Page 13 of What Maple Heard

I walked into Happy Steps at four in the afternoon on a Wednesday.

Through the glass walls of the main studio, I could see Maple with the foster kids. She had mentioned a day before I single-handedly fucked it all up about the kids the city council had approached her to train for the upcoming fall festival. There were twelve of them, ages ranging from what looked like seven to about thirteen, in various states of trying to do what she was asking them to do. Maple was in the middle of all of it, patient, and completely at home.

She saw me. The patience did not extend to me. Through the glass, I watched her expression jump to various different messages for me and landed on fuck off.

Nancy looked up from the front desk. Nancy was in her thirties, with reading glasses pushed up on her head and a smile that came naturally to her.

“Mr. Sonnenberg.” She smiled. “Maple has a class—“

“I know. I’ll wait.”

Nancy gave me a sad smile and went through the glass door into the studio. I watched Maple and Nancy have a conversation in which Maple did not stop watching me for a single second and Nancy came back out looking apologetic.

“She… she asked you to leave. The class runs until six.”

“I’m not leaving. I’ll wait until five.”

Nancy stared at me.

“Is that okay?” I said. “I can sit over there.”

“You’ll wait for two hours?”

“I have nowhere to be.”

Nancy looked at me for another moment, then pointed at the waiting area couch. I sat down. There was a stack of magazines on the side table. I picked one up. It was a magazine for teenage girls, the kind with quizzes and celebrity news and opinions about lip gloss. I found a quiz on page forty-seven: Does Your Crush Like You Back? Take Our Quiz To Find Out!

I did the quiz.

It had eighteen questions. Things like: Does your crush remember details you’ve mentioned before? Yes. She remembered every word I said about her. Does your crush go out of their way to spend time with you? Not anymore. Has your crush met your family? I was too ashamed to make that happen, so no.

I got mostly Bs.

According to the quiz, my crush did not like me back and I should focus on myself and remember that my worth isn’t defined by someone else’s feelings.

My worth, my happiness, and my entire existence was defined by Maple. I had realized that too late. And I was willing to do anything to reverse the outcome of this nonsensical quiz. God, how do young girls manage their feelings after they get that result?

That was ruthless and completely heartbreaking.

A delivery man came through the front door with a stack of boxes. Nancy signed for them and started to carry them to the back of the reception area, stacking them on the floor. I could hear her expressing her feelings about the tape on the boxes. After hearing a few fucks and ouches, I got up and went around the reception booth.

“Can I help?”

She looked up from the floor. “You don’t have to—“

“I’m sitting here anyway.”

I took out my pocket knife and ripped open the tape for her. She smiled.

“Thanks, Mr. Sonnenberg.”

“Please call me Cade.”

I sat on the floor next to her. She opened the box. Tutu skirts, small and large, in all shades of orange and gold. Nancy started sorting them by size. “Can I help with that? I’m a good sorter.” I said. She nodded and we both got busy sorting. “So, Cade, were you able to talk to Maple last week? After you missed seeing her here?” She asked as she reached for a bright orange tutu. Before deciding to drop by unannounced at Maple’s home, I took my chances of catching her at her studio. In the first week following the party, I’d wait outside the studio every day after work, but couldn’t get hold of her. On two of those evenings, I’d run into Nancy closing up the studio, but no sign of Maple.

“I did.”

“And she doesn’t want to talk to you anymore.”