“I know.” Jordan tents her fingers and lays her head gently in them. “But she’s my boss. And it was just that one time. And, like, it’s easy to talk myself into the possibility that I’m making it a bigger deal than it was. If I’m on her side here, she’ll make me partner. I’vebeen working toward this forten years. I know I’m capable of running that place one day.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” says Jordan. “And I only have tomorrow to figure it out. She wants me to talk to the reporter by Friday.”
“Is there any more of whatever you’re drinking?” says a voice from the Great Beyond—or the doorway of the kitchen. “I know you’re both mad at me, about the wedding thing. But I can’t sleep.”
“We’re drinking water,” says Jordan.
“You can’t sleep because you had, like, nine shots of espresso,” says Natalie, her voice chilly.
“I know,” says Mae. “I fell asleep right away and then all of a sudden I was wide awake, feeling like it was nine a.m.”
“Well, try again,” says Jordan, without sympathy. To both of them Mae is eight years old in a peach-colored two-piece Carter’s pajama set with ruffles at the shoulders, refusing to go to bed because she wants to hang out with the big girls and their friends in the kitchen. Except now she is a twenty-nine-year-old traitor who forgot to remove her mascara before bed, which is now giving her the look of a restless racoon.
“I can’t,” says Mae softly. She rubs her eyes, smearing the mascara further. “There’s something I need to tell you guys. It’s been weighing on me, and I need you to know what’s going on.”
Unrelenting, Jordan says, “Is it another amazing example of disloyalty?”
At the same time Natalie says, “Oh, Mae, are youpregnant?”
Mae shakes her head. “Neither of those. It’s worse. Or maybe better, I don’t know. But I don’t know what to do, and I need you guys, okay? I really need you.”
“Okay,” says Natalie finally, glancing at Jordan.
Jordan pulls out the stool next to her. “Sit down. Tell us.”
Mae can’t find a delicate way into the story, there’s no easy on-ramp, so she tells the ending first, and quickly, without any verbal punctuation. She says, “I fell for a stupid scam and I lost most of my money and I’m living out of my car.” Then, seeing the shocked faces of her sisters, and guessing what might come next, she says, “You don’t need to berate me. I’ve berated myself enough already.”
Jordan speaks first. “Whoa, Mae,” she says. “You’re going to have to back up.”
“Backwayup,” says Natalie. “We can’t berate you if we don’t even know what happened.”
“Okay,” says Mae. Deep breath, filling her ribs, big exhale. Then she tells the story. “Last month, a box came for me at my apartment. Well, Tony’s apartment. Inside the box was a Bluetooth speaker.”
She hadn’t ordered any speakers, she explains, so obviously she was confused. “I thought maybe it was from one of you!”
“I would have sent you a speaker if I knew you needed one,” Jordan hurries to say.
“Me too,” says Natalie competitively.
“No, that’s just it, I didn’t need one. I have a speaker! I have a great speaker. It’s in the back of my car right now. So I... I don’t know, it made me think of Mom, you know? How she used to send us silly gifts, in college and stuff. She did that for you guys too, right?”
“Holiday socks,” Natalie and Jordan say together.
“Exactly! Who even knew Thanksgiving socks were a thing?” This is Jordan.
“Turkeys wearing Pilgrim hats,” confirms Natalie. “Or a coloring book...”
“Not even an adult coloring book,” says Jordan, nodding andsmiling at the memory. “Just a regular children’s coloring book with, like, puppies to color in, and a box of eight fat Crayolas.”
“Jumbos,” says Natalie. They’re all quiet for a few seconds, remembering, and then Natalie says, “Anyway, go on. Box. Speaker.”
“Okay, so, I know Mom wasn’t actually sending me a speaker, duh, but I guess part of me somehow thought she was. You know how we used to dance around the kitchen sometimes—”
“Hold up,” says Jordan. “Hold right up. Whatfamilydid you grow up in, Mae? Mom never danced in the kitchen.”
Mae looks back and forth between them, confused. “Yes, she did.”
