After Anna(43)

‘Rules?’ Anna looked over, blinking.

‘Nothing too onerous. We’re not really strict with Caleb. But we should probably have some rules for both of you.’

‘Okay,’ Anna said, slowly enough to make Maggie wonder if she was pushing the point.

‘I don’t want to make a big thing of it. I’m just thinking that with respect to purchases, whether it’s the clothes or the car, we might discuss those things as a family.’

‘If you want to, I will.’ Anna shrugged. ‘You’re right, you guys should make the rules and I’ll follow them. I followed the rules at Congreve.’

‘What rules did they have? Curfews?’

‘Yes, but I never went out. I don’t think following a curfew is going to be a problem here, either.’ Anna shot her a sideways glance. ‘It’s not like my social calendar is going to be crazy busy.’

‘I know you’ll make friends, and like my mother used to tell me, “it only takes one.” ’ Maggie hadn’t remembered it until this very moment.

‘Did you have a lot of friends, growing up?’

‘Yes, I did, but it wasn’t easy. I was insecure.’ Maggie realized she had stumbled onto something. Maybe a way to get Anna to talk about herself was to be open about her past. ‘I used to be fat. My dad always said “pleasingly plump,” and in an Italian family, plump is always pleasing. I never thought it was a bad thing until I got to school. I got bullied and called names.’

‘Fat-shaming.’

‘Right.’ Maggie stopped at a traffic light, the red burning into the increasing darkness. ‘So I felt shy, but there was one girl in my Latin class and we became best friends.’

‘So it only took one.’

‘Yes, but it’s not like I had a lot of dates.’ Maggie felt a twinge, surprised she carried the dumb high-school hurts, even now. She was fifty-two pounds lighter, but a fat kid inside. ‘I got asked to the senior prom by a guy I liked, and his friends called him a chubby chaser.’

‘That’s so mean!’

‘I know, and he was a great guy.’

‘It’ll be strange to go to school with boys,’ Anna said, after a moment.

‘You didn’t have a boyfriend at Congreve, did you?’ Maggie asked, trying to keep her tone casual. She was asking for Noah.

‘No.’

‘You could meet a guy this week who could ask you out. Or you could even ask him out.’

Anna waved her off. ‘No one will ask me out.’

‘You don’t know that. You’re beautiful and smart and any guy would be lucky to date you.’ Maggie steered through the night, heading toward Route 202. ‘And if a guy happens to ask you out, and you like him, you should say yes. You could have a date this weekend.’

‘You think?’ Anna squealed, which made Maggie laugh.

‘Of course! You’re assuming things will go badly. Why not assume that they’ll go well?’

‘Because they never have?’

‘Things are changing.’ Maggie thought a minute. ‘And listen, I have to bring this up because I’m the mom. You know we can talk about sex, right?’

‘Oh my God, really?’ Anna burst into laughter. ‘Are you serious right now?’

‘Yes. That’s the one thing I want to do differently from my mom.’ Maggie felt her smile fade. ‘It took a lot of growing up and therapy for me to feel comfortable talking about sex, much less having sex.’

‘Really.’ Anna’s tone turned surprised.

‘Yes.’ Maggie hesitated. ‘May I ask you, have you had sex?’

Anna covered her face, giggling. ‘I can’t believe you!’

‘It’s okay, you can tell me. No judgment.’

Anna’s hands slid from her face. ‘I feel weird talking about this.’

‘I’ll go first, then. I had sex for the first time when I was seventeen, just your age.’

‘Whoa! Okay. We’re jumping right in.’ Anna laughed again.

‘There was a guy I had a crush on. He was in my Latin class, he was a swimmer. Little-known fact, they have the best bodies. Take it from me.’

‘Ha!’ Anna giggled.

‘We went to a party where everybody was drinking. He told me he wanted me to be his girlfriend, which he didn’t, and we had sex in the basement. Then he dumped me and started calling me Meatball.’

‘Oh no!’

‘Let me tell you, being Meatball Ippoliti is no fun. The sex lasted five minutes, but the nickname lasted until graduation.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Anna groaned.

‘It’s okay, it happens.’ Maggie glanced over, but couldn’t see Anna’s expression in the dark. The only light was backlighting, emanating from the townhome developments.

‘Do you regret it?’

‘Not really. I learned from it, and it wasn’t the end of the world. I fell in and out of love a few times with some wonderful men until I got it right.’

‘Like with my father?’

‘Yes,’ Maggie answered, though she had been thinking of Noah. ‘But it’s not what I would want for you. So, you see where I’m coming from? How about you?’