Somewhere Unexpected

by Suzanne Glidewell

  I resisted. He probably had plans with Ashland anyway.

  “Have a good night.”

  “You too,” he nodded and walked out the door.

  It seemed overwhelmingly quiet once Thomas left. What was I going to do over the summer when I had no excuse to talk to him?

  Later that night, I was settling into my pathetic dinner of grilled cheese at home when my phone rang. It was my parents. Finally, a break from the silence that had enveloped me since Thomas left my office.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, kiddo,” my dad’s voice answered back. “How’re you doing?”

  “Fine. Just got home from work. Sitting down to a seven-course meal I made from scratch,” I kidded.

  “Cold cereal?” he guessed knowingly.

  “Close, but no. Grilled cheese.”

  “Wow, stepping it up a bit. Did you use multiple cheeses? Maybe throw a tomato in there?”

  “Please, it’s impressive I even turned the stove on.”

  “You want me to send your mother over there to cook you something?” he half joked, but we both knew she’d do it if I asked her to.

  “No, I’m good. I think I’ll let her have the night off. Did you call just to hear about my riveting dinner plans tonight?”

  My dad always had a specific reason for contacting me.

  “Well, I just wanted to wish you luck on your big fundraising shin-dig Friday.”

  “Thanks Dad,” I said, still waiting for him to get to his real reason for calling.

  He paused a moment.

  “So, did you like the symphony? Your mom said you and Ethan went Saturday night.”

  “It was okay. Kind of slow.” This small talk with my dad was starting to feel strange. There was another silence.

  “And you really like this Ethan guy?”

  There it was: the completely awkward question my dad had been holding back, but the real reason why he’d called.

  “Uh…” I paused, unsure of what to say. My dad had made a point never to talk to me about my romantic relationships. He had relied solely on my mom to be his informant all these years. “Yeah…” my voice trailed off. We both knew I didn’t want to talk about it, especially with him.

  “The only reason I ask is...well, I know things are starting to get kind of serious, and well, Maura...I don’t really know how to say this…”

  I half expected him to forbid me to go to Vail, which was odd because my parents had never forbidden me from doing anything. They’d never had to.

  “You just didn’t seem like yourself at dinner and I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  “I wasn’t myself?” I feigned cluelessness.

  “Yeah, I don’t know, you seemed different. I don’t know how to pinpoint it, and maybe you were having an off-day, but I just thought I’d call and make sure you’re okay.”

  “Dad, I’m fine. I had a busy day at work and was just tired,” I reasoned. So what if it was a lie?

  “I figured that might have been it. But I thought I’d call and make sure.” Another silence passed. “I know your mother and I joke a lot about wanting you to settle down, but I want you to know that what’s most important to us is that you’re happy.”

  “I know, Dad.” I pushed away my dinner, no longer hungry.

  “It’s just that...on your birthday, you didn’t really seem happy, and it seemed like Ethan didn’t really notice?” His tone had the inflection of a question, like he was seeking confirmation for his observation. “We were surprised he didn’t know how much you hate skiing and the snow.”

  I stayed quiet.

  “Maybe you guys are still getting to know each other,” he tried to backtrack. “I just want to make sure that as he gets to know you, he knows all of you, because I think you’re pretty great. I’d hate for him to miss out on something.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” I managed to get out.

  “And if he ends up not liking something about you, he’s an idiot.”

  “Of course,” I agreed.

  “Okay, well, that’s all I really wanted to say.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  “All right then. You have a good night,” he finished. Clearly, he called me without my mother’s knowledge; otherwise she would’ve insisted on talking to me for the next hour.

  “’Okay, you too.” I hung up, feeling disappointed in myself.

  No matter how much I tried to be the serious, devout Catholic woman I presented to Ethan, it was obvious to everyone else in my life that I could never be that person.

