Page 53 of Angels Fall

TYLER

She looks surprised to see me. No, not surprised—um, what’s the word for when someone looks like they’re trying to decide whether to turn and walk away, scream at the top of their lungs, or murder something? Whatever that’s called, that’s the expression she has on.

It’s OK. To be expected. Give the gift. Not about you. Breathe. Stay present. Like your Rinpoche in Nepal taught you. Or just don’t be a fucking asshole. Like your Rinpoche in the strip club taught you.

“Why. Is. Tyler. Here?” Maddie says.

Her mother Georgina—who looks terrific, I must say—answers, “He insisted that we not tell you.”

Her dad Simon chimes in, “Well, he also insisted that we come in the first place, so in fairness, the least we could do was to honor the surprise, since Tyler did strongarm us into letting him pay for all this.” He gestures around the presidential suite of the Four Seasons to emphasize that this is the “this” he’s referring to, and grabs me by the shoulders, giving me a shake in a ‘you old so-and-so’ kind of a way. Simon’s always been a hail-fellow-well-met sort of a guy. I like it. It’s festive.

“He. What?” Maddie asks, a little loudly.

There’s an awkward beat during which Georgina and Simon look at each other and then at me. I smile and shrug.

“Uh,” Simon begins. “Well, Tyler called us a few days ago—”

“Which was such a lovely surprise,” Georgina adds.

“Yeah!” says Simon. “It really was. So he calls us up to see how we were doing and we got to chatting and then he asked when we might get to see each other—”

“—and then he suggested that, with Thanksgiving coming up, we should try to see each other now,” says Georgina. I don’t say anything. They’re telling the story exactly right. Also, Maddie just keeps staring at me, so I’m holding back on chatting it up too much.

Evan told me that when Maddie came to see him, she said it had been a couple of years since she saw her folks. So I anticipated the possibility that it might take her a moment to adjust when she found out what an awesome thing I’d done for her. Because it is an awesome thing I’ve done. It is. I know it is. I’ve given her a gift. She just has to see it.

Fuckin’ Tyler Morgan. Good Samaritan and all-around excellent guy. Pretty much only Evan says so.

But I’m working on changing that.

“Honey…” Georgina begins, as she takes Maddie by the hands, whispering just loudly enough to be sure that everyone can hear. “Tyler told us everything.”

Maddie’s focused stare on me intensifies a bit.

“Did he?” she says. “What’d he tell you?” she manages to ask through what appears to be a completely clenched jaw.

Again, all totally expected. No need to stress. All’s OK. She’ll relax in a minute. Or not. Not your call. No attachment to the outcome. If she kills you, she kills you. Nobody said altruism was an easy ride.

“He told us that you’ve been working yourself into the ground with your new business, and that you keep saying how much you wish you could get away, but since you can’t, we all agreed that we should come see you,” Georgina says sweetly. True. That is what I told them. “And besides—” Georgina now lowers her voice to a more appropriate whisper, but I can still hear her. (I’ve got amazing hearing, which is wild considering how many times shit has exploded next to me.) “We feel… Your father and I feel like... We’ve... We’ve missed you. We feel like we should all make an effort to see each other more often. We love you. We want to be more involved in your life. We just… We love you, sweetheart.”

And then Georgina pulls her into a tight hug, and Maddie takes her eyes off me for the first time. She closes her eyelids. I’m no expert on human emotions, but my instinct tells me she’s trying to keep from crying. I do know what that looks like.

“Maddie!” Simon bellows as he slaps me on the back, breaking the mood, as is his wont. “You should’ve told us you’ve been seeing Tyler! We had no idea he was back!”

Maddie pulls away from her mom now, opens her eyes, which are a bit moist but have no proper tears, and says, “Yeah, well…” I grimace without intending to, unsure what’s gonna come next. I made a calculated risk putting this whole thing together, but even though it’s calculated, it’s still a risk. And then she says, “...Like he said, I’ve been busy. So… I guess I just forgot to mention it. But yeah. He’s back, all right.”

And then she kind of smiles at me. Like she means it.

Well, would you look at that.

Namaste, motherfuckers.

MADDIE

My emotions have been getting whipped around by a cyclone for the last few weeks and I’m tired. Beyond tired. Exhausted in a way that doesn’t have a word to describe it. So in this moment, even though there are about twenty different feelings coursing through me, I decide to just pick one and let it rule the day. And to my surprise, the one that wins out is… gratitude.

Because right now, instead of sitting alone in the house I share with two hookers, now that the third hooker has driven off into the sunset to be with her high-school soulmate (how is this my life?), I’m here in the presidential suite of the Four Seasons with my parents.

And, of course, Tyler Morgan. Who somehow knew what I needed even though I didn’t. And then he made it happen.