Somewhere Unexpected

by Suzanne Glidewell

  “Do you have any plans today?” my mom asked before I had a chance to answer my dad’s question.

  “I don’t know,” I mumbled, answering both of their questions.

  “Well, we’re very excited to take you out to dinner tonight with Ethan,” my mom said loudly. Whenever using Bluetooth, my mom thought one was required to shout. “Do you think he got you anything special and sparkly for your birthday?”

  The question produced an audible sigh from me.

  “Well, I did ask for a tiara, so we’ll see.” I managed to be clever despite the early hour.

  “He better not have gotten her a ring,” my dad interjected. “He never asked my permission.”

  “Oh nonsense, James, people don’t do that anymore,” my mother said knowingly.

  Considering what I knew about Ethan, she was dead wrong.

  “I think a proposal is the perfect birthday gift, don’t you, Maurie?”

  “Mom, calm down. It’s not happening today. Yes, Dad, he would ask your permission before asking me.” I set them both straight, growing more tired the longer I stayed on the phone with them.

  “Darn right he would,” my dad agreed firmly.

  “Is there anything else? Or can I go back to sleep?” I asked, knowing they wouldn’t hold it against me.

  “We will see you tonight at – what’s the place called again?” I sensed my dad turning to my mom for help. “The Crow?”

  “Just Crow, Dad,” I corrected.

  “Just Crow? It’s called Just Crow?”

  “No. Crow.” I was now talking as loudly as my mom. “The restaurant is called Crow.”

  “Like we’re eating crow?” my mom asked, trying to be funny.

  I sighed dramatically.

  “We’ll see you at seven o’clock. Love you, Sweetie, and…”

  “Happy Birthday!” they exclaimed in unison.

  “Bye.” I hung up and dropped the phone down on my bed. I didn’t have to get up for twenty more minutes. Hopefully I could fall back asleep. It was highly unlikely, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying. Miraculously I managed to drift off for an extra ten minutes. It was better than nothing. Happy birthday to me.

  Despite my parents calling so early and obnoxiously, there were worse ways to start my birthday. I straightened my hair and wore my favorite pair of jeans with a new shirt I’d recently bought. As I looked myself over in the mirror, I was pleased with the results of my extra effort for the day.

  There was an arrangement of pink roses waiting for me on my desk at work. I read the accompanying card; they were from Ethan.

  ‘Maura, Happy Birthday. Love, Ethan.’

  I had never gotten an arrangement of flowers delivered to me, so it was exciting, even if the message wasn’t. But...why did he pick roses? My favorite flowers were peonies.

  Way to be ungrateful, Maura.

  It was silly to get hung up on a grand gesture not being grand enough.

  Stop being nitpicky and text him thank you. You have a great boyfriend who sent you roses.

  “Hey, happy birthday, lady,” Sydney gave me a rare hug upon entering our office.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Who’re the flowers from? Ethan?”

  I nodded.

  “Wow, fancy.”

  “I know. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten flowers before.”

  “If only he knew he wasn’t getting laid,” she joked before moving over to her side of the office.

  “Hilarious.” I situated myself at my desk to begin work for the day. Although, I’d purposely planned a day with very little to do.

  “Hope you don’t have too much work today; we are heading to Teddy’s promptly at four thirty.” Sydney reminded me of our now four-year tradition of getting a beer at Teddy’s before I had dinner with my parents.

  The whole thing had started when I turned twenty-two. I was sitting in one of our graduate classes and starting to freak out because I was going to have tell my parents that I had once again broken up with a boyfriend that they were overly hopeful I would marry. Sydney decided the best way to solve it was to take me to Teddy’s, get a few in me, and have me repeat the mantra ‘Who the hell cares?’

  “Oooh, we get to leave thirty minutes early?” I exaggerated my excitement.

  “What can I say? I think I’m Ann’s favorite,” she playfully referenced my insecurity that our boss liked her best. “Actually, it has more to do with all the overtime we’ve been putting in prepping for the gala.”

  Every year the Archbishop hosted a gala where donors to various causes were honored and Catholic-affiliated nonprofits from the area also attended. The idea was to thank the benefactors, but also introduce them to those who worked at the funded nonprofits. It allowed the donors an opportunity to ask questions and get to know the programs better, but also increased the likelihood of getting additional financial support.

  “I invited Ashland and Thomas out too. Hope that’s cool,” Sydney gave me a heads up.

  “Of course, you know I’m all for as many people as possible celebrating my birth.”

  It would have been nice to see Thomas that day. I hadn’t seen him in a couple of weeks. But it was a Thursday, not a Wednesday. Thomas would’ve had to switch shifts with someone to make it to Teddy’s by four thirty and I really didn’t think he would go out of his way like that just to have a drink with me on my birthday.

  Too bad. Wait. Why do I care?

  Okay, I seriously needed to get some work done.

  On top of sending roses, Ethan called me during his lunch even though he was going to see me at dinner that night. He certainly shined as a boyfriend when it came to special occasions. He told me that he would be taking me out to dinner and the Seattle Symphony that weekend, because he wanted a chance to celebrate with only me.