  THOMAS

  I waited at the entrance of Ashland’s apartment building, feeling overdressed and out of place, since her building housed mostly college students. Ashland came out the front door and stood before me, wearing a strapless beige dress that landed just above her knee. She looked amazing, but it was a fairly risqué fashion choice for an event with a bunch of religious people. The dress was the same color as her skin and hugged every wonderful curve she had.

  “Hello,” I greeted, as she pressed herself up against me.

  “Hey.” She placed both her hands against my chest, just as she had done the first time she kissed me. “So, technically, I’m not an intern anymore. You sure you don’t want to come upstairs before we go to this thing?” She stared at me intently.

  If it had been six months ago I would have said yes without hesitation, but now I declined. “I don’t like being rushed, and I don’t want to be late.”

  The thought of finally sleeping with Ashland had been on my mind all week, but with the distinct plan of doing it after the gala. I worried that if I slept with her before I would feel guilty and it would stick with me all night, throwing off my likability factor and negatively affecting potential donations. That wasn’t logical, but compartmentalizing felt right. For a few hours I could be good, volunteer Thomas; the one that hung out with a priest in his free time. After the gala, I could go back to being slacker, asshole Thomas – the one who only thought about getting laid.

  “Fair enough,” Ashland said in a pout before kissing me, long and hard. She broke away, proud of the dumbfounded look on my face.

  “Let’s go get this over with,” she sighed, walking towards the street. “Where’s your truck?” She turned to me.

  “I thought I’d class it up tonight,” I answered, clicking the key to unlock the sedan.

  “I miss the truck and the coveralls.” She opened her own door and got in.

  I attempted to make small talk during the drive. Ashland didn’t seem interested in maintaining any sort of conversation, providing one-word answers throughout the exchange and half-hearted shrugs. She could have been upset because I turned her down again when I picked her up.

  Once I handed over the keys to the valet, I placed my hand on the small of her back as we walked into the lobby.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked quietly.

  “It’s fine. I’m just kind of burnt out.”

  “With what?”

  “The youth center,” she said as if it were obvious. “I’ll be glad when this night is over, for various reasons, of course.” She gave me a half smile.

  “You didn’t like working there? I thought you liked it. When we went out you said you were interested in working with the homeless.”

  I was confused. I had always thought she enjoyed her time there. I didn’t have a miserable time when I was there, so I guess I assumed we had the same experience. Although, I was probably held to a lower standard of responsibility than a graduate intern.

  “I do like working with the homeless, just not under the rule of an archaic, sexist, homophobic dictatorship,” Ashland said bluntly as we walked into the ballroom.

  “Thomas!” Father Sean exclaimed the moment we entered. I saw Ashland paste a smile on her face before I greeted him.

 
I held out my hand and shook his.

  “Hey,” he nodded and then turned to Ashland.

  “Ashland, nice to see you again.” He shook her hand too. “Good to see you guys found the place all right. People are already asking a lot of questions about the youth center, so it’s great you guys are here. I keep trying to talk to them about Newman, but it doesn’t seem to be holding anybody’s interest,” he said happily.

  Just then someone called over to him. “I think Maura and Sydney are over that way,” he pointed to the other corner of the room. “I’ll catch up with you guys in a little bit.”

  Briefly forgetting what Ashland had shared when we walked in, I decided to go find Maura. I headed over to the corner of the ballroom. It didn’t register that Ashland had grabbed my hand until I was about half way there. I guess we no longer had to hide our involvement with one another.

  I saw Maura before she saw me. She was wearing the dark blue dress I had seen laid out on her bed from the other night. She looked beautiful in it, just like I expected she would. However, what I noticed most was how she was smiling. Maura smiled more than any other person I had ever met, but tonight she was beaming.

  “Hey, Thomas, Ashland, you made it,” Sydney greeted, calling my attention away from Maura.

