I'd Do Anything

“You’re top shelf, Trisha.” PJ was laughing, pulling her into a tight hug that Trisha was sure would leave bruises. “Top shelf.”

“Calm down, PJ.” Trisha laughed, pulling away. “People will start thinking the wrong things.”

“Like what? I’m old enough to be your father!”

“I meant the bruises developing on my arms. Jesus, it’s like Ogie Ogalthorpe over here – “

“Ogalthorpe?” Echoed someone further down the bar.

“Ogaltorpe?” Someone else echoed, high pitched in a French accent.

Everyone at the bar laughed hysterically.

“Slap Shot.” PJ chuckled. “Still a good movie.”

Trisha slumped back in her seat and studied her drink. After the shore house, she hadn’t seen much of Max. She was constantly traveling for conventions with Lana, or working on the new story she was thinking of, or working on tying up publishing problems for Volume Two of Behind the Curtain. Max finally went to spend time with his parents, and then started doing charity and promotional projects for the team.

She knew that Max had wanted to say something to her during that walk on the beach. She knew it was probably about that kiss, and just the general fucked state of their friendship.

But she wasn’t ready to face that.

“Why,” asked a clear voice, “are you always here?”

Trisha turned to see Olivia at her shoulder, clutching a packet of paperwork. “Oh, hey, ‘Live.”

“Seriously.” Olivia said, handing over the papers. “Are you moving in or something?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” Trisha asked. “The seats are comfortable, everyone knows where to find me, and my wonderful friend Mikey brings me beer all day long.”

“It’s called alcoholism.”

“Please. It’s not like I need to be here, I just like to.” Trisha flipped through the papers. “Thanks. I’ll take care of these tomorrow. Hey, you want a drink?”

“No thanks, I told Brendan I’d go to the gym and beat the shit out of him.”

Trisha grinned widely. “Livia and Brendan, sitting in a tree – “

Olivia’s eyes flashed with anger. “Oh, whatever, Misses Paccioretty.”

“Hey! Don’t you - ”

But Olivia was already leaving. Trisha slumped miserably in her seat again. PJ sympathetically patted Trisha on the back.

“Why don’t you just tell the poor boy how you feel?” he asked.

“I have!” Trisha groaned.

“Well, he’s obviously in love with you.”

“Really? That makes the pain of two rejections almost a decade apart bearable.”

PJ shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a second. I’m an old man, l’encintelle, I’ve seen a lot. And that look on his face when he sees you I’ve seen on my own face…well, you know, before the divorce and all that.” He sighed. “And sometimes even now.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Maybe. Doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

Trisha shook her head and drank a decent amount of beer before saying, “Whatever, PJ. Fact of the matter is, I don’t know how much more I can take.”

~*~

Soon enough Trisha was sending out invites through Facebook for her pool party. Max was having lunch with Annalise, Brendan, Davey, Olivia and Lars when all of their phones beeped simultaneously.

“Oh, that’s nice.” Davey beamed. “She invited…wow, she invited the whole team…and half the bar it looks like…and everyone’s spouses and kids…Jesus, how will she cook for all these people?”

Olivia’s phone beeped again and she groaned. “I know how. She wants me to come and help her the day before. But she’ll pay me for my time…”

Max frowned at the date of the party. “Funny. I can’t believe she planned it on her birthday.”

Annalise looked horrified. “Oh, no! But we have to celebrate it somehow – “

Max just laughed. “She probably just forgot.” He reassured. “Honestly, she was never big on her birthday when we were kids either. Honestly, I didn’t even find out when it was until we were 17.”

“Well, we should – “ Lars started.

“No, no, she won’t go for it.” Max said, shaking his head. “Look, don’t say a word to her about it. I’ll get a cake and we can turn it into a surprise birthday party for her.”

Olivia rose her eyebrows. “If she doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday and you force a surprise party on her – “

“It’s not that.” Max sighed. “She just…she never really thinks that anyone would want to celebrate it. So she just ignores it and…throws pool parties instead, I guess.”

“And she thinks you don’t love her.” Annalise grumbled.

“Drop it, Ann.” Olivia and Lars both intoned in bored voices.

Olivia looked at Max again. “But are you sure – “

“Let him do what he wants.” Brendan sighed. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Stay out of it, Gallagher. What do you know?”

“Just because we can’t all be the Goddess of Knowledge doesn’t mean the rest of us are stupid, Athena.”

“Don’t – “

“Alright, alright!” Max snapped, grabbing Brendan’s shoulder to pull him back into reality. They were in the middle of a restaurant, for christ’s sake. “Forget about the whole thing, alright?”

~*~

It was finally the day before the party, and Trisha had filled her parent’s kitchen with help. Olivia was being paid for her time, but Annalise, Lana, and another good friend Victoria had volunteered. Of course, they didn’t know what they were signing up for.

“Why didn’t you just have this catered?” Annalise groaned, mixing a huge bowl of potato salad with her bare hands. “I thought my days of being up to my elbows in mayonnaise were over.”

“Well, when I told Max I’d invite the entire hockey team I didn’t think they’d all be able to come!” Trisha wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and went back to cutting heads of lettuce for salad. “And this is the first year that everyone I normally invite could come. Next year I’ll have it catered.”

Victoria laughed, shaking her head and her shiny black ponytail with it. She knew perfectly well that Trisha wouldn’t be able to stand someone else doing the work.

