him with his ball cap.

  “Yes she’s coming!” We both yell it at the same time.

  This might be the longest week of my life.

  * * *

  Four hours later, we’ve landed in New Orleans and hopped in an Uber. Now we’re headed toward the ship. Boarding lasts until three o’clock. Thank God for private planes and wealthy friends.

  “So this backup singer. She’s single?” I ask.

  “Backup singer?” the driver pipes up. “Are you Teddy Hayes? I thought you were Teddy Hayes.” He slaps his knee and laughs as though he’s just won the lottery. “Hey, can I have an autograph?”

  “Sure,” Teddy says enthusiastically, shooting a look at me. “Got something I can write on?” The driver hands him an old receipt and Teddy scrawls out a messy signature. He hands it back and the guy stares at the paper in awe, a dazed grin on his face. I want to tell him to stare at the road, but he focuses on it once again before I can. Teddy turns his attention to me. “Yes Liam, she’s tall and beautiful and if heaven has a choir, she’ll be up there singing a solo. She has the voice of a freaking angel.”

  “I’m pretty sure heaven has a choir. I think they mention it in Galatians or something.” I made up that last part. I haven’t even read Galatians, or even most of the Bible. But I remember something about the choir from second grade Sunday School. Or maybe it was an old Christmas carol, I don’t know. “Got a picture?”

  “Yeah, why?” He opens his phone.

  “Because I don’t trust you. There must be something wrong with her.” We hit a pot hole in the road and Teddy’s phone slips out of his hand. The driver apologizes, and I reach down to grab the phone and hand it back to Teddy.

  “Stupid roads. Just trust me for once. There’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “Let me see what’s wrong with her,” Chad says from the front seat, twisting around to see us.

  “There’s nothing wrong with her.” Teddy’s had enough of both of us.

  “Then why aren’t you trying to date her?” I set his phone in the cup holder next to me, resisting the urge to pull up his Instagram and search the hot backup singers hashtag.

  “I’ve got my eye on someone else.”

  I slide a look his way, but that’s all he says. The most cryptic words to come out of his mouth ever, and he doesn’t offer another detail. You can’t just drop a statement like that and leave it hanging. I wait for him to elaborate, but still nothing.

  “What—”

  “Don’t even ask, because I’m not telling. Not yet, anyway. Don’t want to jinx it.”
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  It’s my turn to groan. “Do you need to consult your Magic 8 Ball, too?” I smack Chad on the back of the head. “For two guys who have much better careers than me, you both act like you’re twelve. ‘Does she like me? Is this bad luck?’” My voice is raised like a little girl’s. “I just don’t know what to do if she doesn’t like me back.”

  “Shut up, Liam,” they both say. Then Teddy pipes up. “First of all, respectability wise—you’ll have a better job than both of us after you graduate.”

  “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being an insurance adjuster,” Chad protests.

  Teddy shoots him a look. “Nothing wrong with being a singer, either. But my mom would like me better as a lawyer.”

  Point taken.

  “Second of all,” he continues, “pretty soon you’re going to meet some chick that will have you gripped so tight you’ll be speaking in the stupid high-pitched voice forever, if you know what I mean. Then you’ll be the one acting like a little girl while we both drink beer and watch.”

  I shake my head because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. “That won’t happen to me. Not ever.”

  We pull into the parking lot, and the driver parks next to the sidewalk. He opens the trunk and pulls out our bags one by one, setting them on the concrete in front of us. Teddy hands him a fifty-dollar bill as a tip and shakes the man’s hand.

  “Hey, can we get a selfie?” It’s a standard question, and both Chad and I know to back away and let Teddy work. After two attempts, the driver shakes our hands and walks back to the car saying, “I can’t believe I got to drive Teddy Hayes…” If he says anything else, I tune it out. Teddy’s fandom is just part of life.

  “You think the others are here yet?” Chad asks. We all know what he really means, but both Teddy and I choose to ignore it.

  “I have a feeling we’re the last of them. I’m usually the late one to every family event,” Teddy says. “Let’s head to the ship and find out.” He closes the trunk and we make our way toward the gate. Try as I might, I can’t ignore the way my pulse speeds up and my nerves multiply. Chad might be the one constantly asking about Dillon, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about her.