  “This is Thomas O’Hollaren,” Maura introduced me to the strangers on her left. “He’s our volunteer voc-ed instructor. And this is Ashland Andersen; she just finished up her first-year internship with us. Thomas, Ashland, this is Bill and Jeanette Dawson and John and Mary Stewart; they’ve been donating to the youth center for over ten years now.”

  I reached out and shook their hands. Ashland just nodded.

  “We are so excited to hear about the vocational training that you’ve been able to provide,” John said.

  “I’ve really enjoyed being part of it.”

  “And what are the specific skills you’ve been able to teach?” Jeanette asked.

  “Basic maintenance skills: changing oil, flushing transmission fluid, alignment, things like that.”

  “In addition, though,” Maura added, “they helped rebuild an engine and replace a radiator,” she looked to me to confirm. I nodded, glad that Sydney had pulled Ashland into a side conversation so I didn’t have to worry about her becoming any more bored than she already looked.

  “It was great,” Maura continued. “Sydney and I got to sit in every week, and it was just amazing to see that group of teens become so focused. The most common feedback we got was how accomplished they felt because of it. One of the kids even said to me, ‘You know, I’ve never been good at school, but now I know I can do this. And that means things will be okay.’”

  The group was captivated by Maura as she shared more about the experience of sitting in on the instruction. Admittedly, I found myself captivated as well by her passion. It probably didn’t hurt that she was wearing that dress.

  “So, you own a shop here in Seattle?” One of the strangers pulled me out of my rapt attention before my stare could be considered ogling.

  “Yes. O’Hollaren’s Auto, in Queen Anne. My brother and I own it.”

  They proceeded to ask me various questions about the shop and being a mechanic that I knew no one else there was interested in. I recognized that my involvement with the youth center would ultimately be good for business, given the potential for racking up new clientele at events like this one. I had anticipated this when they initially asked me to participate, but now I felt guilty that my reasons for getting involved might have been more opportunistic than altruistic.

  “Well,” Jeanette gently touched Maura’s arm, “we’d better get around to talking to some of these other nonprofits like the Archbishop intended, but you know you’ll always be our favorite,” she whispered loudly. She and Maura shared a laugh.

  “Be sure you send any folks who don’t know about us our way,” Maura instructed with a smile as the group moved on.

  Maura’s hair was intricately styled, with French braids on the side, forming a low twisted bun in the back. Why I noticed and appreciated this, I had no fucking clue.

  “So, Maura, you seem to be having a good time,” I commented.

  “Of course,” Sydney responded. “She’s talking about people to other people...and they’re all Catholic. It’s like Christmas day to her.”

  “I would be just as happy if the people we were talking to weren’t Catholic,” Maura said matter-of-factly. Sydney gave her a doubtful look.

  “And how many references to Saint Anthony have you made already tonight?”

  “Three,” Maura muttered.

  “Three. And we haven’t even been here an hour yet.”

  “That’s only because people kept misplacing things when we first got here. He’s the patron saint of lost items–”

  “For Catholics,” Sydney finished Maura’s sentence, confirming her point.

  “I don’t think he discriminates when it comes to helping people find their shit. And I will remind you of that the next time you lose your keys,” Maura said good-naturedly.

  Just when I had gladly forgotten that he would probably be there, Ethan walked up holding two glasses of wine.

  “Here you go,” he said, handing one to Maura.

  She smiled, thanking him and taking a sip. Great. It was time for her to turn into a shell of herself now that he had joined us.

  “Hey, Thomas. Good to see you.” He shook my hand firmly, then looked over at Ashland. “Hi, I’m Ethan, Maura’s boyfriend.”

  “Ashland,” she said simply, briefly shaking his hand. She then returned to appearing like she couldn’t care less about the conversation.

  “Julie finally got here from work,” Sydney announced, looking at her phone. “I’m going to go meet her out front. You guys should grab some food,” she suggested to Ashland and me before leaving.

