So when he said good night, she held the phone for a while after he hung up, shamelessly. When it rang again as she held it, she dropped it onto the bed, startled. It wasn’t him again, that had been too much to hope. It was Lena. The Wicked Queen come to put pins in Marj’s balloon again.
“Yes?” she said officiously.
“I just wondered if you’d like to have a bit of a girls’ night tomorrow evening. Both of us on our own, obviously, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t go out for a lovely dinner and some wine. I can give you a few helpful pointers at dealing with a Cates husband…” she offered.
Marj knew she had to decline. The fact was, part of her wanted to go. Just to have something to do other than waiting for him to call her. Even if it was nothing more than having a fish dinner with her viper of a mother-in-law.
“I appreciate the offer, more than you probably know, but I’ll have to take a pass.”
“You have another engagement?”
“I have some volunteer work that’s taking up a great deal of my time just now. I’ve become part of an after-school program, and I’m excited about it. Thanks, though.”
When Lena hung up, Marj had the strange notion that she might have hurt the Wicked Queen’s feelings. It just proved how vulnerable and infatuated and pathetic Marj was, she thought, to worry about the feelings of someone like the WQ, who was obviously working an agenda. She was flipping through Netflix to see what was new when Brandon arrived, a day early and wholly unexpected.
Marj sat up in bed, glancing down at her unimaginative pajamas with a twinge of regret. His arms were full of bags and she stared at him, mystified by his sudden appearance.
“You’re back early,” she observed.
“I finished up sooner than expected and decided I’d rather come home.”
He said it simply but it thrilled her, which made her feel even more pathetic. Maybe he just missed his steam shower and favorite sushi place, she reminded herself.
“I got you some…things. Souvenirs. I know you were busy while I was gone, and I was, too, but I saw things that reminded me of you and so I just…got them.”
He dumped the armload of carrier bags on the bed and started to open them to show what he had brought.
“I bought some Tylenol at the hotel shop, and they had these chocolate covered espresso beans and I thought, since you liked the mocha wedding cake so much, you might like these,” he said it almost shyly, “Then I got…and I don’t know exactly why, come to think of it, but I got ten boxes of saltwater taffy. Your teenagers might like it.”
“They’re ten years old. They’re just the size of teenagers,” she said faintly.
“And here’s an LA hoodie. Maybe you can wear it to work out, but it was bright pink, and you had that one bright pink dress. Anyway, there was this exhibit or something out there about Titanic and I got you some stuff there.”
He upended a plastic bag with a hardback exhibit guide, a DVD gift set, a t-shirt and what appeared to be a pair of salt and pepper shakers that depicted the doomed ship and the iceberg. She stared at the pile and shook her head. Tears stung her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
“Is that symbolism for our doomed relationship?” Marj asked.
“I never thought of that. I was thinking you loved the necklace and loved the movie. But we’ll dodge the iceberg, okay?”
“Will we?”
Marj felt like they’d already hit the giant iceberg in the ocean. And they were sinking fast.
“Yes, we’ve already dodged the ‘Holly’ iceberg,” Brandon said. “Lena tried to sink the ship and she didn’t. Because we’re unsinkable.”
“I’m glad one of us thinks so,” she said softly.
Shocked and hurt, he stood up off the bed, looking at her with narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I just want to be with you,” she said. “I don’t want to be apart, and I don’t want some plastic boat salt shaker instead of a husband. I know I told you let’s keep this professional. And I tried to keep my distance. But that’s only after you got all cold on me after I told you I loved you. I thought I took it too far. So I thought we should keep it from being all personal. But I realize, that’s not what I want. And I can’t hide it or pretend like I don’t want it when I do. I know you can see right through me. So I’m not going to lie. I’m going to be straight forward. Okay, I’m rambling. So what do you think?”
“I believe the boat is the pepper, as its hull is black. The iceberg, being white—”
She hit him smack in the face with a pillow, and he shot her that beautiful smile.