Track 1
Put Your Records On
May 4, 2025
Maggie
Maggie May Wheeler pressed the last strip of Scotch tape onto the vintage yellow Maggie May Records wrapping paper just as the reindeer bells rang on the front door of her record shop. She looked up and smiled as Jason strolled in. A matching smile lit his face.
"Hey, thirtieth birthday girl!" he proclaimed.
"Hey, thirtieth birthday boy," she responded.
Jason looked around the store to double-check that it was empty before giving Maggie a sweet birthday kiss.
Maggie and Jason had been sleeping together since Halloween, but they were still the only ones who knew about it. It wasn't a planned thing, or even something they'd discussed casually; it was just something that had happened. The fact that they were dressed at the time as Ken and Barbie (wigs and all) had helped her feel bold enough to make the first move, though if Maggie were being completely honest, she would have to admit that it was less about their costumes and more about Jennifer Alexander endlessly flirting with Jason at the party they were at. She had even asked him to sing a duet for karaoke. Suddenly, while watching the two crooning "Islands in the Stream," the possibility of losing Jason, and losing his family, became too much for Maggie to bear. When he dropped her off that night, with the help of some liquid courage, she leaned over and kissed him, really kissed him, and after his initial shock, he kissed her back.
That first time was a frenetic, alcohol-fueled combination of hookup and head trip. Breaking through twenty years of platonic friendship was intense, though they seemed to be in tune. Clearly, they had both been curious over the years about what it would be like for them to fool around, but acting on it felt a bit surreal. Plus, they had kept the wigs on.
The next morning, in her natural brown curls, Maggie had no idea what Jason was thinking.
She slipped out from under the covers, grimaced at the sight of last night's crumpled Barbie costume, and grabbed a Case Western sweatshirt from the back of Jason's desk chair. The two were nearly the same size, both slim and fit, so it barely covered her bum. She scooted to the kitchen, holding the side of her head. She needed coffee.
While the Keurig brewed, so did she.
She knew the next move was up to her. Everything between Maggie and Jason was always up to her. It wasn't that Jason was wishy-washy; he just always put her first.
The thought made her laugh. What could be better than dating your best friend who always puts you first? She weighed the options, from never again to a split-level ranch with 2.5 kids and a golden retriever named Ringo, and decided to keep her mouth shut for now.
Later that day, at a boozy brunch with Jason's family, his sister got right to the heart of the matter with Maggie and Jason.
"What did you go as for Halloween?" she asked, adding, "If you two are still dressing as a couple, neither of you will ever meet someone else."
Maggie had no interest in meeting someone else, and even less interest in a solo Halloween costume. They had already discussed reprising their sixteen-year-old Elvis and Priscilla getups for next year. She pictured herself going alone as Priscilla. No one would even know who she was.
She downed the mimosa she had been sipping and decided to bring up the issue on the ride home.
"Do you think it's true, what your sister said?"
"No. Jennifer Alexander had no problem moving in on me at the party last night."
"Ya, and because of it, I jumped you in the front seat of your car."
"I knew it-you were jealous."
"It wasn't really jealousy. It's just, I don't know, I don't care to share you with anyone else."
"I get that. Me neither."
They braked at a crosswalk for a family of five to cross the street.
"Did you like it-you know, last night?" he mumbled, blushing awkwardly.
"Yes," she laughed, "did you?"
"Absolutely. It may be weird to do it again, though."
"Maybe," she lamented.
"Want to come over and find out?" Jason proposed, flashing his best boyish grin.
They laughed until the car behind them beeped.
While it was a little weird making love to her best friend in the light of day, it was also very sweet, which only brought up a bigger question.
Namely, were they now boyfriend and girlfriend?
Seven months later, when their birthdays rolled around, they were still sleeping together, though Maggie had never done so entirely sober. The one time they attempted it, Maggie found herself laughing every time Jason touched her. She claimed she was feeling ticklish, but he didn't buy it, and it sparked their first lovers' quarrel. That's what Maggie kept calling it, in the hopes of making Jason laugh enough to let it go, but he only moped harder. Beyond that, they were still sneaking around in secret and hadn't made it official in any way whatsoever.