Victoria was the wife of the sous-chef at Trisha’s father’s restaurant. Trisha had befriended Victoria and her husband Dan when they first moved up here, back when they were still young enough to pick up and leave everything they knew in Miami to help his career. Their son Matthew was born not long after, but they still had the kind of relationship that most people envied. It was work, being with a chef, and Victoria had the patience of a saint. But you’d have to be blind to not see how much she adored Dan.

“I’m just sort of happy to be out of the house for a change.” Victoria declared. “I’m just hoping when I get home there aren’t leggos everywhere on the floor like last time. They hurt like a bitch when you step on them.”

“How did you even afford all this food?” Lana asked. “I mean, Jesus, we don’t make that much money.”

Trisha flushed. “I may have used Papa’s restaurant depot card…and his liquor distributor contacts…”

“How much booze did you get?” Annalise asked incredulously.

“Let’s just say there’s a reason you couldn’t park in the garage.”

Olivia came in holding a cutting board of oranges above her head. She dumped the oranges into a huge liquid dispenser already filled with apples, limes and grapes. “Now what?”

“Go get the three boxes of wine from the garage and dumped them in.” Trisha instructed. “And get the bottle of brandy. We’ll only use half of that.”

“Oh, right, only half.” Victoria teased.

“Well, if there’s not enough food, at least everyone will be drunk.” Trisha sighed, dumping her lettuce into several large tinfoil dishes. She pulled a bag of tomatoes towards herself next. “And, this way, the only thing to do tomorrow will to man the grill. I’m sure we’ll have several people fighting for that honor.”

“Dan says he’s not doing it this year.” Victoria said, the corner of her mouth flicking up into a smile as she chopped endless onions for the burgers, hot dogs, and salad. “He says he cooked enough burgers as a line cook and he still cooks enough as a sous-chef. Although if we’re being honest the only way to keep him away from the grill would be to tie him to a tree.”

“Or to have Matthew distract him.” Lana said fairly, giving the fruit salad a final toss and carrying it over to the fridge. “Which is easy enough.”

As Lana opened and closed the fridge, Annalise noticed a new picture trapped under a Doctor Who magnet. “Trisha? When was photo that taken?”

Trisha glanced over, and didn’t even have to ask what picture she meant. “The one of me and Max? Uh, a few weeks ago, I think. We were over here for dinner.”

Annalise frowned, but didn’t say anything. Not then, at least.

The women talked lightly about respective jobs and Olivia’s upcoming fight, and cooed over Victoria’s pictures of her son. Finally, they finished prepping food. Trisha uncorked a bottle of Pinot Noir and they all trouped out to the deck to observe the yard and drink.

“We can dig any other lawn chairs out of the shed tomorrow morning.” Trisha sighed. “Max said he’d be here early to help us move the coolers, but I have a feeling we’ll be able to manage it by ourselves.”

Annalise sighed.

“Sorry I won’t be here in the morning.” Victoria said.

“Jesus, Victoria, it’s fine. Really. You have a family. We’re sorry we have noting better to do.” Trisha laughed.

Annalise let out another angry sigh.

“What, Annalise?” Lana finally asked.

“Hm? Nothing.”

Trisha meant to glance at the redhead, but was frozen by her steady glare. “What?”

“You know what.” Annalise huffed.

“Uh, no. I don’t.”

Olivia squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Ann, now is not the time or the place.”

“There is always a time for true love!”

“That’s it. I’m putting parental controls on the TV.”

“True love?” Trisha repeated incredulously.

“Who’s in love?” Victoria asked.

“Max and Trisha.” Annalise replied.

“We are not.” Trisha grumbled.

“Max?” Victoria repeated. “Max who she went to high school with?”

“The very same.”

“Oh, please, Annalise.” Trisha begged. “Look, maybe there was some sort of weird teenage attraction on my side when we were younger but we’re adults now.”

“That is not what you were saying two months ago.” Lana piped up.

Trisha shot her a nasty glare.

“Adults find true love.” Annalise insisted.

“Max said no!” Trisha half-yelled. Olivia, Lana and Victoria all jumped. “Twice!”

“Max was in shock at the fact that the girl he fell in love with when he was fifteen and was completely unattainable had feelings for him too! I mean, come on, Trisha. He followed you to Jersey and I didn’t even have to goad him into it. What else does the poor guy have to do?”

“Look, Annalise, not everyone can have the fairly tale ending that you and Lars got, okay? Max had his career and a thousand other girls – “

“Who are not even close to you in his mind.” Annalise shook her head. “Yeah, Trisha, not everyone gets a fairy tale ending. But that’s because a lot of people are too afraid to take the leap.” She drained her wine and headed back towards the house for more. “Jesus, I have got to lay off the Sarah Dessen novels.”

Lana and Victoria followed her, leaving Trisha and Olivia out on the deck. Trisha stared helplessly at the pool. “This is impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible.” Olivia said. “It only seems like it is. Anything, really, is possible. It just depends how badly you want it.”

Trisha stared at the younger girl. The words were familiar. They were the opening words to issue 10 of Behind the Curtain, making hem the opening words to Volume Two. She had written them.

“Thanks.” Trisha said slowly. “I think I needed that.”

Olivia shrugged and turned back to the house. “I’m no good at this romance shit.”