The door to the bar opened, and I looked over to find Maggie walking in, curly hair bouncing and cheeks flushed. She walked a tight line toward us in dark skinny jeans and a light denim shirt, camel ankle boots clicking on the hardwood. She could have belonged equally in a magazine ad or on a farm. I imagined her lying in a heap of hay, smiling up at me, and my pulse quickened.
“Hey, y’all,” she said as she walked up, her Mississippi accent heavy. The second our eyes met, the flush in her cheeks deepened.
The Smile was one hundred percent unplanned.
Everyone said hello as she took a seat next to me. She was only a few feet away from me, but it felt like a million miles.
“Maker’s and ginger?” Rose asked with a smile.
I admired Maggie’s profile as she smiled right back. “That’d be great, Rose. Thanks.”
She turned on her stool to face everyone and hooked a boot in the leg of my chair. I couldn’t even look at her or my cover would be blown — my face would give me away.
“It’s quiet in here tonight for a Saturday.”
“Don’t remind me,” Rose groaned.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get busy later, right?”
“Probably,” she said as she handed Maggie her drink. “But I’m already in lax-mode.”
“What’s that?” Maggie asked and took a drink.
“Where you get lazy because you’re slow and start thinking about going home. So then when you actually do get busy, everything crashes because you were checked out. It’s all about the zone.” She tapped her temple.
Maggie laughed. “I’d be the worst waitress ever. I can’t multi-task to save my life.”
West smiled over at her “That’s true. I once watched her try to unload the dishwasher while she cooked dinner.”
“Burned dinner,” she added.
West chuckled and picked up his drink. “Lily said you’ve got a couple of leads on a job? We wouldn’t want Rose to feel obligated to give you one after learning your fatal flaw.”
“Funny, Weston.” Maggie smiled and rested an elbow on the bar. “I found a couple of things today that I’m real excited about. Only a few at schools — the rest are charity outreach programs. I’m just so ready to get back to working with kids again. I only had a solid year of teaching before … well, before everything blew up. But I miss my Kindergartners.” She sighed. “I’ll see what happens this summer. Maybe I’ll end up back in a classroom after all, but I’m excited at the prospect of charity work.”
I wanted to ask her about her job search and felt guilty for not asking when I’d seen her earlier. Not that Maggie was overly interested in talking. I smiled to myself, considering ways I could go about changing that.
“Good,” West said. “Seemed like you were gettin’ bored.”
“Maybe a little. I don’t know if I’ll ever see everything I want to see in New York, but I put a big ol’ dent in it. And I never thought I’d get through the pile of books on my tablet, but I did. It’s a terrifying, hollow feeling to have an empty to-be-read pile, I’ll tell you that much. I feel like my bookshelves are empty.”
West raised an eyebrow. “Get real books and you won’t have that problem.”
Lily laughed and made a face at him. “No, you’ll have an entirely new problem — where the hell to put all your books.”
“Yeah, West still hasn’t figured out the answer to that.” Patrick raised his glass to me. “Didn’t expect to see you at Habits tonight, Coop.”
I spun in the stool and leaned back against the bar, hanging my arm next to Maggie’s, feeling the small distance between us like it was tangible. “I was in the neighborhood. Figured I’d stop in and see what you guys were doing.”
Patrick smirked. “It’s Saturday — don’t you have some club opening or penthouse party to go to?”
“Right?” Lily added, her blue eyes bright. “Fun, fancy, rich people stuff.”
I shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet. Keeping my options open.”
“Oh, the high life.” Lily took a sip of her water. “Astrid’s around too. We came to meet her.”
I saw Maggie stiffen in my periphery before she took a long pull of her drink.
See, Astrid was my ‘girlfriend,’ which is in air quotes because the entire thing was a cover. Lily’s older sister and I had a long-standing arrangement. We’d dated at one point, but it never went anywhere because a) I’m a terminal bachelor and b) she met Sam. He’d been burned by the media and was a part of the social elite, but after what he went through, he wanted out. And Astrid was definitely in — an ‘it girl’ model who’d been living The Life since she broke out at eighteen.
So Astrid and I kept ‘dating’ to throw their scent off of Sam. We met a few nights a week at hot spot clubs and restaurants and appeared together whenever we had an event to attend — all in an attempt to keep the rumor mill spinning. I had full permission to see anyone I wanted on the side, so I did, which kept people buzzing with speculation that I was stepping out on her.
It was one of our favorite jokes.
Astrid was my unlikely confidant, one of the only people who I could trust with anything and everything. She knew about Maggie and was the only one of our friends who really got what it was like to live The Life. We were both in the same place, and she understood the pressure that came with everyone knowing who you were. It was a relief to have someone who I could be completely honest with in a world centered around wearing masks.
Maggie knew Astrid and I were a show, which was more than the rest of our friends knew. They at least thought Astrid and I hooked up, and we let them. In fact, I encouraged it. It was too easy, and Astrid needed my help. She hadn’t even told Lily — she was just too scared to lose Sam. She’d been hiding him for a long while, and she’d keep doing it or risk losing him. But I didn’t think Maggie fully believed me when it came to the ruse with Astrid. In fact, I didn’t think Maggie believed much of what I said.
It was my own fault. I’d built the image over years, through the course of my adult life. It was what everyone thought, and that was how I liked it. But who knew what West had told her. Probably recounted the worst stories in his arsenal, and he had a cache that could take down my love life indefinitely.
I was still lost in thought when the door opened once again and Astrid walked through, tall and skinny like all the models I knew, dressed mostly in black with her blond hair twisted into a sloppy knot. She smiled and took a seat at the far end of the bar next to Lily.
“Hey, guys. Hey, Coop.”
I winked at her and raised my glass.
Maggie tipped her drink back until it was empty and set the glass on the bar top. Her cheeks were pink, though she smiled warmly at Rose, avoiding eye contact with me. “Can I get another?”
“Sure,” Rose answered, not seeming to notice Maggie’s discomfort.
I made myself look away, but I couldn’t stop my smile. She always got weird around Astrid, which shouldn’t have made me feel like a boss. But it did. I took a sip of my scotch.
Lily turned to Astrid. “What are you doing over here?”
“I was just nearby and wanted to say hi.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “God, do you guys just wander around New York all day doing nothing?”
I snickered. “Sometimes.”
She shook her head at me before hooking her arm in West’s. “I can’t wait until this summer when we have a little time. I usually hate the end of the season. After working so much, a break is weird, like slamming on the brakes when you’re going a hundred miles an hour, so I usually end up at the theater every day anyway. But this year, I’m looking forward to it.”
West looked down at her and smiled. If they’d been cartoons, little pink hearts would have been floating between them. “We might go to Mississippi at some point to see Mom and Dad.”
“I really want to go to the beach, too.” She perked up. “Ooooh, could we go sailing, Coop? Maybe go up to the Hamptons?”
“Sure,” I answered. “Just say when.”
Lily looked to Maggie. “You’ve got to go sailing, Maggie. It’s my absolute favorite thing about summer, lying on the boat all day in the sun, the salty air, the sea — it’s amazing. And Cooper has a beach house in the Hamptons like a good rich boy.” She sighed. “I could stay there forever.” She eyed me, suddenly very serious and with a hint of authority. “Promise, Cooper?”