Page 36 of Real Forever
When they pulled into Lauren’s driveway, Madison was unbuckled and out the door before Jake had even shifted into park. She burst through the front door, phone in hand.
“Maisie?” she called. “Lauren?”
“Auntie,” Maisie squealed from her bedroom. The pressure valve on Madison’s anxiety opened a little when she heard Maisie’s bare feet padding down the hall toward her. She scooped her up and held her tight against her chest.
“Auntie, me and Aggie are playing Candyland in my room. Do ya wanna play? Hey,” Maisie peeked around Madison’s head, “who’s that guy?”
Madison turned to see Jake standing outside his car in the driveway with his hands in his pockets. She set Maisie down and opened the door.
“Shit, I’m sorry. Jake, come on in.” She held the door open for Jake, who entered as Agatha was coming around the corner from the hallway. Maisie ran to her and tugged on her hand.
“Aggie, Auntie Maddie’s home and this other guy was standing outside in the driveway, so she told him to come inside. Can they play Candyland with us? Pretty please?”
Madison hung up her and Jake’s jackets while Agatha gave Jake a very careful, very amused scan.
“Of course, Maisie. But I don’t think there’s enough room in your bedroom for everyone, so why don’t you go pack up the game and bring it out to the dining room table while I talk to Auntie for a minute, okay?”
Maisie high-fived Agatha before skipping down the hall to her room.
“Hey,” Madison said, hugging Agatha. “What the hell’s going on?”
Agatha swatted her arm. “Don’t be rude, Madison. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Madison rolled her eyes. She pointed her open palmed hand toward Jake, “Agatha, this is my friend, Jake,” and then toward Agatha, “and Jake, this is Agatha.”
“Oh, Agatha,” Jake outstretched his hand to shake Agatha’s. “The famous Agatha. It’s so nice to meet you. Madison has told me how much she loves working for you and what an incredible job you’ve done with building up your shop. I hear it’s a fixture of the community.”
Agatha wrapped both of her hands around Jake’s. “A fixture? Well, isn’t that kind?”
“Yeah, I didn’t say any of that shit.” Madison stated flatly.
Agatha shot her a dirty look but smirked when Madison glared right back.
“Seriously, Ag. What the fuck’s going on?” Madison had grown impatient.
Agatha raised her hands above her head in surrender. “I don’t know, Madison. Lauren called me and asked me to come over and watch Maisie until you got home. When I got here, I could tell she’d been crying - her eyes were all puffed up. But she wouldn’t tell me a damn thing. Kept saying everything was fine, and she just had an urgent errand.” Agatha lowered her voice, “But Little Miss Maisie in there told me her mommy was sad and was on her phone a lot this morning, and her daddy didn’t come home last night. That’s all I know.”
Madison rubbed her forehead. “Ugh. I knew it had to be something that pecker-head had done. Damn it. I’m going to kill him myself if he’s screwing around on her or if he’s doing drugs again.” She turned toward Jake. “Last year, Dave and Lauren had a big thing because it turned out Dave was doing coke all the time. Even when he was at home with her and Maisie. I guess a bunch of the guys on the oil rig where he works do it, and they all think it’s no big deal. But Lauren lost her shit when she found out he had it in the house with Maisie here. She almost left him.” She turned back to Agatha. “I bet you anything that lowlife is back on coke again. He probably went out last night and blacked out somewhere. We’ll find him passed out in Jerry’s basement or maybe Mallory’s. I could text them and see if anyone knows where he’s at?”
Agatha tilted her head and frowned. “I don’t know, hun. Maybe you should let Lauren handle it. Just be here to support her in the way she’s asking you to.”
Maisie came back with the Candyland box perched in her small arms. She set it on a chair at the dining table and then climbed up on the chair beside it and unpacked all the pieces onto the table. Agatha walked over and gave her a kiss on top of her head.
“Aggie has to go now, sweetheart. But Auntie Madison and her friend Jake are going to play Candyland with you instead.”
“Ok, Aggie. Thanks for coming over to play with me.”
“Thank you, my dear.”
Agatha shook Jake’s hand again, looking him dead in the eye. Without letting go of his hand or her stare, she turned her head toward Madison.
“I like this one, Madison. Hang to him for a while.” She winked at Jake, who blushed in response, pulled her jacket on and left with a quick, “goodbye.”
“Ready. Auntie Maddie, you can be the blue guy like always and I’m gonna be the red guy. Jake, do you wanna be the yellow guy or the green guy?”
“Maisie, sweets, I don’t know if Jake is going to want to—”
“Green guy, please,” Jake interrupted, heading over to the table, and pulling up a chair beside Maisie. “I don’t know how to play this game though. Will you teach me?” he asked Maisie.
