“Hold the phone. You experimented?” Riley asked. “Like, with another girl? Or . . .”
“For years,” Sheryl finished, ignoring Riley. Which, understandable. But still.
Davy spun on Aiden. “Wait. I knew about . . . your, um, interests.” Like sleeping with men was a hobby. “But who the hell were you dating for years?”
Riley stared hopefully at Sheryl. “More than one girl? Maybe?”
“Oh my God,” Aiden’s mother groaned, covering her face. Maggie felt like she was witnessing a hundred-car collision.
Aiden glowered at Sheryl. “Why are you doing this? Why can’t you move past it, and just . . . just let me live my life?”
“Like this is your life.” Sheryl sneered. “Isn’t it obvious? I don’t want to watch you lead some other poor woman on.”
Davy looked shell shocked. His mother looked agonized. Riley just looked uncomfortable—and was still staring at Sheryl curiously.
Maggie had been on her best fucking behavior, and after five years of being a hermit who forced herself to be polite only for Kit’s sake, that was really saying something. Tonight, she’d been a goddamned delight. Still, Sheryl had been grating on her nerves all evening. Maggie had managed to talk about cars and baseball with Davy. She’d even gotten the somewhat dour Mrs. Bishop to warm up. But Sheryl was acting personally affronted, which still made no damned sense. Now, this? With Aiden’s face looking like a storm cloud . . . this gentle teddy bear of a man, upset and furious?
Yeah, the time for good behavior was over. As Ms. Sheryl was about to fucking find out.
“Quick question,” Maggie interjected, before Aiden could say anything. “Was Aiden still sleeping with that guy, from college, when you found out? Are you implying he cheated on you?”
Sheryl crossed her arms. “I don’t know, do I?” she taunted. “I mean, if I didn’t know about that, what else didn’t I know? How could I trust him?”
“That is such bullshit, and you know it,” Aiden growled. “I never cheated on you! And just because I was with a guy in college doesn’t mean I didn’t love you.”
Sheryl’s eyes blazed. “You . . . you tricked me!”
Maggie held up a hand, and thankfully, they quieted down. “Few points of clarification,” she said, her voice cold and flat as a frozen lake. “First. You are aware that bisexuality is a thing, right?” She pitched her voice deliberately, strongly suggesting that Sheryl was too ignorant to know this basic a concept.
At this point, Aiden’s mother popped her face out from behind her hands, hissing a fast, panicked “Shush.”
“Oh, come on.” Sheryl rolled her eyes. “Sure, whatever. If you believe that one.”
Maggie’s temper ratcheted up another notch. “Second point: did you hand over a list of everybody you’d been involved with when you got into your relationship with Aiden . . . including your experiments?”
“What are you talking about?” Sheryl hissed. “I might’ve experimented, but I wasn’t in a relationship with any woman!”
“Not what I asked,” Maggie growled. “Did you tell him about every man you dated or slept with? Go into exhaustive detail about your previous sexual history?”
“No. Because I was in relationships with men!”
Like that explained it. Like that justified it.
Even Trev would’ve known that this was the moment that even a six-foot MMA fighter should be afraid, because she’d truly left all fucks behind her. It was salt-the-earth mode now. Adrenaline pumped through her veins like rocket fuel. Maggie’s voice went liquid-nitrogen cold. “Point three—and this is the important one—”
Riley, Sheryl, Davy, Aiden, and Aiden’s mother all stared at her, uncertain, expectant because of her emphasis.
“You didn’t know.” Maggie bit out every word. “You probably thought I had no idea. In fact, you probably wanted me not to know.”
“What are you talking about?” Sheryl asked, her expression impatient.
Maggie’s voice went low and vicious. “You didn’t know if I knew about Aiden’s sexuality. You decided, on your own, to share something you had absolutely no right to disclose without his consent. To someone he presumably cares about. Am I right?”
His mother looked confused, as did Riley. Davy looked embarrassed, and kept shooting looks at his wife. Aiden stared at her with a small, stunned smile.
Sheryl looked smug.
“You should be thanking me. I’m doing you a favor,” she responded. “I would’ve appreciated the courtesy when I was dating Aiden.”
That was it. It was like the click of a mercury switch. All the protectiveness and sadness and sheer rage Maggie had felt building hit a critical point, and there was no turning back.
Maggie reached her hands up, calmly, and took the studs of her dangling silver hoops out of her ears. “Hold these,” she said, handing them to Aiden blindly, feeling his big hand reach over hers.
“Why?” Aiden sounded baffled.
“Because the gap just closed.”
Maggie moved quickly when she wanted to. Sure, she could’ve gone around the table to reach Sheryl . . . but really, it wasn’t that big a table, and going over it would be quicker. If Sheryl was going to be a smug, hurtful bitch, she was going to learn today why it was a bad idea to mess with one of Maggie’s best friends.
But in a split second, Aiden’s big arm snaked around her waist, catching her before she could complete her catapult. She saw the exact moment when Sheryl realized she was about to get messed the fuck up, too, and felt a furious kind of frustration at being stopped.
“Whoa!” Aiden said, tugging her back. Maggie got the sense that other tables were now riveted to the action that was happening there. She didn’t care. “It’s okay! It’s okay.”
“It is not okay,” Maggie growled, her eyes never leaving Sheryl’s. Sheryl had gone Elmer’s-glue white, and her mouth flopped open like a trout’s. “This woman has been bitching since I sat down, making snide remarks, and I took it. But it’s been over a decade, and now she’s acting like you did her wrong, just because you had a relationship she didn’t like, years before you got back together with her!”
“He lied!” Sheryl wailed.
“He didn’t tell you,” Maggie shot back. “Seeing the way you’re acting, I don’t blame him. If anything, maybe you should’ve disclosed just how queerphobic you were!”
Sheryl’s mouth opened and shut, but no words came out. “I’m not phobic,” she said. “You can’t turn this back on—”
“You are absolutely phobic,” Maggie snarled. “You’ve been punishing Aiden for years, over something that’s just a part of who he is. He’s one of the best people I know. He’s committed, and loving, and wonderful, and you’re still bent. Even after marrying his brother? And letting his whole family gossip about what kind of a bastard he is? How the fuck do you feel you’ve got the moral high ground?” A thought struck her, and she glanced at Sheryl’s husband. “Jesus, are you even considering how Davy feels, seeing you get all jealous and bitchy about your ex? About not moving on from that relationship, and trying to sabotage any new relationship Aiden might have? Punishing him because you loved him? What is wrong with you?”