  “We already sufficiently stuffed ourselves before everyone else got here,” Maura informed. “They have wait staff walking around with trays, but there’s also a station over there. It’s pretty fancy. There’s like, three different types of meatballs.”

  I was amused by her review of the catering. I turned to Ashland.

  “I’m not really hungry,” she said, unimpressed by the promise of various meatballs. It seemed weird to walk away and leave her there with Maura and Ethan to get food for myself. I decided to wait it out until someone walked by with a tray.

  “What about a drink?” I offered, thinking she probably wouldn’t turn down free alcohol.

  “Wine sounds great,” she said with the same enthusiasm as saying she wasn’t hungry. I started to move towards the bar.

  “No,” she stopped me. “I’ll go get it for us,” she smiled and kissed me on the cheek before walking away.

  “I didn’t realize you had a girlfriend, Thomas,” Ethan said when she was out of earshot.

  “Yeah, uh, not really at that stage yet,” I corrected.

  He nodded. Maura took a sip of wine, trying to tolerate the silence. I knew she was racking her brain for something that all of us could talk about. We were probably seconds away from her asking us what our favorite fruit was. To avoid that, I decided to play nice with Ethan, at least for the night. “So, any vacations planned for the summer?”

  “Well, I go down to an orphanage in Mexico every July.” He looked over at Maura while touching the small of her back. “I’m hoping Maura decides to join me. But she hasn’t seemed to want to commit just yet.”

  “Helping poor kids as a vacation. That does sound like it’s right up your alley, Maura,” I teased.

  “I told you, I have to talk to my boss,” she reminded Ethan patiently. “I think this summer is going to be pretty busy, especially since Sydney’s going to Europe for two weeks at the end of July.”

  She really didn’t want to go, but I don’t think Ethan could tell. That confused me, especial
ly since spending time at an orphanage seemed to be way more in line with her interests than skiing or the symphony. If I had liked Ethan, I might have felt sorry for him.

  “She’s so committed to those kids she works with,” Ethan said to me proudly. “Sometimes I think she forgets there’s a lot of other kids outside of Seattle who could use her help.”

  Complimenting followed quickly by guilting was an interesting tactic to use. Thankfully, Ashland returned with our wine because I didn’t know how to respond. Sydney returned with Julie shortly after. Sydney quickly reintroduced Julie to Ashland and me, and then introduced her to Ethan. When Julie let go of shaking Ethan’s hand, Maura’s mouth dropped open and she quickly snatched up Julie’s hand. She held it up, displaying what appeared to be an engagement ring.

  “Oh my God! Shut up!” Maura exclaimed loudly with a grin. “What? What? When? Ahhh!” Maura couldn’t seem to form a complete sentence in between exclaiming with giddiness and bouncing up and down, all while still holding Julie’s hand. Finally, she let go and wrapped her arms around both Sydney and Julie. “I’m so happy for you!”

  “Easy, easy,” Sydney instructed calmly. “Play it cool.”

  Maura gave her a pointed look, communicating that it was unreasonable for Sydney to expect that from her.

  “Congratulations,” Ashland said, appearing finally interested in something going on that night.

  “Thanks,” Sydney said.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything!” Maura exclaimed

  “Gee, I don’t know why I didn’t, seeing as how calm and collected you are right now.”

  Maura glared at Sydney. “Whatever. You wanted this reaction. You knew this reaction was inevitable. If you didn’t want this reaction, you would’ve told me about it earlier,” she argued.

  Sydney finally let out a mischievous grin. “Yeah, maybe,” she admitted.

  Maura shook her head and waited for an explanation. “So when and how did it happen?” The half-confession from Sydney seemed to be enough to restore Maura’s initial excitement.

  “Yesterday, we were sitting at dinner,” Julie began the story. “I asked Syd if she wanted anything in particular for her birthday, because it’s coming up, and she said she had been thinking about it for a really long time and that the one thing she wanted was for me to be her fiancée, and then she pulled out the ring.”