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She is standing beneath the awning. The smoke rises up to meet the light above it, making her look foggy, backlit, in her low-riding braids, her red chef jacket and high-top sneakers.
As Maggie moves toward her, she can see what a mess Eve is: her jacket splotched and sweaty, her hair curling out of its tight bun. She is leaning back against the screen, and doesn’t notice Maggie until she is right in front of her, her eyes opening in surprise.
“It’s you,” Eve says, and offers a large smile.
“It’s me.”
Maggie holds out her hand, which she has found can be awkward even under the best of circumstances between women, but now even more so, because Eve has to put the cigarette in her mouth, hold it there, in order to shake back.
“Sorry,” Maggie says.
“No, no, don’t be.” Eve shrugs. Then she shrugs again for good measure. “It’s good to see you.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt the one break you’ve got.”
“I’m taking far more than one,” Eve says.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Eve shakes her head, and pulls out the cigarettes from her pocket, opening the pack for Maggie. “Would you like?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to.”
Eve nods, closing the pack back up, looking back between it and Maggie. “Well, will you take them from me anyway?” she says, holding it out. “I’ll just smoke the rest of them otherwise. It’s turning into one of those nights, and they are never good for anyone.”
“The nights or the cigarettes?”
“Both,” Eve says.
Maggie smiles and puts the cigarettes in her back pocket, looking behind Eve into the kitchen. There are several servers in there, organizing food onto trays, milling around. “You’re gearing up?”
“You could say that,” she says, taking a peek behind her.
Then Eve looks at Maggie, and Maggie can see her take in her fraying jean skirt and white tank top, trying to make sense of it. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready?”
“Yes,” Maggie says.
She can’t go into anything more than that. She figures that Eve will hear the rest, or she won’t. Either way, that is all she’s got to give for now. And Eve seems to understand what she isn’t saying, nodding in response, slowly at first, then quicker. And she doesn’t ask her for any more than that. Not yet.
Eve gestures back in the direction of the kitchen. “Do you want to come in?”
“No, I should go,” she says. “I was actually just hoping for a flashlight?”
“A flashlight? You’re walking into town or something?”
Maggie nods. “That’s the plan.”
“It’s not a good one. It’s really going to start coming down, and these hills are dangerous in the rain. You don’t know what it’s like when it storms around here. You can end up flooded in somewhere.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Tyler can take you. Remember Tyler from the van this morning? He just went on a run to Watermill for me, but he’ll be back in a few minutes, and I can have him drop you anywhere you need to go.”
“I just want to get to a bus.”
“Not a problem. You can hide out here until then.”
“Who says I’m hiding?” Maggie says, maybe too defensively.
