“Hey, man!” I stepped through the front door at Maggie Valor’s house and clapped hands and shoulders with Greg Blaire, a friend and co-worker at Safety Zone Security. “It’s about time you came back to the real world!”
“No doubt,” he said as he let me go and shut the door behind me. “Come on in; everyone is out back.”
“How does it feel returning after a five-week exile?” I asked him. Maggie and Greg had been off the grid that long after they had been held hostage during a botched robbery—that Maggie herself had screwed up without knowing. After the event, a few of the hostages had turned up dead, and someone had come after Maggie, but luckily Greg had been there and took the guy down.
It wasn’t the guys involved with the robbery and kidnapping that had been worrisome; it was the cartel that those guys had been working for. They hadn’t wanted to be given up by Chuck and Len, so they silenced them and several other witnesses too. The police had asked anyone who was left to head out of town.
A couple of weeks ago, a few of the witnesses came back, not Maggie or Greg, but a few others, and so far, there hadn’t been any threats and no further signs that the cartel wanted any other retribution. Hence the reason Maggie and Greg finally came out of hiding.
“It feels great, and it sure is nice to be back at home.”
“Home?” I glanced around. “This is home now? Are things going that well for you and Maggie?” When the two of them had gone into lockdown, Greg had been trying everything he could to keep distance between himself and his former high school sweetheart.
Greg frowned at me. “You know what I mean, Harv, home as in back here.”
“So, you and Maggie aren’t living together now?”
“I didn’t say that.” He chuckled and slapped my back. “Go get yourself a drink. I have to grab something from the kitchen.”
“Alright, I’ll see you out there.” On the back deck, Alex and his pregnant wife, Lexi, were seated on a gliding love seat, and Trevor had his infant son, Devon, on his lap, while his fiancée, Davina, helped Maggie with something at the food table. Alice was over there too, along with Mike and two pretty women that I didn’t know. Mike was laughing at something that one of the women had said.
Standing off to the side, talking shit to one another was Jake, our boss, along with Drake, Wyatt, Joe, and Brett, who were all part-timers with our company. I made the rounds, saying hello to everyone, and Greg tossed me a beer as he came back out of the house.
A few minutes later, Greg had his arm around Maggie when he called us all to attention. “Thanks to all of you for coming. While Maggie and I had a great time being on vacation for a full five weeks, we are very happy to be home and to have you all here.”
“You guys married yet?” Jake called out with a laugh.
“No, we are not, and we aren’t in any rush to do that either.” Maggie didn’t look the least bit upset by his words as she smiled up at him. “But we did reconnect nicely after nineteen years, and I know I feel like I know her better than I ever did. I’m pretty sure she knows every single one of my bad habits now, and she is still willing to stand here beside me.”
Brett whistled loudly as Wyatt joked, “Damn, anyone who can put up with his shit, and I mean that literally, is good in my book.”
Laughter and a few crude jokes about bathroom etiquette went around the group for a few moments.
Maggie was laughing, a huge smile on her face. “Do you know how many times I got yelled at for putting the toilet paper on wrong?”
“Wait!” Trevor snapped as he threw up his hand. “Don’t tell me that you put it on so that it hangs under?”
“Of course I do, doesn’t everybody?” Maggie replied with a serious face.
“No way!” Jake called out loudly. “Even the patent office has it on record that it has to hang over!”
“But that’s crap!” Lexi joined the conversation. “Just because when they did a drawing of toilet paper, they had it hanging over, that doesn’t mean that is the end-all way to do it.”
Alex barked out a laugh and pointed at Lexi. “But that’s how you hang it!”