And now Maggie wondered what they were waiting for.
Both Maggie and Jason had moved back home right after college graduation, Maggie to help her then-ailing parents in the store, Jason to save money by living at home during grad school at Case Western, where he was now a professor of ethics. When Maggie’s parents passed away a few years later-her mother from the same heart disease that had prevented her from carrying children, her father six months later from a different kind of broken heart-Jason and his family were with her every step of the way. There was no doubt in Maggie’s mind that they were her family now. It was one reason she never mailed in the 23andMe kit she’d ordered one night at three in the morning, when curiosity about the family origins she had never paid much attention to got the better of her. That, and remembering the tears of relief that had poured down her mother’s face all those years ago, after Maggie learned she was adopted.
Always intuitive, always empathetic, young Maggie had touched her mother's cheek in response to her offer to help find her birth mother and comforted her by saying, "You're my only mom. I'm good." And Jenny was still her only mom, in memory at least. Maggie had no intention of revisiting that question now that she was gone.
On the morning of May fourth, Jason looked at Maggie as she carried in the pile of perfectly wrapped albums she'd put together and asked, "What did we get everyone?"
Maggie was excited to flip through the stack, excited to be with family again on their birthdays and to show off how well she knew everyone by nailing each gift.
"Wanna guess?"
"You know I don't want to guess."
"You may as well give in now." Maggie smirked, but as much as Jason still wasn't a game player, he could never resist Maggie, who would turn anything into a friendly competition if she could.
"Fine, I'll try."
She boosted herself onto the countertop like a gymnast and ruffled Jason's perfectly coiffed hair before planting another quick kiss on his lips. She wondered, if they were ever to settle down together, whether their kids would be fair-skinned with silky straight hair and matching brown eyes like Jason's, or olive-toned with violet eyes and brown curls like her own. She hoped they'd look like her. It wasn't that Maggie didn't think Jason was cute; he was certainly cute, especially when dressed in his little tweed professor jacket. And she wasn't feeling her biological clock ticking or anything like that. It was just a side effect of being adopted. She yearned to see herself in someone else.
Jason feigned eagerness.
"Hit me," he said, slapping his hand on the counter like a Vegas card player.
"OK, record number one, The Cars, Shake It Up?"
"That's easy, Cousin Bobby, the wannabe race car driver."
"Good job! The Kinks-Soap Opera?"
"My drama queen sister-the older one."
"Yup! James Brown. Sex Machine?"
"Me?" Jason laughed, adding, "That's a good way to break it to my family that we're sleeping together."
Maggie tossed that one aside with a big smile and a "Kidding!"
Since they still presented as best friends, never kissing or holding hands in public, and certainly never in front of his family, she couldn't imagine the reaction that revelation would bring. Well, she could imagine. Jason's father would be over the moon, fast-forwarding to their wedding and declaring Maggie would finally be his daughter. Jason's sisters would burst into happy tears, and his mom, "Sheila the worrier," would pull them aside separately and warn them of all the potential negatives of their coupling. And there were negatives. If either were to want something different in the end, they could very possibly lose their best friend and, for Maggie, the only family she had left.
Maggie held up the next record. "James Bond 007: 13 Original Themes?"
"Ah. My dad will love that!" Jason declared.
Maggie's face lit up. Jason stood and pulled her off the counter for a hug.
"Mags. You know my family loves you more than they love me, right? No need to impress them-plus, this is our celebration, not theirs."
"Well, you know I like giving more than receiving. And they've all been so good to me."
It was true. Ever since they were kids, Jason's family had welcomed Maggie as if she were their own flesh and blood, and Maggie, as the only child of two older parents, ate up the daily chaos of the Miller house, even if she loved jumping the back fence and going home afterward even more. She relished the quiet familiarity of her own home: Joni Mitchell singing "Big Yellow Taxi" on the turntable, her mom preparing dinner in the kitchen, three plates set at the table, four eyes staring at their greatest gift, asking about her day or her dreams or even just how she liked the turkey tetrazzini.
Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
It had been four years since she'd lost her parents, and it still felt very fresh to her; you could see it in her eyes. Birthdays and holidays were brutal.
"Where did you go?" Jason waved a hand in front of her face.
She smiled.
"C'mon. You can quiz me on the rest in the car. We're already late, and you know what that means."
She did. The only seats left at the table would be between his great-aunt Lauren and great-uncle Mike. Lauren was a close talker and Mike did this thing where he grasped your hand when making a point, leaving you unable to lift your fork to your mouth. He made a lot of points. Jason had sat next to him last year and barely got three bites in. He ate two bowls of cereal when he got home. Maggie hurried, packing up the gifts.
Track 2
Birthday
Maggie and Jason
If every birthday had been painful for Maggie since her parents had passed, this milestone felt particularly crippling. Not wanting to cause a scene or dampen Jason's thirtieth, she kept her sorrow to herself. Or so she thought.
"What's wrong?" Jason asked her while she was making herself busy in his parents' kitchen for the fifth time that day. She avoided his eyes, but he knew what was wrong anyway. He had always been in tune with her every emotion. Her mother used to say that if Maggie was cut, Jason would bleed. He didn't wait for an answer.
"I miss them too. I'm so sorry, Mags." He wrapped his arms around her, but she quickly broke away.
"It's not only that."
He knew again.
"I'm your family, Maggie. And my family is your family. That's not going to change."
Jason was that friend who let you talk about the same thing seven thousand million times. This was the seven thousand millionth and one.
"For now, we are family. But one day you will meet someone and fall crazy in love, and I will be that girl that used to live behind you. I will lose a whole other family."
"That will never happen."
"It will. You're a good catch. No woman will stand for this"-she motioned to the space between them-"even after we stop sleeping together."
"Well, what if I already fell for that girl twenty years ago?"
"Stop." She smiled, gently shoving him away.
"I'm serious. You're my family, Maggie, and you're my girl."
"For the time being." She dramatically sighed, teasing him now. She hated being vulnerable, always had. Being adopted didn't help, and her parents' deaths compounded her fear of walking without a map. She did everything she could to protect what was left of her resilience, which for her meant keeping everything as it was.
"How long till your sister mentions fixing you up with that woman from her office again, or till Jennifer Alexander asks you to sing karaoke again? Next time it will be 'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi.'" She laughed, quoting the '70s Patti LaBelle hit that they used to sing all the time as kids until they learned what it meant.
He grabbed her hand to lead her to the dining room. "C'mon, let's tell them!"
"What are we going to tell them? That we're sleeping together? That's just . . . icky," she laughed.
"We can sing it-in French!"
"Very funny."
"Seriously, let's tell them that we're trying things out-romantically. That we are now girlfriend and boyfriend."
He blushed when he said it.
"Please. They'll have the wedding venue booked by morning."
Jason stopped in his tracks. "That's fair. At least come inside and stop hiding in the kitchen."
She agreed, and somewhere between opening presents and blowing out the candles on their shared birthday cake, Jason quietly reminded Maggie of their childhood pact. In a minute, she was out the door, headed to the willow tree in the backyard of her old house. She sold it after her parents had passed, and she moved back to the apartment on top of the record store. Even though the letters had been her big idea at the time, she had totally forgotten about them.
Maggie hopped the fence as easily as she had at twelve and proudly hightailed it up the trunk while the new owners, frequent patrons of the record store, waved from the kitchen window and Jason laughed from below.
"Are you coming?" she hollered, gloating a little bit.
"Just bring it down," he said.
"No can do." She rattled the ancient Ziploc bag.
He gave up and followed her. Why should today be any different?
Copyright © 2025 by Jane L. Rosen. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