  I was caught off guard by his choice of activities since I had never expressed any interest in the symphony or classical music in general. Not that I was opposed to going. To avoid hurting his feelings or sounding unappreciative, I told him I was thrilled. Most women would find the gesture romantic.

  “You ready to go?” Sydney said as soon as the clock hit four thirty.

  “I thought you’d never ask.” I practically jumped out of my seat.

  Sydney beat me to Teddy’s and was already at a booth with two beers when I arrived. Besides two other people sitting at the bar, the place was dead.

  “What’d you order?” I asked, sliding into the booth.

  “Stella.”

  I nodded. She knew me so well.

  She held up her glass to clink with mine. “Happy birthday.”

  “Thanks.” I took a drink.

  “So...you and Ethan...how’re things?” The specific tone she used turned it into a loaded question. It was one of the nuances that came with being close friends.

  “They’re good,” I said, sounding chipper. Too chipper.

  The questions were inevitable.

  “You don’t really talk about him much anymore,” she observed.

  “Well, is there anything in particular you would like to know?”

  “Yeah, why haven’t I met him?” she asked before taking a drink.

  “Uh, there just hasn’t been an opportunity, I guess,” I lied.

  The truth was I didn’t know how Ethan was going to react to my closest friend being gay and I just didn’t want to deal with it. Like all other areas of potential disagreement, I had been avoiding the topic. I was being a coward, but I couldn’t bring myself to confess it to Sydney. She sensed it, but she took pity on me and didn’t call me on it on my birthday. Eventually she would, and it would be justified.

  An idea popped in my head.

  “You know, you’ll probably get to meet him at the gala next month,” I said, practically gushing.

 
It would be the perfect opportunity for them to meet. Both Sydney and Ethan could agree that it was important to help those in poverty, and the event focused on that. The Archbishop would be there and the exhilaration from that alone would distract Ethan from caring about who Sydney was attracted to.

  Brilliant, Maura, I congratulated myself.

  And perhaps I needed to put more faith in Ethan. Wasn’t it kind of small-minded of me to assume he wouldn’t be accepting of people with views different than his own? He had never shown himself to be anything but a loving person.

  “Looking forward to it. You know it’s important that I make sure he’s not a jerk.”

  “Well, Sean doesn’t seem to care for him, so maybe that means you’ll like him,” I reasoned.

  “Interesting. And what fault has the ever most Holy Father Finley found with him?”

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t said it specifically, but last time I saw him he had all these questions about whether I was really happy...I don’t know,” I said again. “It was weird.”

  I held back from going into too much detail about what Sean had said because undoubtedly it would lead to Sydney posing the same questions. I had finally found a Catholic guy who was probably willing to marry me – couldn’t people just let me have that?

  “Sean just doesn’t like to share his toys, even after he’s done playing with them,” Sydney evaluated.

  “Gee, how insightful and objectifying of you to put it that way.”

  She shrugged, wearing a proud smile.

  “Hey guys,” Sydney greeted towards the door.

  I turned to see Thomas and Ashland walk in.

  “Not even five o’clock and already getting the party started. I like how you roll, McCormick,” Thomas quipped.

  “It’s four fifty; we can round up.” I was slightly disappointed when he sat down next to Sydney, leaving Ashland to sit next to me. “You didn’t have to work?”

  “I joined a baseball team that plays in Ravenna on Thursdays, so Michael switched the early shift with me, just for the season.”

  “Baseball team?” I said curiously, never having pictured Thomas as the type who would willingly participate in a community activity.

  “Yep, they needed an outfielder, I got Finley-ed into it,” he joked. “So, what’re we drinking?”

  “Stella,” Sydney answered.

  “You know what you want?” he asked Ashland while he got up.

  “Stella sounds good to me,” she said sweetly.

  The way she was looking at him was a little too friendly for my liking. Then he smiled back. I glanced over at Sydney who was already staring at me. Ashland’s eyes noticeably followed Thomas while he made his way to the bar.

  “So, how was your day, Ashland?” Sydney called her attention back to our table.

  “Oh, fine...just, you know, class, nothing special. I’m ready for summer.”

  “That’s right, you’re only with us for two more weeks,” Sydney acknowledged. “I’ll have to make sure and remind all the teens.”

  “Oh, trust me, I started the countdown with them like five weeks ago.”

  Thomas returned with the pints and sat back down next to Sydney.

  “I was going to ask if I’m supposed to attend that gala thing? It’s on the last week of my internship, but it’s the night of my last day, so I didn’t know what was expected.”

  “Well, since you worked on putting everything together, we would really like it if you could go, but no, you’re not required,” Sydney said. “There’ll be a lot of other nonprofits there, so it might be a good opportunity to network for next year,” she added.

  “Hmm,” Ashland considered Sydney’s words. “I’ll think about it.”

  She acted like she would be doing us a favor if she showed up. I wanted to uninvite her to the damn thing. Sydney sensed my frustration and changed the subject.

  “So, Thomas, you play ball?”

  “Yes, ma’am. But not really after high school. What about you?”

  “Yeah, I played softball in high school, second base.”

