The Scarlet Letter Society (23 page)

“So what else is up?” asked Lisa, happy to change the subject.

“Stan asked me to marry him,” said Zarina, frowning at the memory of how the night went.

“Isn’t that supposed to be a wonderful thing?” asked Lisa.

“I guess it’s supposed to be,” said Zarina. “Or it would’ve been, if I’d said yes.”

“Oh, gosh, you said no,” said Lisa. “Yikes. Wow. Why?”

“I don’t even think I know,” said Zarina. “I just don’t think I’m ready for marriage. I love Stan, but I hate the thought of the dress, and the paperwork…”

“I understand,” said Lisa. “So did you guys break up?”

“Stan summoned enough of his poor humiliated ego to say he was fine with giving me some time to think about it,” said Zarina, “but it’s been super awkward.”

“It’s ok to need time to think about something as major as marriage,” said Lisa. “Don’t feel guilty about it. You have to think of yourself first and what you want. This is a lifelong decision. Trust me.”

“Thanks, Lisa,” said Zarina.

Maggie and Eva walked in.

“Well you girls look cozy,” said Eva. “What are you over here chatting about?”

“Just deciding how many of Zarina’s gingerbread muffins I’m going to buy to bring over to the bakery,” said Lisa. “Her stuff flies off the shelf faster than my own.”

“Yep, just getting Lisa’s muffin situation worked out,” Zarina said, and winked at her as she walked over to the counter to prepare coffee for the ladies.

“Well I would like to have that peppermint mocha,” said Lisa, glancing at the chalkboard sign on the counter. “Never too early.”

“Yum,” said Maggie.

“Make it three,” said Eva.

“I made both gingerbread and pumpkin cheesecake muffins in mini size,” I said. “So you could sample.”

“Thanks, Z,” said Maggie, settling in with the other women in their cozy chatting spot. “So what do you girls think of this book,
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin?” asks Maggie.

“Well, I read it,” said Eva, and acknowledging the surprised glances around her, added, “I know, it’s becoming a habit. And really?
More goddamn death
? Suicides? You gotta be kidding me.”

“Agreed,” said Lisa, as she took out her beloved journal. Before she flipped back to her notes on the book, she smiled when she read her most recent entry, only a few words scrawled the night before:
‘Is there any going back?’

“But there is so much beautiful language in the book,” said Lisa. “Listen to this gorgeous prose:

‘The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clearing, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in the abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.’

“Yeah, the sea is fantastic,” said Eva. “Right up until you drown yourself in it.”

“But this one doesn’t seem to off herself as much out of guilt,” said Maggie. “She’s stronger.”

“
’Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life,’
” read Lisa. I also like the line,
‘but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.’
”

“She does seem more likeable as a feminist character,” said Eva. “Too bad she has to die over it.”

Zarina delivered the platter of small muffins, then the coffee.

Suddenly Wes came dashing into the coffee shop. He greeted the other women but headed directly to Maggie.

“Sorry for interrupting your little Ho-prah book club,” he said,. “But I have news. Alfred and I have decided to celebrate the passage of gay marriage in Maryland by getting gay married!”

There were screams of joy and applause.

“Holy Big Gay Wedding!” declared Maggie. “Are you serious? That’s amazing! Congratulations!” She jumped up from her spot on the couch to hug him.

“December 31 at midnight, the moment the marriage equality law goes into effect in Maryland,” said Wes, beaming from ear to ear as he looked around the coffee shop. “And you’re all invited!”

December 2012

“There’s a girl right next to you/And she’s just waiting for something to do.

When you can’t be with the one you love/Honey, Love the one you’re with.”

-
Love the One You’re With
, Stephen Stills

Monthly meeting of the Scarlet Letter Society.

Canceled

See you on New Years Eve!

With Christmas and a wedding this month, we’ll skip the meeting and take Wes out for a groom’s lunch instead. It’s like a bridal shower, but with a hot gay groom
.

“The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.”

-
The Scarlet Letter
, Nathaniel Hawthorne

from:
Kate
[email protected]

to:
Maggie
[email protected]

date:
Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 11:07 PM

subject:
Hey gorgeous

How was your day? Can’t stop thinking about you. Another lunch soon?

Xo

Kate

Maggie lay on her sofa in her flannel pjs, Tosh.0 on the tv in the background, her cats Steinbeck (the mouser) and Grizabella curled up with her and her soft blanket. Her Orange Pekoe tea rested on the table beside her. She had cleaned the apartment for the Thanksgiving arrival of her two girls the next day. Dave was already in New York picking up Lilith from Syracuse; they’d drive back to Maryland in the morning. Maggie knew Lily was ready for the break from her freshman year. Erica, a senior at Western Maryland University, would be driving home in the morning.

The girls would be staying in Maggie’s spare bedroom tomorrow night. There were two twin beds for the rare occasion they were home at the same time. Normally, they stayed with Dave. The stone Queen Anne Victorian on Clark Avenue in Keytown had remained unsold after the divorce. Dave still lived there, and the girls’ original bedrooms remained intact. They’d gotten rid of most of the nasty old stuffed animals, but a few remnants of their childhood remained. The girls would stay there after Thanksgiving dinner. Dave had invited Maggie to eat dinner with them, and she had accepted. Normally they split their time with the girls, but it would nice to have a meal together as a ‘family’ even though technically their family had been broken years before. It would be peaceful now.

from:
Maggie
[email protected]

to:
Kate
[email protected]

date:
Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 11:14 PM

subject:
Hey there

Super busy with girls coming home from respective higher education establishments. Catch up next week sometime. Happy Thanksgiving!

Maggie

Maggie knew the tone in her email didn’t match Kate’s flirtier one. She felt bad, but she was unsure of what tone to use in the relationship. Kate was obviously interested in continuing their affair, and Maggie was confused about what she wanted. It had been fun to try, she liked Kate as a person, and she didn’t want to rule out anything in the future. Really though, she didn’t think she wanted to have an ongoing love affair with a woman and wasn’t sure what to do with the relationship while she figured out what was going on with the rest of her complicated love life. She didn’t think it was going to be a long-term thing, and there wasn’t any easy way to be friends with Kate without the sex. They’d only been together a few times, and Maggie had been turned on by it, but the intensity of the new relationship had scared Maggie a bit, especially while she was in a state of confusion over how to handle Ted.

She didn’t want to completely shut Kate out of her life, but her instinct now was to buy time until she could figure it all out. For now, she just wanted to watch Daniel Tosh with her purring cats and wait for her beautiful, somehow-all-grown-up girls to get there.

She sipped her tea and closed her laptop.

“I love the idea of a New Year’s Eve wedding,” said Wes, “a new beginning.” Knowing they both loved her vintage stuff, Maggie had invited Wes and Alfred to come over to the shop and pick out a few fantastic vintage tuxes for free as her gift to them.

“Especially on the first night of the state’s legalization of gay marriage,” Wes continued, “even though it will be a mad rush to throw the whole event together. What a fantastic time to celebrate; the turn of a new year, to turn a new page.”

“Well I’m glad we will at least be living in one of only 9 states in the country to legalize what should be common SENSE law in all 50,” said Alfred as he flipped through a floral design book they’d brought to Maggie’s shop.

Alfred hadn’t loved the idea of people making a big deal out it, or even the idea of a big wedding. His parents were gone, and his brother was a homophobic conservative Republican who didn’t acknowledge Wes’ existence. The whole wedding would be about 25 people, which the men agreed was the perfect size for two aging gay theatre geeks.

“I can’t believe you have actual choices in vintage tuxes that are close enough to our sizes. And we even have enough time to get a few quick alterations and have them ready in time for this wedding,” yelled Wes from the dressing room.

“Yeah, well you’re lucky I have a seamstress on speed dial willing to work a rush job at Christmas,” yelled Maggie back.

Wes came out of the dressing room in a midnight blue velvet tux complete with ruffles and bow tie, and the way he worked the room like it was a fashion runway made her laugh hysterically.

Alfred rolled his eyes.

“You’re seriously going to wear that to our wedding?” he said.

“Only if it pisses you off,” said Wes, laughing at his Brad Pitt look-alike husband to be. “Of course you will need a matching apricot colored one so we look just like Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in ‘Dumb and Dumber.’”

“That sounds perfect for a Big Gay Wedding,” said Alfred,. He was about to go into the dressing room with a more traditional black Frank-Sinatra style tux. When
he came out of the dressing room wearing a more casual shirt, unbuttoned and no tie, Maggie and Wes gasped.

“Yeah, I know,” joked Alfred. “I’m smoking hot.”

They all laughed.

One of Maggie’s customers was what Maggie called “some kind of hippie reverend who probably does more Reiki and yoga than reverend-ing,” but she was legal. She’d introduced the woman to Wes and Alfred, who were planning to write their own vows for the brief ceremony.

A bunch of actors and set designers from the theatre had volunteered to decorate the location: Catoctin Cottage was a lodge style log cabin with a single enormous room: huge stone fireplace, vaulted beam ceilings, and an amazing view of the mountains. The state park system normally had it closed for the winter, but as a favor to Maggie, Dave had made a call from his historic preservation office over to the park service and they’d agreed to let them use it.

Lisa was going to work with a caterer friend (and of course she was making the cakes; there would be small wedding cakes at the center of each table) to put together a small reception after the ceremony. The room was actually big enough to have the ceremony in front of the fireplace and the reception in the other half of the room. Simple, easy, small. That’s what the grooms wanted.