  They briefly exchanged a couple of names to see if they knew different players from our alma maters. It would have been polite to ask Ashland if she played softball or any sport in high school, but I didn’t care.

  “Cool. What about you, Maura? Were you on the softball team?”

  Sydney snickered at Thomas’ question. He looked back over at her, then at me.

  “No, I did not,” I said calmly. “Apparently, Syd finds it amusing that someone could even consider it a possibility.”

  “You should watch her try to hit a ball. It’s pretty hilarious,” Sydney informed. “Luckily, by the fifth grade her dad got her to stop twirling like a ballerina when she swung the bat. It still didn’t help much with being able to make contact with the ball.”

  Thomas tried unsuccessfully to suppress a grin.

  “Excuse me, it is my birthday. You have to be nice to me.”

  “But it’s so much more fun to pick on you, Maura,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Exactly,” Sydney agreed.

  “Whatever,” I dismissed them, knowing their teasing was a sign of affection.

  “So, where’s my buddy, Ethan?” Thomas asked, looking around. He didn’t sound sarcastic, but I knew he was being sarcastic.

  “He’s still at work,” I said.

  “Wait, so Thomas has met Ethan and I haven’t?” Sydney clarified. I opened my mouth, but Thomas started talking before I could explain.

  “Oh, several times,” he exaggerated.

  “Hmm, interesting,” Sydney reflected. “And what would you say is your evaluation of him, Thomas? Since Maura’s been so secretive with him, I’ll have to rely on your opinion.”

  A grin spread across Thomas’ face as he considered his words. I let out a sigh, anticipating a snarky reply.

  “Hmm, what would I say about Ethan?” he paused, gazing steadily at me.

  Great, here comes another virgin joke.

  “You know, Sydney, there’s not much I can say about him, other than that he seems like a safe choice for our Maura here. Especially in this day and age with all the technology. Always a good idea to have a friend who can fix your computer for free. I mean, it’s not as useful or manly as, say, someone who can fix your car, but you know, to each their own.”

  He finished off his drink.

  “What time is it?” He pulled out his phone and looked at it. “I actually have to get going to my game. Are you finished?” He pointed at Ashland who still had half of her beer left. She nodded and stood up.

  “I promised Ashland I’d let her observe the social dynamics of washed-up athletic males,” he joked while he got up from the table. He and Ashland may not have been holding hands, but they were standing awfully close.

  “All right, well, happy birthday, Maura. Don’t get too wild tonight.” His sarcasm was obvious that time.

  After they left, I waited a moment, staring at my drink before I started in with Sydney.

  “Okay, seriously, what the hell was that?” I asked. I wanted her to validate my outrage, but I knew her better than that. Sydney rarely responded to things with heightened emotion, especially things as petty as relationship drama.

  “What?” she acted clueless. I could tell she was holding something back.

  “Those two,” I exclaimed in a hushed tone, not wanting the other people there to look over at me. “They’re clearly hooking up,” I declared.

  “I don’t see how that’s any of our business.”

  I examined her face.

  “You know they’re hooking up, don’t you?” I stared her down. “Don’t you?”

  She sighed, knowing I would just keep asking if my suspicion wasn’t validated soon.

  “I don’t know anything. I just know that th
ey went out to dinner last Wednesday after work. But I told Thomas the policy regarding staff and volunteers and said if they were going to do anything, it would be best to do it on the down low. We came to a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ agreement.”

  “Really? ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell?’ You?”

  “I’m more in favor of that than a witch hunt. And it’s not like they were bad while they were here. I didn’t see any grab-ass, did you?”

  “No, but that’s not the point,” I said without having my point ready.

  “And what is the point, Maura?”

  Damn it. Sydney knew I didn’t have one. My knee was fidgeting while I considered the two of them together.

  “Is there any reason why it would be so upsetting should Thomas and Ashland decide to get together? Any reason at all?” Sydney prompted.

  I sensed what she was hinting at while she leveled her stare at me. I took a deep breath and got my leg to stop bouncing.

  “No,” I said calmly. “I just don’t like it when people break the rules.”

  “Yes, clearly that’s what has gotten you so upset about the situation.”

  We let a silence pass. She took a drink.

  “So…doing anything special with your hair tonight?”

  The question sounded so absurd coming from her, I let out a laugh.

  “What? Jules told me to work more on my people skills.”

  I shook my head.

  “I’ll be sure to let her know that you’re trying.”

  With that, Sydney had moved us past the moment of tension and returned us to enjoying the rest of our tradition. She knew I wasn’t ready to admit that Thomas popped up in my mind more than I wanted him to. Normally I would confide everything to her: uncertainty about Ethan, confusion about Thomas…but over the past several weeks, I had decided to close myself off from her when it came to the whole matter. Somewhere along the line I had decided that if I voiced any of the thoughts floating in my head, it would make them real. I desperately didn’t want that.

  What I wanted was to be settled. God knows it had taken long enough to get to this point. I did not need to mess it up with my own stupid second-guessing. And processing with Sydney would only give credence to what was in my head. Taking Ethan to dinner with my parents was the best remedy for the entire situation. If anyone could convince me of Ethan’s attributes and the logic of loving him, it would be my grandbaby-hungry parents.